Synaesthesia

At age 39 I discovered that I had a condition known as Synaesthesia.A condition in which normally separate senses are not separate. Sight may mingle with sound, taste with touch, etc. The senses are, in a sense,cross-wired. For example, when a digit-color synesthete sees or just thinks of a number, the number appears with a colour film over it. A given number's colour never changes; it appears every time with the number. Synesthesia can take many forms. A synaesthete may sense the taste of chicken as a pointed object. Other synesthetes hear colors.

My own synaesthesia experiences appear to be triggered by auditory and/or emotional stimuli. I am about to embark on works to try and demonstrate what I see when I hear certain numbers, musical notes and words or experience heighted emotions. Through this work I hope to try and learn more about my condition and invite others to see a snap shot of the world as I hear it. I've started to keep a blog of my experiences and a record of the journey that will help form "Numbers by Colour", an exhibition of the works.