Synaesthesia

[pilar]

I am a Spanish architect but also a synaesthete.

Something that upset me is the fact that althouht there is a lot of information in internet about wonderful phenomenon (Synaesthesia) over the 90% of it come from United States (writen: Synesthesia).

That is why I fill so alone here in Europe. I can not tell about it to anyone. I am afraid they could misunderstand me and think that I am full.

I would like to know what do you think about Synesthesia? Is it that freak?

[pilar]

http://primordial.cic.unb.br/lcmm/cursos/cpmm98.2/a26/synesthesia.html

[Mafalda Ramalho]

I don't know much about Synesthesia, but I found the site (article) very interesting. I've heard about it in the University... and now that I teach Drawing to future architects we often do a synesthetic (I don't know if the word existes!)experience. We have two "words" Ping and Pong... and we have Man and Woman... wich word correspond to Ping and to Pong? (we ask to the students) Normaly it's Ping=Women Pong=Man... then give two words more: Yellow and Brawn... Ping=Yellow and Pong=Brawn... things get complicated when we relate shapes (round and square) or solids... then we talk about representation... and how individual can it be!

[pilar]

That is quite an interesting game. Let me play it. This is what it means for me
Ping and Pong are both male
Pang and Peng are female
Ping and Peng are younger, like teenagers.
Pong and Pang ove fourty y.o.
Pung is an old and wise male
Ping is green, Pong is white and slightly grey, Pang is really soft paste rose, Peng is terracote, Pung is dark greyblue.
Pang is a circle, Pong is a rectangle (biger base than height), Ping is a triangle (equilater), Peng is an hexagon, Pung is a pentagon. I just can relate square with number 5.
It seems to me a very interesting game. Usually students can not understand that the function it is not the only thing that should give the shape to a building. Even for my architecture profesors would be difficult to understand it;-)
Can I ask you, Mafalda, where are you from?
I am almost 100% sure that not from Spain;-)
Non architecture profesor in Spain could have so advanced approach teaching.

[Mafalda Ramalho]

Pilar, could u find out if the people around u make the same choices u made, to check if synaesthesia is so individual as we think?!

The most usual answers for the Ping and Pong are: Ping=Women; Pong=Man; Ping=Yellow; Pong=Brown; ... but some of them say that Triangle=Women others say that Women=Square...

I'm Portuguese... and we say sinestesia (portuguese for synaesthesia)!


Maybe some of these books will interest u, they are not specifically related to sinestesia but...:
- “The image of the city” , by Kevin Lynch
- “The Hidden Dimension” and “The Silent Language”, by Edward T. Hall
- “The man who mistook his wife for a hat”, by Oliver Sacks

... by the way, have u read the book indicated in the article: The Man who tasted shapes, Richard Cytowic?

[pilar]

Not yet, I have not yet read "The man who tasted shapes" but be sure that it is gonna be my next book.

Thank you very much for your recomended books, you can not imagine how much I enjoy reading.

My Ping is not a woman but I teenager boy, and the colour that I see is not yellow but green. Of course this is quite personal thing and other people may not have the same relations.
You can find out how individual is synaesthesia (sinestesia in spanish)here:
http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~daysa/syn-experiences.htm
http://www.discover.com/dec_99/featsyn.html
http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/
http://www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk/isa/

[Mafalda Ramalho]

I've just remember another book that I've found in a bookshop in Dublin! It's drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards.

I couldn't find "The man who tasted shapes"... Pilar, it was easy for u to find it?!

Take a look at this statement: "We tend, of course, to believe that what we see is what is real and true, is actually out there. Scientifically, however, we know that there is no such thing as an innocent eye - our eyes create much of the form of reality we perceive". in "Einstein's Space and Van Gogh's Sky", Lawrence Lesshan & Henry Margenau, MacMillan Publishing Company, New York, 1983.

[pilar]

This is what I found: http://www.uk.bol.com/cec/cstage http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/026-6012607-3464420

I am not going to buy it now because my husband said that Santa Claus could bring it to me.

Mean while I sugest: http://www.wardle.demon.co.uk/books/cytowic.html

Good statement, and it seems to be and interesting book. I order it too to Santa Claus