Explained by some researchers and scientists, synesthesia may have a pathological origin. In other words, synesthetes may be regarded as patients or abnormal people. Personally, I think synesthesia is not only a genuine neurophysiological phenomenon but also an extraordinary genius, especially in the areas of art. I was surprised that there exist such a group of people who have active and sensitive perceptivity. For example, they can turn spoken words, letters, numbers, voices, or sounds into visual impressions like colors and figures; they can turn teste, smell into emotional feelings. It can be said synesthesia offers various possibilities for art.
Melissa McCracken, a Missouri-based artist can paint music. She is a synesthete and her situation can be described as colored hearing. The sounds that she hears every day such as someone’s name or a song on the radio all can be translated into vibrant, beautiful colors. Her vivid paintings stem from her desire to capture her daily experience so that others can understand the brilliant, saturated world she inhabits. Realizing her unique perception, she started combining painting with different kinds of music. McCracken explains that her brain is cross-wired and she experiences the ‘wrong’ sensation to certain stimulation; Each letter and number is colored and the days of the year circle around her body as if they had a set point in space. She said to her audience, “The most wonderful ‘brain malfunction’ of all is seeing the music I hear. It flows in a mixture of hues, textures, and movements, shifting as if it were a vital and intentional element of each song.” Indeed, her artworks bring me a strong personal emotion. No matter the choice of colors or brush strokes shows great passion and aesthetic values.
Actually, there are a lot of famous artists have such kind of extraordinary genius. Van Gogh once declared each note evoked a different color. The Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky also thought music and color were inextricably linked. He once said, “The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with bass notes or dark lake with treble.” Although I cannot totally understand their ideas through their artwork, I am still moved by their passion and strong emotions demonstrated by these works.