When we listen to music, I believe everyone has their own visuals. For example, every time I hear Pharrell Williams’ song Happy, the visual in my mind is a yellow smiling face. I think most people will link higher notes to brighter colors and lower notes to deeper colors. I am a big fan of a Chinese pop singer and I have been to many of his live concerts. The lighting designs and his clothing are very different in different songs. It is pretty true that different shapes, directions and colors of lighting enhances audience’s experience of hearing the music both in ears and in eyes. In particular songs, he wears the same color of costumes every time he sings it. I believe in his mind, every song has its own color. Imagine that if there is only a bright yellow spotlight throughout the whole concert, the listening experience would not be so rich. Then the question brought up to me is: why do more people like to enjoy live concert rather than listening to albums? One of the explanations I come up with is that visual component is very important in audio experience.
I have the feeling that having synesthesia for artists is actually a good thing because many art forms requires multi-senses. In the reading, Emrich, Neufeld and Sinke concluded: “synesthesia is not an illusion in the minds of those concerned but a genuine neurophysiological phenomenon that can provide science with unique insights into human perception” (420). It’s quite surprising for me to know that synesthesia is not a mental effect but a physical one.