Ciara Smith - Synesthesia

Psychology Today describes synesthesia as "a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision)." Experts theorize that there may be up to 80 types of synesthesia, including the perception of time as a 3-D entity and the association of alphabetical characters with colors, sounds, and even genders. Barring severe brain trauma, synesthesia is usually congenital, and appears to be partly genetic.

A childhood friend of mine has chromesthesia, which allows her to perceive sounds as intricate swirls of color in her mind's eye. Her unique experience of the world fascinates me, and in 2015 I created this series based on my research and her testimony.

Chromesthesia

Chromesthesia is the subtype that started me on this project. It is the perception of sounds as colorful shapes and textures. Chromesthesia can be associative, and take place in the mind's eye, or projective, appearing to the synesthete to exist within the external world.

Auditory-Tactile Synesthesia

Auditory-tactile synesthetes perceive sounds as physical sensations. this is one of the rarest forms of synesthesia.

Mirror-Touch Synesthesia

Mirror-touch synesthesia can be described as an empathetic extreme. A synesthete feels the physical experiences of another person as if they themselves are experiencing it. Mirror-touch synesthetes in the medical field have stated that their condition helps them better understand their patients' needs. unusually, this subtype is not always congenital, and can develop later in life.

Spatial-Sequence Synesthesia

Spatial-sequence synesthesia, or visio-spatial synsthesia, is the perception that words, letters, and numbers occupy a physical location. They interact with each other depending on their context, such as date, time, or phrases.

Misphonia

While most subtypes of synesthesia either positively affect or do not affect a person's quality of life, Misphonia is an exception. Misphonia causes a synesthete to experience strongly negative emotional responses to everyday sounds. luckily, this is a very rare form of synesthesia.

Emotion-Evoked Synesthesia

This little-researched subtype associates emotional experiences with sensory experiences. Specifically, synesthetes perceive colorful auras around people. The auras may change as familiarity between two people grows, and emotional attachments develop.

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