What Is Synesthesia?

Synesthesia is a genetic and a neurological condition in which one’s senses overlap and affect one another. For example, the sound of a piano can produce the color blue, or the letter “A” can generate the sound of a violin. Synesthesia is defined as “a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color” (Dictionary.com). For instance, if one sees a color, it can conjure a scent. If one feels a texture, it can induce a sound, or a taste can provoke a vision.

This condition is profoundly rare. Synesthesia is recessive, meaning it will skip a generation, and therefore affects roughly 1-5% percent of the population.

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While Liszt and Ellington had Chromesthesia, in which their music generated certain colors, Van Gogh had Timbre synesthesia, in which different styles of art generated sounds of various instruments. “Some artists have a nervous hand at drawing, which gives their technique something of the sound peculiar to a violin, for instance, Lemud, Daumier, Lançon — others, for example, Gavarni and Bodmer, remind one more of piano playing.

Do you feel this too? Millet is perhaps a stately organ" (Seaberg, M.). The sight of the uncertain animal forms of Lançon, the hesitant works of Lemud and Daumier, brought the sound of a shake violin to Van Gogh’s ears. Gavarni’s whimsical sketches evoked the sound of twinkling piano keys, and the realism of Millet manifested the sound of an honest
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Phillips, Melissa Lee. (2017). Synesthesia. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.html

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Seaberg, M. (2013, August 26). Vincent Van Gogh Was Likely a Synesthete. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sensorium/201308/vincent-van-gogh-was-likely-synesthete

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Sussex scientists pinpoint sensory links between autism and synesthesia. (2017, March