Synesthesia & Cymatics

Synesthesia & Cymatics

 Synesthesia comes from the Greek word together; it is a neurological condition in which one sensory or cognitive pathway is stimulated which leads to an involuntary experience in a secondary cognitive pathway.  People with this condition are known as synesthetes. An example of this would be how people see different numbers or days of the week for instance as being different colors.

 Synesthesia in art is basically art forms that blur the senses. The art forms can include or combine visual music, intermedia, music visualization, experimental or abstract film, paintings and audiovisual art. I had the luring of the senses a lot last semester when we screened many of the films in History of Avant-Garde. Some of these films showed screeching or obtrusive sounds some even use the sounds police use for riot and crowd control with a mixture of underlying subliminal dialogue and images alongside flashing colors on the screen Some of these films cause people to have seizure’s especially those with a history of epilepsy are advised against watching some of them.  

 Cymatics comes from the Greek term for wave. They are uniform patterns produced on liquids or gels type substance through he us of sound waves. This is much like waves in the ocean being produced by storms or under water forces such as explosions, shifting fault lines or earthquakes, which produce enough energy to displace the water in the form of waves and patterns. Like the way a swell looks like corduroys on the horizon. The more shallow the water the more pronounced the wave becomes. Like that of the trays or pans used in Cymatics experiments. I think the study of Cymatics is very important and may unlock some secret code to the world and the underlying power of things we never considered important before.  Dolphins use sound wave and frequency’s to communicate and maybe aliens do too like in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. By studying Cymatics may be unlocking the keys to the universe? Cymatics is bringing matter to life with the use of sound waves. It’s amazing the way the patterns of sound waves look like things we find everyday on earth like snow-flakes and starfish, maybe somehow there is some direct correlation of the two.

 Both Synesthesia & Cymatics remind me of a new trend among young people today called i-Dosing or digital drugs.  This is where people put on headphones and one sound or frequency is played trough one ear and another is played through the other ear. This is supposed to create a state of euphoria or blurring of the senses for the user. This is sort of a mixture of these two topics.