My first innovative activity of the week was a lecture on the synaesthestia, a condition which changes perceptions of the senses. It affects about 4% of the population so if you gathered up all the synaesthetes in the world they would be equal in number to the population of the USA. It is something that happens to people and which they have no control over.
Three of the most prevalent types are:
Sound-Colour: Phantom colours when listening to music which sometimes appear over the source as a kind of aura.
Grapheme-Colour: Interaction with letters and numbers causes a projection of colour. Sometimes this is seen as an actual projection in front if the synaesthete.
Sequence-Space: Sequences- such as months of the year- appear to be mapped out in space.
As well as learning some of the sciencey stuff about it we had a first hand account from a Lexical-Gustatory Synaesthete, James Wannerton. Lexical-Gustatory is incredibly rare, it is apparently even more rare then having an IQ of over 176. James tastes words, these tastes vary in strength and are also accompanied by a feeling of texture in the mouth and a sense of temperature. So something would taste like cold, lumpy mash potato, not just regular old mash.
James has used his synaesthesia to create unique art works. Including an underground map of tastes.
And a series of photographs of Sunday lunches.
The sciencey side of it was incredibly interesting but also how it can be used as a source of inspiration in the field of design.
Sorry about the vagueness of this post. Although I did take loads of notes and gathered information, it was honestly something that you had to be there for!
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