Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 9 Number 1, April 2008
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Campen,Cretien van, The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science. London, The MIT Press,2007. 185, 978-0-262-22081-1, £19.95
Reviewed by
Middle East Technical University
This intriguing book is composed of a well organized reader-friendly text and it greets its audience with a concise table of contents that informingly guides the reader as soon as the reading journey starts. The book is divided into three major parts that are Perception, Thought, Insight. In the explanatory introduction Cretien van Campen, a synesthete himself, clearly indicates that although “synesthesia” is an old issue, the explanations about it are not satisfactory. He also challenges the theory that it is a brain impairment. As he explores this enigmatic phenomenon, he admits that although he has done extensive reading on the subject, he also relied on his intuition. Throughout the book, he focuses on what synesthesia is and the significance of this phenomenon and how it can be utilized. His findings are based on his observations of various individuals ranging from adults to children; also synesthetes themselves.
In Part I,Perception, what synesthetes perceive is explored. One synesthete, Patrick Keller states that he sees images when he hears music or sounds. Even people’s voices are colourful. Cretien van Campen makes use of this synesthete’s and Floor Eikelboom’s experiences to relate this strange perception event. Yet, when he relates another synesthete’s experiences, it is understood that the perception process is quite different. These examples show that although until 2005 synesthesia was thought to be a one-way process, new experiments reveal that synesthesia can be a two-way process. Unfortunately, the synesthetes may not be aware of this. In the event that synesthestes become more conscious of their situation, they can explore their sensory abilities more efficiently. In the sixties and seventies, rock-musicians tried to create synesthetic experiences. Even though they sometimes got the help of a synesthete to accomplish this, it is clearly established that synethesia is personal and any hallucination- inducing aid does not create the same experience of synesthetes. Even in the nineteenth century, Franz Liszt conducted colourful orchestras but the result was not synesthesia. Cretien van Campen states that “seeing music in colour and form” is very different from the free associations of non-synesthetes. He goes on describing the experiences of the twentieth century composers Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, and Michael Torke. Perceiving sounds in colour for the synesthetes is like having a built-in “music animation machine”. The question is can they communicate this special situation? In the case of Sandy Cohen who was a perception psychologist and who ended up developing software to produce animations of music it is seen that this special situation can be shared with others so that they can explore their perceptive potential as well. Cretien van Campen’s interesting observation is that no two synesthetes are alike and nonsynesthetic people are not completely deprived of synesthetic perception. So, the aim should be to awaken this perceptual ability and to utilize it. Cretien van Campen also emhasizes the mysterious aspects of synethesia and the numerous questions to be answered in relation to it. He goes on exploring the situation in children and how children start perceiving their environments since a parallel can be drawn between a baby’s and an adult’s perceptions. Focusing on “the sensory primordial soup “ of babies he states that the adults can understand this situation of babies since the senses of taste and smell are not completely separated. He also draws the reader’s attention to the fact that for a long time psychologists, educators, and neurologists believed that the senses were separate at birth.
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Yet, the new scientific findings show that senses are not separate at birth and the differention starts at five or six months after birth. In a way, everyone is born as a synesthete but the synesthetic situations of the newborns and grownups are different. Cretien van Campen goes on relating the experiences of synesthetes to show how they became aware of this peculiar ability. He also reports on the joint workshop presenting children who were synesthetes experiencing the colourful music they were hearing and seeing. In this section on Perception there is invalauble historical information about synesthesia indicating how far back the interest goes. Pythagoras,Plato, and Aristotle get mentioned with their observations concerning colour and music. This impressive section give intriguing information on sytems of Arcimboldo (16th century), Newton (17th century- early 18th century), Castel (17th – mid 18th century) to identify music- colour connections. Even instruments like colour harpsicords and colour organs get mentioned. It is interesting to note the controversy about Scriabin’s synesthesia with discussions on his Prometeus, Poem of Fire. Furthermore, the experiences of famous artists like Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh, Janus de Winter, Kandinsky, Mondrian get mentioned who got involved in the strange connection of music and painting. In fact, in 1911 a German artist group, conducted synesthetic experiments involving painters,composers,dancers,and theatrical producers. Nowadays, it is easier to detect synethesia in artists. Anne Salz is a good example of a visual artist perceiving music in coloured patterns among the many others about whom the reader can find information on a given website. The developments in computer technology of course eased the combination of music and visual imagery and more opportunities will come up to explore new aspects of synesthesia.
In Part II, Thought Cretien van Campen explores the process of perceiving numbers in colour emphasizing the strange situation of each synesthete having a different experience. These experiences are presented with illustrations. A major problem concerning synesthetes is that non-synesthetes do not understand what is happening in the world of synesthetes. Apparently, there are concrete tests to prove that synesthetes have diffrent experiences. Cretien van Campen draws the reader’s attention to the intiguing possibility that synesthetes may have different patterns of recognition. He moves on to the analysis of this process of pattern-searching. Parallel to this, Gestalt psychologists get mentioned and examples of synesthetes who perceive spatial forms are given. The author’s argument is that synesthesia is related to visual thinking. Hence, the identification of synesthetes as extraordinary thinkers. If they are extraordinary thinkers is it possible that they can be metaphorical thinkers? Cretien van Campen relates his consultation results with poets and linguists. Yet, he also wonders (since synesthesia is not a way of conceiving) how one can define the relationship between synesthesia and metaphor. He devotes 4 pages to a synesthetic poet, Vladimir Nabokov who had left his written records of synesthetic experiences for the posterity in his autobiography. He also relates the “sensory” experiences of the Group Fifty. The most striking aspect of this section is that Cretien van Campen challenges the established idea of the known 5 senses. The striking example of Desana Indians show that human beings living in different cultures have different numbers of senses. Thus, the 5-sense systems cannot quite explain synesthesia. Furthermore, the analysis of drug-effects has to be made to find out if an individual experiences synesthesia under the effects of drugs. So, the author gives the examples of 18th century English poets and Baudelaire’s experiences. Yet his final statement on this issue is that he sees no connection between drug-effects and synesthesia.
In Part III, Insight as the author himself states he focuses on the current insights of the scholars concerning the nature of synesthesia. He relates the explorations about visual perceptions and “the processing of light waves into colour perceptions” resembling this process to the computerized processing of pictures. He accepts the mysterious state of colour perception and elaborates on the theories of the last two decades concerning colour synesthesia. He also mentions various tests for identifiying synesthetes. After giving detailed information about these tests with relevant statistical information, he points out the difficulty of drawing a line between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. He also wonders about the exact number of existing synesthetes. To get a reliable number, there are some methods but there are obviously various difficulties one major one being the financial aspect among the 4 factors he presents. He also talks about tests to find out about coloured music, odours, and flavours. There are further variations in form and dynamics too. He supports all these statements by experiment results and illustrations. The author’s findings about synesthesia can be useful for musicians, poets, and visual artists, for scientists and ordinary people. He emphasizes the fact that each synesthete has a different synesthetic experience. He gives guidance for becoming aware of this unique ability. After showing synesthesia as a gift to be utilized, he mentions his own synesthesia too. Sharing his own experiences with his readers will open the eyes of non-synesthetes to appreciate this intriguing situation which actually is still “a blurred subject”.
This book with its analytical approach to this phenomenon, reports of experiments, illustrations, diagrams, theoretical information, personal synesthetic experiences will appeal to psychologists, neurologists, artists, instructors,child specialists, parents, musicians, software writers, mathematicians. Futhermore the book will definitely make the reader “look-see-smell-touch-feel” twice.