I Drew This

I was watching House last night and there was this storyline about a woman who had synaesthesia.

Synaesthesia is a completely cool disorder some people have where stimulation of one sense can trigger perception in others. An example might be if you hear or taste something and sense a certain colour, or you might think of a number or letter and think of them as friendly or mean or indifferent, or whatever. Medical dictionaries can probably explain that better than I can; don’t regard anything I say as accurate.

I think it’d be brilliant to experience it. I guess that hearing some music can give me goose bumps, but that’s an emotional response so it’s not the same thing really.

The only thing like it I’ve ever really experienced, is when I thought of this particular girl. Now, I was never involved with this girl, never even had a crush on her; didn’t know her that well and can’t actually remember ever speaking to her. She was just someone I was in a class with once. But whenever I saw her, or someone mentioned her, I would think of the four of clubs.

I once interviewed an artist who had synaesthesia.  He would see amazing light shows when he listened to music, then he would paint what he saw. Brilliant!

…or so I thought at first. I mean, lucky him that he can make cool paintings out of whatever’s going on in his brain. And I know art is all about interpretation. But if I listen to a song, my only real way of interpreting that song is to pick up a guitar and play it myself. He just had a different means of expressing this.

It just seems to me that there are talented people out there writing and recording original songs and he’s touting himself as an original artist but is basically making a trade doing cover versions.