Synaesthesia is probably the only condition that more than a few creative types wished they had. It’s essentially the jumble-up and cross-wiring of different senses i.e. the ability to hear in colour or taste what you hear, so some people would literally ‘taste’ words, though not necessarily what makes sense: You say ‘purple’, and the synaesthete might taste earwax or something else on hearing ‘purple’; each word would ‘taste’ differently. Or they’ll see colours and numbers in spatial patterns all around their environment…Fascinating stuff.

Synaesthesia as a creative theme in design circles was rather trendy for a while. Synaesthetes were believed to better be able to create associations that can lead to better and more inventive musical or colour compositions (Miles Davis and Kandinsky were both synaesthetes.)

Here’s a video by Terri Timely (made up of Ian Kibbey and Corey Creasey), a two-sibling directing-duo who have made a short film inspired by their own (real) experiences in synaesthesia. Bloody nice art direction and everything else really.

Synesthesia from Terri Timely on Vimeo.

syn·es·the·sia syn·aes·the·sia (sĭn’ĭs-thē’zhə) n. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.