2nd Response: Synesthesia

What intrigued me the most about the article was the idea that synesthesia is considered a gift-- an additional hidden sense. I first heard of this idea when it was behind Pharrell William's "Seeing Sounds" and I was left hook after initially hearing about the concept since. I love film and understand it as a visual medium, which is why I love the idea of the other senses other than sight being conveyed through visual means. What I think is so amazing about it is that the audience (meaning primarily me perhaps) simply accept it without question. One example of this is from the PIXAR animated film Ratatouille. In the film, the main character’s experience with taste is conveyed visually with a “light show” accompanied by a soundtrack. Basically, the sense of taste is presented to the audience through visuals and music, an odd concept because I never thought of the senses being so connected. When I was reading about the number form of syesthesia, I could not help but to think of the way Neo perceives the world of the matrix at the end of the first film. Once he is “enlightened,” Neo was able to “see” the binary code of the world and can bend it to his will. In a basic sense, that is what synesthesia represents to me—the ability to apply different senses together to fully “understand” the patterns and rhythms of the world. Really cool. I’m assuming the point of reading about this concept is so that we understand the process behind avant-garde filmmaking and apply it when we do our 6X1 projects. Today I am supposed to convey the elements of fire and water on my filmstrip. As opposed to simply creating a perfect recreation of it through visual means, the article about synesthesia is making me rethink my approach. Wait, am I supposed to rethink my approach. Is this all supposed to happen on the subconscious level? I’m not supposed to think about it? I honestly have no clue, but now that it is in my mind, I feel that I am creatively inspired to tackle this project as well as other subsequent projects in the future.