Synesthesia

Synesthesia, from my understanding, is defined two ways, in terms of art, it is the perception of two or more stimuli as one gestalt experience, while neurological definition synesthesia is the elicitation of perceptual experience in the absence of the normal sensory stimulation. As always, through art, the idea of this experience is romanticized. A unified whole combining components into beauty, an experience that depends on a mixing of the senses, a complex which is, statistically, a minority. It is from the abnormal, that the beauty is derived, and thus it sparks new ideas and new perspectives, pushing the whole into the limelight while subduing the parts, which propels beauty to the forefront.
What is comical is the neurological definition. This experience is propelled by the Absence of the normal sensory stimulation. This complex is, because it lacks, whereas in art it magnifies, there is a surplus.
The end result is the same in both instances, a cocktail of senses. Which I wish I could experience.

I guess I will just have to settle on art and videos that attempt to convey these sensory experiences; art by synesthesia and art meant to evoke synesthesia. I followed a link from the wikipedia page to a youtube video attempting to visualize tone synesthesia against Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. It was mesmerizing. I wathced it three times trying to get an understanding of what it means to have synesthesia and in turn how to duplicate it. I learned that in the future, in movies that I make, characters and the film itself should have a color scheme. Watching film is a synesthetic experience, and maybe the experience can be heightened?

Response to Scratch Film Junkies

Children, Parrots, Construction worker, Coloring on film , Superimpositions, Scratching, Acid wash and last but not least, Well suited drums. These were the first words that formed within my brain after Thursday's viewing. These are the occurrences which my eyes saw and my brain remembered and articulated. But the confusion still ran rampant in my head for there are many things I did not understand. How? What? And Why? Experimental film, has always, to me, been something of a lesser form. But I believe that it is because it is not understood. The creativity behind each film is more complex, and more daunting than, at least I ever imagined. The patience, precision and dedication to each frame, which becomes one of twenty-four in a second, one of fourteen hundred and forty in a minute and so on and so on, is beyond comprehension. I think I am in for a treat this semester, where a formal introduction to experimental will occur and thus, hopefully, changing the way I see film, create film and study film.

Refering back to the subject of the film, I have to make a comment on the drums. I felt the sound complimented the images very well and very often enhanced it. For instance, a ringing bell, much like that of an ice cream truck was immediately followed the glimpse of children through an ever changing foreground. Also, the lines from the beginning of the film, lengthening and shortening to the beat of the drum, felt like Fantasia at 100mph. I love that movie.