3.7.20 Synaesthesia: feeling with your eyes
I've been thinking a lot about touch and how in this new world of ubiquitous contamination anxiety we can't touch most other people or things. I've written more about it here. My work normally provokes a strong desire to touch it. I deliberately play with this normally with my knitted and stitched pieces, and usually invite people to 'please touch' my work, or even wear it. That obviously goes against the common expectation that art can't be touched, but I think involving senses other than sight can add so much to the viewer. S/he becomes an active participant.
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Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which information meant to stimulate one of your senses stimulates several of your senses. People who have synesthesia are called synesthetes. The word “synesthesia” comes from the Greek words: “synth” (which means “together”) and “ethesia” (which means “perception). Synesthetes can often “see” music as colors when they hear it, and “taste” textures like “round” or “pointy” when they eat foods.' (Healthline, no date)
I don't think I actually am a synesthete, but I do have a very attuned sense of how something feels when I look at it, especially textiles, of course. I think that's partly why I'm so interested in surfaces, and what they communicate.
For my Undergraduate dissertation I researched this phenomenon and I think that certain surfaces are easier to 'feel' through sight. Velvet is a good example of a surface which many people would readily 'feel with their eyes'. It has the most astonishing texture and strong associations with softness, luxury, comfort and, I think, human skin. And for me red velvet is regal, but maybe lascivious as well?
I was trying to think of a way to communicate touch through a screen so I made a red velvet hug. It's based on two abstract arms, again, using my own as models. It's very simple, stitched and stuffed like a draft excluder, but curved. It also has beanie parts in each end, so it's weighted. It's really comforting to wear around my neck and because of the bodyliness of the beanie bits, it is more comforting than I expected. In fact, when I posted the video of me giving myself a hug with it, I learned from a couple of friends that similar, soft heavy forms are made commercially as sensory comforts for people with certain learning disabilities. They're a bit like weighted blankets which also make some people fell more secure. So, maybe there's some science in it?
I feel sorry that I can't invite others to try it, wear it, but sadly that's not possible at the moment. Hopefully at some point before too long we'll be able to have proper hugs anyway, but in the mean time its a visual, velvet, synaesthetic, virtual one!
Healthline (no date) What is synaesthesia? Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/synesthesia#:~:text=Synesthesia%20is%20a%20neurological%20condition,(which%20means%20%E2%80%9Cperception). (Accessed 3 July 2020)
I've been thinking a lot about touch and how in this new world of ubiquitous contamination anxiety we can't touch most other people or things. I've written more about it here. My work normally provokes a strong desire to touch it. I deliberately play with this normally with my knitted and stitched pieces, and usually invite people to 'please touch' my work, or even wear it. That obviously goes against the common expectation that art can't be touched, but I think involving senses other than sight can add so much to the viewer. S/he becomes an active participant.
'
Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which information meant to stimulate one of your senses stimulates several of your senses. People who have synesthesia are called synesthetes. The word “synesthesia” comes from the Greek words: “synth” (which means “together”) and “ethesia” (which means “perception). Synesthetes can often “see” music as colors when they hear it, and “taste” textures like “round” or “pointy” when they eat foods.' (Healthline, no date)
I don't think I actually am a synesthete, but I do have a very attuned sense of how something feels when I look at it, especially textiles, of course. I think that's partly why I'm so interested in surfaces, and what they communicate.
For my Undergraduate dissertation I researched this phenomenon and I think that certain surfaces are easier to 'feel' through sight. Velvet is a good example of a surface which many people would readily 'feel with their eyes'. It has the most astonishing texture and strong associations with softness, luxury, comfort and, I think, human skin. And for me red velvet is regal, but maybe lascivious as well?
I was trying to think of a way to communicate touch through a screen so I made a red velvet hug. It's based on two abstract arms, again, using my own as models. It's very simple, stitched and stuffed like a draft excluder, but curved. It also has beanie parts in each end, so it's weighted. It's really comforting to wear around my neck and because of the bodyliness of the beanie bits, it is more comforting than I expected. In fact, when I posted the video of me giving myself a hug with it, I learned from a couple of friends that similar, soft heavy forms are made commercially as sensory comforts for people with certain learning disabilities. They're a bit like weighted blankets which also make some people fell more secure. So, maybe there's some science in it?
I feel sorry that I can't invite others to try it, wear it, but sadly that's not possible at the moment. Hopefully at some point before too long we'll be able to have proper hugs anyway, but in the mean time its a visual, velvet, synaesthetic, virtual one!
Healthline (no date) What is synaesthesia? Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/synesthesia#:~:text=Synesthesia%20is%20a%20neurological%20condition,(which%20means%20%E2%80%9Cperception). (Accessed 3 July 2020)
