Synaesthesea

Seeing Voices

In artistic vocabulary synaesthesea is a word that describes when one of the senses evokes another – such as “blue is the sound of the universe…”

True synaesthesea is a rare, neurological phenomenon. But many artists believe they can interchange the various senses in their art.

Sometimes, they (the artists) are really stretching our imagination. At other times, though, I think it really does work that way.

For example, in color we talk of harmonious colors, or the tone of a color.

In music, we also talk of its tonality, or the chromatic scale, or the beautiful tone colors played by interlacing the different sounds of organ pipes to make a complex layer of sound – or I should say music.

And there is also a section in Exodus 20:18 and 22, where "the people saw the noise of the trumpet” when God was delivering the Commandments to them.

18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

It seems that even in Biblical messages, it is appropriate to excite different senses to get the full message across. To see the full force of God’s Voice must have been quite an experience.

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