Week #2 - R1 Media Response

In our readings and screenings this week we learned about synesthesia, perception, and cymatics. Up until this class I had never heard of synesthesia. It is incredible to think about how many different forms of synesthesia have been identified, and how common some of those forms are.  I find it fascinating that, though very rare, there are people in the world with lexical-gustatory synesthesia, who will experience a taste in their mouth from just simply hearing a certain word. Then you have those with the grapheme-color or chromesthesia forms of synesthesia where their brain naturally connects sounds, letters, or numbers with a color or those with number form who have an involuntary mental map appear in space when thinking of numbers. Though I cannot imagine perceiving the world in this way, the people who do, in many cases, have had these experiences since childhood, and many claim that they thought their perceptions were somewhat “normal”. On the flipside, I think it would be quite a shock to a person who developed a form later on in life.  There are some forms like mirror-touch and misophonia that seem more frightening as you have no control over what your are feeling physically or emotionally and the reaction can happen at inappropriate times. In one of the videos we watched, Daniel Tammet effectively made the point that though some people have mental “abnormalities” in comparison to the general masses, that does not necessarily mean they are hindered in any way, it just means their perception is different which can be a good thing. In the second video we watched, we learned about cymatics, which is essentially making sound visible.  This idea is very intriguing and ties into the different ways our senses can perceive and manipulate stimuli. All of these viewpoints are applicable to how films can be made to evoke certain emotions, and it will be interesting to experiment with these new ideas.

Week #1 - First Response

These clips reminded me of the chromesthesia form of synesthesia, though slightly different as some of the colors or shapes were not the same for different tones. There was a very consistent red color in the first video, which paired with the upbeat music, evoked an excited and semi-anxious emotional response from me. The never-ending stream of colored shapes and lines in these videos was visually captivating. There was a constant change among the images shown, and though every shape was repeated multiple times, the continuous movement made everything seem new. Interestingly enough as the colors and shapes were constantly changing and switching, I noticed that I found myself instinctively attempting to make sense of them or trying to form a pattern. It was odd that my brain strained to find the repetitions when it seems there were none to be found. I think that it is amazing that people with synesthesia naturally associate those shapes and colors with each other in their everyday understanding and perception of the world, especially when all I could do was watch them go across the screen with no logical connection. I am not entirely sure yet of the specific motivation behind these clips, as in what their meanings were, what they were inspired by, if and what I was supposed to feel when watching them. I am very curious to see what others noted about the videos and if their responses were similar to mine. It would also be interesting to know and compare my response to that of a person who perceives with synesthesia.