You aren't signed in     Sign In    Help

My Synesthesia Map: Grapheme-color synesthesia

My Synesthesia Map: Grapheme-color synesthesia by Dee Adams.
I have a condition called Synesthesia that some define as a sort of autism or a condition where your brain experiences correspondences between sound, colour, letter or numbers. My particular case is one in which my brain maps certain colours to certain numbers and letters. Several famous artists both musical, visual arts, and even literary geniuses have documented cases or even written about their experiences. As a kid I had an incredibly difficult time being made to learn using those magnetic plastic letters and numbers. The colour of the plastic never properly corresponded to the right letter or number so I gave up using them as early learning devices.

I included the inversion of the colour map because interestingly enough, blue is a difficult color for me to work with whether in painting or design. It never ever looks quite right to me no matter how it is being used although I consider it a beautiful colour. The inversion has many more tones of blue than my original set. 

Comments

view profile

nokapixel  Pro User  says:

Fascinating!!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

sillypucci  Pro User  says:

I've always been fascinated by synesthesia.
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

Hector Garcia  Pro User  says:

Is it the same map for everybody who experiences synesthesia or each individual has their own?
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

Dee Adams  Pro User  says:

Each individual always has their own. What I've always been curious about is how before I could read, my brain had already mapped color to letters. But I didn't know what a letter was, I just knew this particular "figure or shape" had a colour assigned to it. And font style obviously doesn't matter.
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

mroth  Pro User  says:

I wrote a quick hack to generate these: mroth.info/code/dees-colors/
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

LetTheCardsFall  Pro User  says:

Nice. In my version I "see" sounds. Sudden noises make big flashes of colors or patterns in my head, especially when I'm falling asleep.
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

Dee Adams  Pro User  says:

Wow... I wish I could experience yours as mine seems to be the more common type. Any particular music, artist, genre or key really strike your fancy?
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

LetTheCardsFall  Pro User  says:

Used to go to sleep a lot listening to Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song". I get very interesting visuals from that one. Watch the middle instrumental part of System of a Down's "Hypnotize" video to see what kind of thing I'm talking about.
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

adrienne alair says:

I have your kind of synesthesia too!
Do you also visualize spatial relationships? (i.e., my numbers progress along a winding trail and my calendar year is a circle)
Posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

justme4Him  Pro User  says:

What are you numbers like? Are they in color, also?
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

Dee Adams  Pro User  says:

My numbers are in colour also but numbers run vertically for me they spatially feel like tall thin rectangles while letters are short perfect squares.
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

jewelfulgals says:

I have synesthesia! I see sounds - all my friend's voices have different colors and patterns, and when I listen to music I see my own private light show.
Posted 5 hours ago. ( permalink )

Would you like to comment?

Sign up for a free account, or sign in (if you're already a member).

[?]
view photos Uploaded on December 4, 2008
by Dee Adams

Dee Adams' photostream

4,015
uploads

This photo also belongs to:

Color and Colors (Pool)

Diagram Diaries (Pool)

InfoVis (Pool)

Info Graphics (Pool)

Typophile // typography, lettering and design (Pool)

Communication Studies (Pool)

Tags

Click this icon to see all public photos and videos tagged with map map

Additional Information

All rights reserved Anyone can see this photo

Add to your map