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Synesthesia and the Arts Leonardo, vol. 32, no. 1, 1999
Author(s)
Greta Berman
Annotated Notes
Berman describes how synesthesia influenced the works of composers Alexander Scriabin, Olivier Messiaen, and artist David Hockney. Berman emphasizes the fact that synesthesia enhances their creativity ability rather than distorting them. Using scientific and historical evidence she shows how the composers were benefitted by the combination of all their senses. This source could be used to show more historical examples of how synesthesia has helped benefit musicians. It shows how the condition’s effects have been timeless.
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Neuroscience and the Arts Today PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 35, no. 3, 2013
Author(s)
Michael Century, et al.
Annotated Notes
Century highlights how conditions like synesthesia offer artists a different way to engage with art. The piece takes a broader perspective of how the brain understands art—or, more specifically, how neurodiversity impacts the production of art. The source could be used to show how synesthesia helps influence creativity across disciplines.
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Modality and Variability of Synesthetic Experience The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 125, no. 1, 2012
Author(s)
Valentina Niccolai, et al.
Annotated Notes
This article studies 63 different people who have synesthesia (synesthetes) and found that the most common type is grapheme-color (letters, words, symbols, associated with colors), followed closely by music-color. Niccolai suggests that there is a correlation between creativity and the condition. The research reveals that the colors, or the stimuli that produce them, often change over time which could be due to environmental factors, fatigue, or attention. Niccolai also claims that auditory inputs often produce the most vivid sensations to the person. There appears to be a clear link between cognitive capabilities like creativity and memory and synesthesia. This article provides information beyond just musical artists and music-color synesthesia which would be especially helpful in an essay where the primary focus is finding benefits of the condition in fields.
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Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes Scientific American, vol. 288, no. 5, 2003
Author(s)
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Edward M. Hubbard
Annotated Notes
Ramachandran suggests that synesthesia is an actual medical condition (at the time it wasn’t nearly as well researched) and is caused because activations in adjacent brain regions interfere with one another. The study even goes further to propose that the condition could be the cause of the creation of languages. The article disproves the idea that the cause of synesthesia is just learned association by showing that synesthetes can recognize shapes through color associations. The article specifically notes that creative writing may be a strength of synesthetes. Using this article in an essay could help support a claim that just as Pharrell Williams channels his synesthesia into music, writers could fuel their creations with the same condition.