about

How it all started…

One day I met a friend and talked to him about history. At some point during our conversation he mentioned that he actually “sees” time and has a visual representation of dates.
This was when I first got exposed to synesthesia. I was hooked. While I investigated the topic in more detail, it became clear to me that there was no comprehensive collection of the visual representations I was interested in.
Sure, the academic literature had investigated the topic in a couple of studies – but mostly with a specific angle in mind – like which parts of the human brain or which cognitive abilities were different for people with synesthesia. But nobody seemed to be interested in the aesthetics of the phenomenon itself.

… and where I hope it will end.

Fast forward to today: I decided it was way too easy to complain about the lack of appropriate visualizations of synesthetic illustrations and instead collect some myself and turn them into a book. This book is planned to be published at least in an electronic version and if possible also as a hardcover.

My idea for the book is a collection of illustrations which will be created based on sketches  and descriptions from different synesthetes. The illustrations it contains will be as accurate and close to the actual perceptions of the individual synesthetes as possible. Accompanied by a description of the individual and some aspects of the illustration that may not be shown in the visual format, the book will give an overview of what these special people actually see.

Once enough illustrations have been created and stories have been captured, I will structure the book into chapters with similar perceptions. Due to this hermeneutic approach I cannot tell yet how many chapters there will be in the end. I hope to collect between 20 and 50 mesmerizing illustrations.
Whenever we create something new, it is important to focus and have a clearly defined scope. This is why I am only looking for synesthetes with number-form synesthesia (who can “see” numbers) or for those with time-space synesthesia (who can “see” time). Other forms e.g. like individuals who associate music or smells with colors are not in scope of this project.

In order to collect as many interesting sketches and stories as possible I created this website. So if you are interested or can contribute please contact me at this mail.