Re: [microsound] synaesthesia

[mhwrpc@xxxxxxxxxxx]

As regards a more liberal or literary use of the term syaesthesia and a fascination with the concept from an earlier time, I refer everyone to a wonderful book called "Wireless Imagination" which compiles the ideas and obsessions of artists and technicians from the early part of the twentieth century taken with the world of possibilities opened up by radio, recording, and all manner of electronic sound production/transmission.  It is not only a wonderful and inspiring document of pre-modernist/modernist dreaming and doing, but a reminder of the value of focussed fabulation and wool-gathering around new ideas and technologies and the possibilities that they open up to the imagination of us all.  It is too easy to be cynical these days, what with advertising and global capitalism invading every public and private space incessantly; it's fun to consider a time when men and women could open their minds to big concepts with a real sense of fun and adventure.  Again, I highly recommend
 "Wireless Imagination" to everyone on this list for its musings re: synaesthesia, EVP, radio, disembodied voices, and electronic sound production.  


> hi all.  i'm new to the list, and i've been watching
> this particular thread the last couple of days with a
> fair amount of interest.  thought i'd pop in, say hi,
> and contribute my $.02.
> 
> language is determined by use, and is a fluid medium
> like none other.  standardizing references like
> dictionaries are useful, but ultimately they're
> snapshots of a moment that has long since past by the
> time they get to press, regardless of whether they
> still offer a relatively meaningful likeness of the
> original subject.
> 
> from the oed:
> 
> ----------
> synaesthesia
> 
> 1. Psychol.    a. A sensation in one part of the body
> produced by a stimulus applied to another part.    b.
> Agreement of the feelings or emotions of different
> individuals, as a stage in the development of
> sympathy.    c. Production, from a sense-impression of
> one kind, of an associated mental image of a
> sense-impression of another kind.
> 
> 2. Lit. The use of metaphors in which terms relating
> to one kind of sense-impression are used to describe
> sense-impressions of other kinds; the production of
> synæsthetic effect in writing or an instance of this.
> 
> 3. Linguistics.    a. The expression of more than one
> kind of sense-impression in the same word.    b. The
> transfer of the meaning of a word from one kind of
> sensory experience to another.    c. The relationship
> between speech sounds and the sensory experiences that
> they represent.
> ----------
> 
> yes, there is a strict psychological definition of the
> term synaesthesia.  whether or not that definition
> deserves primacy because it is perhaps the oldest is
> purely and simply a matter of opinion.  noone has
> "misused" the word so far in this discussion, as far
> as i can tell, according to the oxford english
> dictionary.  perhaps some peoples experiences, as
> related, made more use of literary of linguistic
> modalities than psychological.
> 
> i know that for me, when i see letters and numbers in
> my mind, they always have colors associated with them,
> and those colors, for the most part, do not change. 
> taste is augmented by shape, and sounds most
> definitely have shapes when i hear them (one of the
> things that makes listening to exquisitely produced
> audio such a rich and gratifying experience for me). 
> i can think of no better word to describe these
> experiences than synaesthetic.
> 
> glad to be on the list.  hope this wasn't too
> long-winded.
> 
> regards,
> 
> charles
> 
> 
> 		
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