(RE) Project

Thursday, November 09, 2006

These are some draft samples of some audio

Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3

My new fancy A2 presentation board, still flaming hot from photoshop!

Click the image below to download the fullsize pdf version (9.76mb)

Currently Listening to : Cafe Del Mar - The Best of

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Questions about synaesthesia

How common is synaesthesia?
Our current estimate of the prevalence of synaesthesia is about 3% of the population. However, other researchers have estimated it to be considerably less common. Baron-Cohen and colleagues (1996) placed an advert in a local newspaper and received 28 replies - they estimated the incidence of synaesthesia as 1 in 2000. However, it is likely that this figure is an underestimate because some synaesthetes may not have seen the advert, or did see it but did not reply to it. The problem of estimating the prevalence of synaesthesia is also complicated by the fact that synaesthesia can occur in many different forms.

How many different types of synaesthesia are there?
It is traditionally believed that there are five senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. If one were to calculate the number of permutations (vision-hearing, vision-touch, hearing-touch, etc.) then one would get 20 potential types of synaesthesia. However, it is misleading to describe synaesthesia in terms of pairwise associations between these senses. The basic senses can be broken down in to yet more dimensions. For instance, in the 'vision' domain some synaesthetes might experience colour, whereas others might experience shapes, and yet others might experience movement. Another difficulty with this formulation is that synaesthesia can be triggered by things which are not strictly sensory, such as numbers, letters, words, and names. Thus, the number of potentially different forms of synaesthesia is likely to be very big indeed! ^

What is the most common type of synaesthesia?
Our recent research suggests that experiencing days and months in colour is probably the most common type of synaesthesia. Experiencing days, months, number and the alphabet in a spatial form (e.g. in lines, circles, spirals) is even more common (maybe 20 percent of the population) although not everyone is willing to classify this as synaesthesia. The most commonly studied type of synaesthesia is where letters and digits elicit colour. These synaesthetes typically experience colours whenever they see letters, hear letter names and even think about letters (e.g. A=red, B=blue, C=yellow). Words also tend to have colours that are derived from one or more of their constituent letters. Most people have a 'feeling' of colour but they don't actually see the ink or paper as being coloured (although some synaesthetes do). Synaesthetic colours generally co-exist with 'real' colours and they do not over ride each other. Colour is by far the most common experience of synaesthetes, although it can be triggered by a whole host of things and not just letters.

Is it possible for a synaesthete to have more than one type of synaesthesia?
Yes, around half of all synaesthetes have more than one type of synaesthesia, such as taste, sound and touch all producing colours (Day, 2002). Chains may potentially exist, such as speech producing taste and taste then producing colour. It would be very interesting to speak to people who think that they might have this.

Can synaesthesia occur for touch and other bodily sensations?
Yes, but it is apparently very rare. For example, Downey (1911) reported the following '…it was found that certain tactile experiences frequently suggested color, but that these colors were only rarely sensational in value, and were not uniform in tone…. On the other hand, colors do, apparently, call up true tactual sensations. S named the "tactual feel" of every colour in the Bradley chart of spectrum scales, - a test which left his hand itching and in a disagreeable condition.' Feelings of pain can also either trigger synaesthesia (e.g. Whipple, 1900) or can act as synaesthetic experiences themselves (see Krohn, 1892), and motor movements of the body can also trigger synaesthesia (e.g. Schliebe, 1932) or act as a synaesthetic experience (e.g. Devereaux, 1966).

Are there any advantages or disadvantages to having synaesthesia?
Synaesthesia has no known effects on IQ and synaesthetes do not stand out from other members of society in any way - it is quite possible that you have acquaintances who are synaesthetic without even realising it. Most synaesthetes could not imagine life without their experiences and are either positively disposed towards it ("I feel so sorry for people who don't have this"), or neutral ("it is like being asked whether you enjoy having a left arm - it is just there, and I neither like it nor dislike it"). For some people, however, synaesthetic perceptions can be intrusive and disrupt their chain of thought if they have a particularly intense sensation. Synaesthesia may have some benefits on memory. One of the most famous synaesthetes, Shereshevsky (Luria, 1966), actually made a living out of being a memory expert! On the negative side, many synaesthetes report having difficulties with numbers and get left/right confused.

Can synaesthesia be acquired?
Yes, but the properties of acquired synaesthesia are somewhat different to those associated with the naturally occurring type. Hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline can all produce transient forms of synaesthesia (e.g. Hartman & Hollister, 1963). For instance, Albert Hoffmann was the first person to note the psychoactive properties of LSD when he accidentally ingested or breathed it. His lab notes (19th April 1943) clearly describe synaesthesia: "It was particularly striking how acoustic perceptions such as the noise of a passing auto, the noise of water gushing from the faucet or the spoken word, were transformed in to optical illusions." The synaesthesia disappears as the effect of the drug wears off. Although some people can experience 'flashbacks', we are not aware of anyone who claims to have permanently acquired synaesthesia as a result of drug use. Other people have acquired synaesthesia after becoming progressively blind (e.g. Armel & Ramachandran, 1999). It is unclear whether the synaesthesia in these cases is permanent or transient.

Currently Listening To : DJ Shadow - Funky Skunk

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

syn-aes-the-sia n. Physiol. Sensation produced at a point other than
or remote from the point of stimulation, as of a color from hearing a
certain sound (fr. Gk, syn = together + aisthesis = to perceive).

Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense. In addition to being involuntary, this additional perception is regarded by the synesthete as real, often outside the body, instead of imagined in the mind's eye. It also has some other interesting features that clearly separate it from artistic fancy or purple prose. Its reality and vividness are what make synesthesia so interesting in its violation of conventional perception. Synesthesia is also fascinating because logically it should not be a product of the human brain, where the evolutionary trend has been for increasing separation of function anatomically.

R. Cytowic, "Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses" Springer-Verlag, NY (p.1)

A quick example of a form of synaesthesia is available > here <

Currently Listening To : DJ Shadow - The Outsider

Friday, October 20, 2006

Juggling around the concept of sound (RE)cognition and the idea of a digital synesthesia at the minute.

More research and development soon!

A project about the concept of how a computer can simulate almost anything but in doing so, it always has to work within certain boundaries, otherwise would it not just be real? The project is called RE as almost everyword with the RE prefix has something to do with this concept, i.e. repeat, refresh, resize etc.