The Man who tasted shapes by Mark Lazenby
Imagine the taste of the letter R, the smell of the colour
indigo or the shape of a sound. Maybe you don’t have to imagine it. Perhaps
these ideas are perfectly normal for you. The shape of sounds, well yes, of
course, I say. I love the shape of bass notes. They are like big, shiny, round
beach stones. When bass sounds oscillate and vibrate those rounded stones spin
and sometimes break apart into smaller shapes.
My friend James Wannerton tastes sounds. When his dog barks
he tastes caramel and the sound of the name “Derek” tastes of Earwax.
I used to assume that everyone had a visual/tactile
experienced of sound. Later I learned that this is not the case. I was shocked.
I realise that sometimes people are shocked that I experience the shape of
sounds. I can’t imagine how a dog bark can taste for James.
There are a lot of things that don’t have names. The names
of things come about by people experiencing them and telling each other about
them; occasionally something official happens and new words get published in
dictionaries.
I remember the first time I heard the word synaesthesia. I was at a party telling a friend of mine
about the shapes and textures of the sounds of the music we were listening to.
“That’s synaesthesia,” My friend said.
“Synae what?” I responded.
Then he explained to me that synaesthesia was when the senses
combine, “If you can see music,” he told me “you are experiencing
synaesthesia.”
My friend told me he had found the word in a medical
dictionary. I took his word for it but
didn’t think much about it. “OK,” I thought, “synaesthesia sounds pretty normal
to me then.” I figured there were all
sort of fanciful medical terms for things we think and do.
There are many different points of view regarding the causes
and reasons for synaesthesia. One of the
best accounts of research into synaesthesia is a book called The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard E
Cytowic. First published in 1993, this was perhaps the first popular account of
synaesthesia making many people with synaesthesia more aware of their own experiences.
One synesthete (a person with synaesthesia), who has beautifully described her
own experience, is Patircia Duffy in her book entitled Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens. Organisations now exist dedicated
to the further understanding of synaesthesia: e. g. The Artecitta Foundation, The American SynesthesiaAssociation and The UK Synaesthesia Association.
Synaesthesia can tell us about the brain, the mind and
consciousness. There are phenomenal people whose brains function in unique ways
in combination with synaesthesia: e.g. Jason Padgett sees mathematical patterns
everywhere he goes and the shapes Daniel Tammet sees for numbers, letters and
concepts have helped him break the bank in a Las Vegas casino and learn
Icelandic in a day. As our science and
humanity develop we may have an opportunity to self evolve and begin making
decisions about what kind of animals we really want to be.
It is possible that some of the knowledge we are gaining
through research into conditions such as synaesthesia will help us tap into
some of the most amazing possibilities of the human brain. May we also not forget
to appreciate the unexpected and inexplicable oddities of conscious
awareness.
