Abstract

Synaesthesia and the artistic process. In this chapter we examine the processes and outcomes of synaesthesia in art. We ask what might be different about synaesthetic artists and look closely at the types of experiences that synaesthetes may have. We focus in particular on visual synaesthesia - synaesthesia which triggers colours, shapes and movement - and we examine the impact of these experiences on visual art. We look at a number of synaesthetic artists and describe how their experiences might have influenced their work. We also look in close detail at what is known about synaesthetic consciousness, and illustrate constant themes or forms that emerge. Since movement is often an important part of synaesthetic experiences - in that synaesthetic percepts of a visual nature are often not static in the visual field - we also examine in closer detail how movement has been represented in synaesthetic art form. We ask also how synaesthetic and non-synaesthetic art might differ, and present several case studies of work produced by synaesthetic artists.