Synesthesia, Design, Fine Arts and Music

Multisensory Perception and Synesthesia

Synesthesia means the capability of the perceptual system to induce perception within one sensual modality by stimulation of a different sensual area. Similar phenomena are pronounced at relatively few individuals, but show a characteristic permanence. Often the phenomenon of visual perception caused by auditory stimulation is described (as color(ed) hearing). In principle, synesthesia can occur between all senses. Such connections are also observed within one sensory space. In that manner, numbers and letters can get an additional color during a process of visual perception or imagination.

Applications in the Arts and Design

My papers and artwork mentioned on this website illuminate phenomena of synesthesia, but also consider the widespread capabilities of cross-sensory connections via correspondences, associations/iconicity, multi-sensory symbolism and conscious generation of rules (e.g. with reference to physical parameters or algorithms). This enables development of numerous fields of application, like sound design and perception of soundscapes, multi-sensory design of products and interfaces, virtual environments, correlation of music and the fine arts, musical acoustics, and many others.

Recent publications

Verfahren zur auditiven und visuellen Darstellung der Klangfarbenvariabilität historischer Flöten. TIBIA, Portal für Holzbläser. Celle: Moeck, 2022 Text

The Role of the Iconicity of Sound within the Multisensory Environment. Vibrations in Physical Systems, 2022, 33(1), 2022106. DOI: 10.21008/j.0860-6897.2022.1.06

Die wahrgenommene Qualität – Ein Paralleluniversum zur technischen Qualität. QZ-online.de, München: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2022.

Authentische Gestaltung – Messung der assoziativen Qualität von Designelementen und Oberflächen. QZ-online.de, München: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2022.

Subjective and objective evaluation of the tone-to-tone timbre variability of historical flute designs. Proc. Euroregio/BNAM2022 Joint Acoustics Conference, Aalborg, 2022, 67-76

Klangfarben-Variabilität von Blockflöten aus Renaissance und Barock. Annual Conference DAGA 2022, Stuttgart. Berlin: DEGA, 2022, 826-9

Eine Alpensinfonie. Synästhetische Kunst zur sinfonischen Dichtung von Richard Strauss. AXON, Newsletter der Deutschen Synästhesie-Gesellschaft, 01/2022, 8-9.

Key topics

Audio-visuelle Verknüpfungen im Wahrnehmungssystem und die Eingrenzung synästhetischer Phänomene. In: Sidler, Natalia & Jewanski, Jörg (ed.): Farbe-Licht-Musik. Synästhesie und Farblichtmusik. Züricher Musikstudien Vol. 5. Bern: Peter Lang Verlag, 2006

Synesthetic Design – building multi-sensory Arrangements. In: Kai Bronner & Rainer Hirt (eds.): Audio Branding - Brands, Sounds and Communication. Berlin: Nomos, 2009

Look at that sound! – Visual aspects of auditory perception. Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Synaesthesia, Science and Art (26.-29.4.2009), Granada: 2009

Synästhetisches Design - Multisensuelle Gestaltung in der angewandten Kunst. In: Andrea Gottdang, Regina Wohlfarth (eds.): Mit allen Sinnen - Sehen, Hören, Schmecken, Riechen und Fühlen in der Kunst. Leipzig: Seemann Henschel Verlag, 2010

Advanced description of noise perception by analysis of cross-sensory interactions within soundscapes. Noise Control Eng. J. 58 (5), Sept-Oct 2010, 540-50

Synästhetisches Design - Kreative Produktentwicklung für alle Sinne. München: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2009 - English Edition: Synesthetic Design. Handbook for a Multi-Sensory Approach. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2013

Book Review: Hans Brandner: Bewegungslinien der Musik: Alexander Truslit und seine Lehre der Körpermusikalität, der Kinästhesie der Musik (Motion lines in music: Alexander Truslit and his teaching of body musicality, the kinesthesia of music - Wißner, Augsburg 2012).
Psycho-musicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 2013 Volume 23, Issue 1 (Mar), 54-8

Multisensory Perception and Product Design. Plastics in Automotive Engineering. Düsseldorf: VDI Verlag, 2013, 1-12

Alexander Truslit: Gestaltung und Bewegung in der Musik. Ein tönendes Buch vom musikalischen Vortrag und seinem bewegungserlebten Gestalten und Hören. Reprint of the original edition 1938, edited and prefaces by Hans Brandner & Michael Haverkamp. Augsburg: Wißner-Verlag, 2015

Effects of Material Touch-Sounds on Perceived Quality of Surfaces. SAE World Congress WCX17. Detroit, USA, April 5, 2017. SAE Paper 2017-01-0495

How does what we hear sound? The qualia problem in acoustics. Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, September 9-13, 2019, Aachen, Germany, 1418-25

Light, color and motion as crossmodal elements of Baroque music. e-Forum Acusticum 2020, Lyon, France, 2099-106. DOI 10.48465/fa.2020.0021

Soft sounds in quiet cars - design with respect to subjective intensity of sounds. e-Forum Acusticum 2020, Lyon, France, 2377-84. DOI 10.48465/fa.2020.0020

Contribution of timbre variation of historical flutes to colorful music. Galeev Readings („Prometheus“ – 2020. For the 80th birthday of B. M. Galeev. Materials of the international scientific practical conference, Kazan, Oct. 2-4, 2020), Kazan: Fond Galeev-Prometheus, 2020, 159-65

Synesthetic Design versus Multisensory Design – Differences and Benefits. In: A.V.Sidoroff-Dorso (ed.), Synaesthesia: Cross-sensory aspects of cognitive activity in science and art. Proc. 2nd IASAS-Symposium, October 17 – 20, 2019. Moscow, 2021, 142-7

Auditory perception and the subjective representation of time. Proc. Euronoise 2021 E-Congress. Sociedade Portuguesa de Acústica (SPA), 2021, 452-60

Interview

Anton V. Sidoroff-Dorso, Sean A. Day, and Jörg Jewanski (Eds.): Synaesthesia; Opinions and Perspectives - 30 Interviews with Leading Scientists, Artists and Synaesthetes. Wissenschaftliche Schriften der WWU Münster, Reihe VIII, Band 5, Dortmund: readbox unipress, 2020, pp. 278-287.

Current Presentations

2023:

Wirkung der Klangfarben-Variabilität von Flöten auf Tonart und melodischen Verlauf

Was heißt und zu welchem Ende brauchen wir Philosophie in der Akustik?

DAGA 2023 - 49. JAHRESTAGUNG FÜR AKUSTIK, 6. - 9. März 2023, Hamburg

2022:

Scope and limits of synaesthetic arts

presentation at VII International Congress Synesthesia, Science & Art - The digital/physical challenge, Granada and Alcalá la Real (Jaén), Spain, October 27, 2022

Richard Strauss - Alpensinfonie - Cycle of Objects/Paintings - Excerpt

as part of Exhibition “Art and Synaesthesia - The physical challenge in digital”, Alcalá la Real, Convento de los Capuchinos, Vernissage October 29, 2022, 18:30

J. S. Bach (attr.) - Sonata for recorder and piano F major, transposed from E-flat major

Svetlana Rudenko, Piano; Michael Haverkamp, recorder & paintings, as part of piano concert by Svetlana Rudenko, Alcalá la Real, Teatro Martínez Montañés, October 29, 2022, 20:00

How can we approach the topic of tone-to-tone timbre variability of historical instruments?

4th Vienna Talk on Music Acoustics.

- on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Department of Music Acoustics (IWK).

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria.

September 11-14, 2022