Desire Avenue

daniel's post got me thinking of how great music always brings pictures to my mind... i perceive most sounds in different colours, and they sort of mix with the lyrics and the emotions in the music to form vivid images and sometimes narratives... how about you? do you get stills, paintings, or even videos of stina's music, like daniel? maybe you've come to associate a song with the memory of a moment in your life which is recorded and played back when you listen to it again? or have you ever had a dream hearing stinas music, perhaps like an entire dream video?
i'm curious about how you _see_ music! :)

Well ... all I can say is that my paintings are very dependant on what I listen to ... I won't say more. It's too ... revealing.

I also think in videos all the time ... I have ready made vids for "cayman islands" and "Butterfly" in my head but I won't share 'cause then someone makes those videos and I get nuttin'

Well, not exactly, but I feel different colour for digits and groups of letters. The days of the week and other lists also arrange by color somehow. It's not real colors though, more the "feel" of colors. Wednesday's such a green day, by the way [crazy]

saltholmen wrote:Well, not exactly, but I feel different colour for digits and groups of letters. The days of the week and other lists also arrange by color somehow. It's not real colors though, more the "feel" of colors. Wednesday's such a green day, by the way [crazy]

I agree! Numbers are indeed coloured- however, while I believe that "1" is red, my friend believes it is blue. I think it depends on the colour the number was printed in whatever book taught you to count as a child!

1 is totally red.

Yes, I have that too, but it's hard to explain. It's such a unconscious thing.

daniel wrote:1 is totally red.

there's a film called 'the big red one', isn't there?

Why some see colours in numbers

There are many types of synaesthesia
US scientists say they can explain why some people 'see' colours when they look at numbers and letters.
As many as one in 2,000 people has an extraordinary condition in which the five senses intermingle, called synaesthesia.

Some see colours when they hear music or words. Others 'taste' words.

The study in Neuron tracked the brain activity of people with the most common form and found peaks in areas involved with perceiving shapes and colours.

Cross-wiring

The University of California San Diego team said their findings lend
support to the idea that the condition is due to cross-activation between adjacent areas of the brain involved with processing different sensory information.

This cross-wiring might develop, they believe, by a failure of
the "pruning" of nerve connections between the areas as the brain
develops while still in the womb.

People with synaesthesia tend to want A to be red, S to be yellow and Z to be black

Synaesthesia researcher Dr Julia Simner, of the University of Edinburgh

For example, a person with synaesthesia might see red when they look at n ordinary figure '5' drawn in black ink on a white background because the red colour perception area of their brain is stimulated at the same time as the number recognition area.

The researchers conducted a series of experiments on volunteers with and without synaesthesia.

When the people without synaesthesia looked at letters and numbers only the brain areas involved with processing this information light up on brain activity scans.

In comparison, the people with synaesthesia had activity in colour
perception regions as well.

Colour by numbers

Furthermore, some of the people with synaesthesia appeared to be better at 'seeing' colours than the others.

Those who had stronger colour perception had more activity in their
colour perception brain areas.

Researcher Vilayanur Ramachandran said processes similar to synaesthesia might also underlie our general capacity for metaphor and be critical to creativity.

"It is not an accident that the condition is eight times more common
among artists than the general population."

Dr Julia Simner, who has been studying synaesthesia at the University of Edinburgh along with colleagues at University College London, said the findings were supported by similar work looking at people who see colours when they hear sounds.

"Interestingly, we've recently analysed the letter-colour combinations of a very large number of people with synaesthesia and found that there are significant trends in their preferences.

"For example, people with synaesthesia tend to want A to be red, S to be yellow and Z to be black."

She said her research also revealed that people without synaesthesia have significant preferences for the colours of letters.

"Some of these choices were fairly obvious, such as 'O' being orange, but some were quite intriguing, and showed a similarity to those of people with synaesthesia."

Her findings are currently in press to appear in the journal Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Jennifer Green from the University of Cambridge, who has also been
carrying out research in this area, said: "Some describe seeing the
colours induced by letters and numbers as projected externally into
space, while others report experiencing them internally, or in
their 'mind's eye'.

"This research lends further support to empirical evidence suggesting that these varying descriptions represent actual differences in the way synaesthesia occurs in individuals."
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posted on the BBC News Science section on 25/03/05

I spoke on the CQD forum of a painting I had done while listening to The World Is Saved for the first time...

it's on my website ... http://www.marvelhill.vze.com

called "The Face of the True God" ... the theme was inspired by PJ Harvey but I needed The World Is Saved for emotional inspiration.

An interesting question indeed.

I think of stories, feelings behind the music, whether imagined from the story i see behind the sounds and words, or memories I've lived. Not really the memories even, I think of the feeling I had at the time.
i remember in emotions. I think of the time i drove home from the ranch on a beautiful evening after a hard day of 12 hour work with horses and people, sun shining, not as exhausted as normally, listening to Poe - Hello, blasting it, singing and car dancing(that's what i call it now) smiling. As happy as i knew i could be at the time. I wish there were more moments like that in my life to be remembered. Fiona Apples - Across the Universe is the most calming song i know, play it and it relaxes more than anything, and everything's alright, you can focus after the mental relaxation.
Music has a very powerful effect on me. When i was younger I had more of a problem expressing myself, so i used music to control/express my emotions. I'd bury myself in the lyrics and emotions the song drew forth. It almost ruined my life. I still do it, but in a mature way, not allowing myself to be so deeply drawn in.