Synaesthesia, creativity and art: What is the link?
By Jamie Ward, Daisy Thompson-Lake, Roxanne Ely and Flora Kaminski
Creativity is typically defined as the ability to generate novel associations that are adaptive in some way. It has been suggested that individuals with synaesthesia may show heightened creativity as a result of being able to form meaningful associations between disparate stimuli (colour, sound etc.) The study worked with a group of people with various kinds of synaesthesia and as well as undergoing a variety of tests, they were also asked about the amount of time engaged in creative arts that they take. There was a significant tendency for synaesthetes to spend more time engaged in particular creative arts, often in relation to the type of synaesthesia that they experienced. An example of this would be a synaesthete experiencing vision from music, would be more likely to play an instrument than their other synaesthete counterpart.
Why do so many artists have synaesthesia?
By Jacoba Urist
The growing body of evidence shows that synaesthesia is more common among creative types. According to those who study the condition, cross-sensory experiences may offer a particular artistic advantage: a greater aesthetic sensitivity than the rest of us. This is why someone with synaesthesia is more likely to gravitate towards the creative industries. Synaesthesia does not make anyone better within the creative fields, that takes talent, practise and mastery. But if music makes someone see colours and shapes, they may want to pick up a guitar or sit at a piano more than someone without synaesthesia.
A survey of 258 fine-arts students at 3 large universities, suggested that synaesthetes are more common on artistic turf. 23% of respondents experienced synaesthesia in a spontaneous and consistent manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment