Why study synesthesia? What can that teach us about ourselves?

Abstract

This essay describes the results of the author’s projects of studying synaesthesia in Spain (University of Granada). It outlines several surveys of potential synaesthetes and possible relations of synaesthesia, creativity and types of “sensory representation”/ intelligence. The author provides her own original definition of “natural synaesthesia” as multi-modal thinking actualized through diffuse perception and polyphonic attention. Such an understanding emphasises the importance of constant philosophical reconsideration of synaesthesia and an interdisciplinary approach to researching the phenomenon. One of the major conclusions made in this essay is that synaesthesia is embedded in the multiple and multilevel processes of the unconscious that constitute both thinking and creativity. Which in turn might mean that perception could be explained through synesthesia and not the other way around, with subsequent revision of the theories of cognitive processes in psychology and neurosciences. The described results lay the foundations for the author’s synaesthesia-based applied methodologies in art education that are aimed to raise awareness of unusual perception among potential synaesthetes and enhance holistic creative thinking of the students through the multi-sensory aspects that they can further include into their own projects.