Synesthesia and What It Has Taught Me | Melissa McCracken | TEDxUNC
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- Опубліковано 25 бер 2018
- At TEDxUNC Colorwheel, McCracken unmasked the elusive areas of the world we encounter, allowing a refreshing experience of the familiar. ASL interpretation was provided by Maria Perrot. Melissa McCracken has synesthesia, which allows her to see colors in the sounds that she hears. As an artist, she paints using vibrant colors to depict the movement of music. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
The world of a music-to-color Synesthete must be a beautiful and wondrous world indeed! Albeit "normal" to them, I would love to have such experiences, even if only for one day in my life!
youve explained me to me .. i never thought anyone else had this . bless you
its now what ive accepted to be my spidey sense . thing is im heavily colourblind too but i see them in my head . its bizzarre . but at the same time very cool .
You're not alone!!!! I have this too 😊😊 I thought there was something wrong with my brain or was wired very strangely.. I guess Its wired differently but in a cool way ❤️
i literally assigned personalities to numbers when i was little. i still kept the same ones. also, numbers and songs have colors. and no one’s diagnosed me with synesthesia.
I did too, and then when I saw the movie 9, I loved it because they had the exact personalities that I thought they should have. I’ve always loved 6.
what? i have olp i just discovered... i assigned genders to letters and genders and personalities to numbers. because of that, i also had stories for my numbers and letters...
I also have olp and do the same. For me 5 is the only number I see as male, but the rest of the numbers are all female. Not exactly sure why, but that’s just how it’s always been for me. I don’t have color associations though
It's not as uncommon as once thought. 1 in 23 people are supposed to have some form of it, so you probably do have it.
there’s an audio recording on my moms phone of 5 year old me telling my mom what color each of the numbers feel like to me, only now am i realizing i probably do have synesthesia
I have always assumed everybody saw music. That’s why I play! My god, your art is incredible. It all makes sense. I was literally today years old when I found out synesthesia is a thing. Thank you for helping me explain all of this, both to my people and to myself!
Brilliant!...I wish her every success!
WoW thank you for this.. I heard Jimi say Once “I don’t play Notes I play colors” and I felt I knew what he meant and was feeling it all along listening to his music. make me wonder all people in the past who had this and did not know… I wish the people filming this wonderful talk had had the insight to show your work up close.. kind of mind-boggling mistake..
Wow amazing, she really explained it well, i have something called Maladaptive Daydreaming and i actually imagined the feel of synesthesia and it was a whole new wonderland, also her paintings are beautiful. I love how in the end she talked about everyone being unique and that we need to express what we feel or see because everyone perceives this world differently and you never know how your thought and idea can change the world. Love to you all!
I have the same mix of synesthesia as she has. Only songs don't have whole colors, just specific sounds have colors.
Really..?
What happens when you listen to an orchestra?
@@Jfreek5050 you ask to me😂
I also see each sound as a different color and shape, and movement pattern. I wonder why this is and it's not just swirls and blotches. I see ropes/chains, bouncing spheres, chain/rope looking patterns, line patterns (like an EGK), flashes, and blotches. Why is my experience different than many? Anyone else see this?
@@lilystarr226 Yeah I'd say this matches my experience. Most "sound elements" have an associated colour, shape and pattern of movement. The bouncing spheres, lines, streaks, smudges, clouds etc. all exist in a 2-dimensional plane, yet can be layered over the top of each other depending on volume/blending of sounds. These associations are consistent and usually always appear, however sometimes its weaker or only some sounds give a visual. Its always playing at the back of my mind, and until late last year I assumed it was normal. I can "tune it out" when I want to, but since learning about synesthesia I've been trying to hone this ability and appreciate it more
This is a 🎁 gift ty I taught myself to see music and sound in meditation it is very spiritual
I love it. Synesthesia highlights the creative side of my brain in a really fun way. I wouldn’t consider it a condition for me but instead a gift of some sort. It can help memorizing things for a test too, I haven’t tried that yet. I experience ordinal linguistic personification synesthesia.
Your painting are brilliant, like new entities, worlds. I have synestesia too, seeing letters, numbers, words and sounds in colours.
What if people who invented writing had synesthesia and saw those symbols with sound?
That was interesting
I could be wrong. It's probably a "different" synesthesia. A scientist could be able to differentiate the synesthesia with "colors (art)" and the one with "symbols". In other words, they are not of the same category anymore, but ratherly the brains function differently now. I wouldn't call it synesthesia (symbols) anymore but maybe a different term because how different the brain functions, scientifically.
It's brilliant ✨💜
I think you're right.
Letter shapes have different personalities (or flavors) as do their sounds.
They did. The Hebrew alphabet. 😊
I have graphene and chroma synesthesia.
I think it gives a much deeper texture to your environment when you feel everything as a mixture of color, flavor, sound, brightness, and personality.
Voices and sounds have texture, viscosity, and flavor-- which makes listening to music a deeply immersive experience.
i wish there was an animation from her eyes where she sees her brother playing and he images pop up
I wish I could transfer the images that I see while I'm listening music to a big screen... It's spectacular.
I felt like when I was little that everybody had this.
Thank you for that uplifting message!
I guess i could empathize, its those aura colors i sometimes see, i was color synesthesia for a brief moment when i was a kid, i often see the color pink and green like spects of faint colors on the field of my vision... Now the synesthesia that stuck in me are mainly touch, taste, and smell mingle together creating a consistent and alien sensation
I have it too and I'm just recently learning to express how it is to others.
I think I have grapheme color synesthesia, her name is purple for me toooo!
It’s a different shade though
Beautiful paintings! Thanks for sharing your experience 🙏
She's so sweet, one of those people you feel instantly connected with. And honestly I'm a bit jealous of her for this unique superpower she has 😆 Synesthesia sounds amazing!
This is a spiritual gift.
My brother and I both see numbers in colors, but we only agree on the color of 0 and 9
Just imagine 2 teenagers debating over whether 1 is yellow or green, and their mom just sitting there being confused 😆
Great talk! Thank you!
Superb. Thank you so much. I needed to know this greenly.
Incredible insights!!! Well done.
The neon color Orange (Road Construction color Orange) gets me physically sick. I break out in a cold sweat, feel nauseous, and get weak. I have had this since when I discovered this around the age of 5. I came home from school after a Teacher put Orange colored paper in the windows to block some of the sunlight coming through. I told my Mom, and she said when she was pregnant with me she had to get rid of her Orange colored rug, because it made her throw up. (I mean every time she had looked at it.) I had an episode last night after someone sat right next to me with that color. (Bad thing about it I live in TN now! Lol)
I love having synaesthesia :)
I love and dont at the same time
What is it like?
@@siriaadikhalsa5638 It depends which type you have!
@@siriaadikhalsa5638 I have it, it feels like all your senses are mixing. It’s really hard to explain.
I have multiple types like colors to things I can taste words and numbers and I feel music
i have the grapheme colour synesthesia where number and letters and names and places all have a colour sequence to them. my a’s are always red and my 1’s are always yellow. my friends name is a grey blue. i also have spatial sequence synesthesia, where the months and weeks of the year are placed in the same particular pattern around me. pretty cool. thought it was just me for so long, didn’t know it was a thing until a couple years ago.
I relate with her so much.
These people are lucky. Their experience of the world is enhanced.
I remember hearing this described on NPR years ago and I was baffled why they would bother doing a story on such a common human experience…I mean March and Tuesday and the numeral 4 are purple for everyone, right? And we all see brilliant fireworks when startled by a door slamming or a dog suddenly barking, right? It was then that I realized that my my wife was right. “You are so odd,” she reminds all the time. 😊
I’ve only ever seen it as a gift. I don’t understand how some here have negative experiences. I’ll have to keep digging through the comments, as I bet someone’s explained it.
It is about framing and the environment and less about the condition or different thought process. If you are supported, given direction, showed love, and the world reacts to it positively then you will have positive thoughts about it. It is mostly the social aspect and feeling of fitting in society that determines the positive or negative interpretation. Whether it is Synaesthesia or any other alternative thought process.
I'm sad I do not have this. I love experiencing the world and this seems to open up so many more ways to experience the world.
Acoustical music makes me cry spontaneouly. I can hear certain notes and burst into tears. It can be upbeat dance music, blues, country, rock, rap, fast, slow, new, old, doesn't matter. It will still invoke tears. It's really weird because it's not an emotional response. There is no relateable connection to the music. It's like sneezing, no emotion just reaction. It's something I've had to hide my entire life. This is extremely problematic as a musician. It's embarrasing.
I hate when that happens
Or that almost orgasmic feeling in your brain when the melody just sparks so many colors !!
When I sing, my eyes will water so much it looks like I'm crying. My nose even begins to run like it does when I cry. Exactly like you said, there's no emotion necessarily connected to it; it just happens.
As a soloist, praise and worship singer, and member of many choirs throughout my life, it's a super annoying (somewhat embarrassing) issue.
Same!
It’s not problematic I don’t think. If it’s problematic you’re afraid of it. Feel it, alone when playing let it happen, then feel confident that you’re capable of being attuned to music. You can feel the love of the universe, just pure love made out of frequencies. Ride your emotion bike, you’re doing it. You’re feeling joy, not sadness. It’s found when you realize they feel the same in this context, as they’re similar. These are the basis of music. Up and down notes represent up and down emotion, and flow, bigger chunks of 1 and 0, more 1’s, like 111, makes a 1 chord, another 110, a majority of 11s, makes say 1.5 movement up in music step, and this goes all the way to the upper big picture of the overall composition. The full emotion and vibe of the song. It’s layers open layers, a huge layer, then deeper and deeper and deeper, and you start at the deepest level, the first note that your heart desires to play, followed by silence, and the next note your heart wants to play.
Start your song with silence before playing, then play the note that comes, then silence. 4:33 is a song by John Cage. It’s first note, and only note is the first silence, it’s made of rests. Rests aren’t not playing, it’s playing silence. Same for every song in existence.
For me and my twin, minutes, days, weeks, months and the year are not a ring around us. They are more macro. Almost galactic.
i found out this weekend that other people don't experience the spatial sequence synesthesia which is crazy
i have always "seen" or felt the months in like a ring around my body and ages like 1-100 have always gone upwards and sideways
and each month has a color and a personality
I thought I was the only one about the month and age things nice to meetcha
yes the personalities!! i low key thought i was crazy lol. august is always red and carefree
Sapstar months being a ring around your body... that happens to me
me too!
So am not am the only one that " sees time " as a spatial construction ? Like yesterday morning is behind me at my left and yesterday night is behind my at my right , today morning is at my feet and today's night is on my head , but for future days i see it like monopoly sideways
I have this and never knew what it was!!! Never told anyone til now.. i am 48!
Aphex twin is one of us total legend I music never done art can look at abstract piece or any poem or music and know 😎
So I can I have the space time synesthesia because I can see the months of the year in a circle above my head starting with January in the top left circling all the way around with December underneath. However i never thought about this but I can see a few song genres in color for instance country music is a light brown rap/hip hop is red indie music dark blue Christian music purple is this also a type of synesthesia?
Sounds like a form of thought made into patterns of art that is not visually there but in the imagination, anybody can have synesthesia in that case, I saw a case where it was visual which does make sense of a type of synesthesia. Her seeing actual magenta on M is what I consider Synestheisa also.
There was a time where I could hear music 🎶 as I watched trees move in the wind , has anyone experienced this ? Everything had sounds .
Nas's album Illmatic .Memory Lane - purple and pink.Represent - fiery orange and yellows. I could go on.....
Melissa, You have great taste in music.....I'd love to see X Factor or SRV in color!
Very interesting
Imagine how many kids were being honest when they say 1 + 3 = Yellow
kool, I do this, as do both my parents, but its colour associated with letters numbers and words, as you say is the most common form, interestingly all family with this have differing colours to some extent. The more I think about it the less clear it is though.
Ty beautiful 🎭 art
I get it. My colors go with time. Time periods have thier color impressions like in flashbacks.
I always thought this was just me
I get you.
i set my ring tone because for some reason this songs colors chased me down, and that makes me run faster to the phone
At what hertz did you hear your music I wonder
5 min video la irukuthe vathevega like kuduga 😂😊
yah, same. cheater is orange! i just feel it
Now I finally understand why Pocahontas asked: "Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"
...when I was little I used to say red was a bad color so I never paint with that crayon I always used scarlet instead of red. Is this have to do with synesthesia?
No, it's an opinion for the taste of colors.
Red is an angry/violent colour. Green is jealousy/envy. Purple/mauve is a deceitfu/lying colour. Yellow is relatively happy. Darker colours are sadder aand more miserable. Pink is that of romantic attraction.
You can make albums covers
So you see colours when you listen to music?
Yes correct
If she listens to quran, what colors will she seee?
Uh intersting question
I see yellow
Pam Beesly
I have chromesthesia but nothing else.
What is that?
@@kmdn1 It just means one is able to see colors by hearing sounds or music. Basically, that's what the presentation in the video was trying to refer to. Synesthesia can process and function through many senses and forms from the five senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, and hear but the person with Chromesthesia can only see color (art) through hearing (sounds and music). There are many more senses but those are the most five common ones. The presentation was referring to Synesthesia of all sorts of senses, forms, and subjects, not only one.
The only thing synesthesia has taught me is that the world is truly a horrible place.
The sound of your voice is magenta to me. lol I find that super Ironic
whenever my LA class has to write an essay about a story, she makes us involve sensory details, and im just over here like "damn, this is gonna be hard to grade lol"
Does anyone else have shape and colour with their synaesthesia? Like a certain sound on an instrument can be little purple balls ( like everything in its right place by radiohead). Categories have colour too like science is green math is red English is blue ... or like animals are pink fish are grey insects are brown etc
So if i poked her eyes out would she still be able to see music?
In theory... Yeah. She would probably have enhanced visuals from music after sight is taken away. Researchers say that blind people develope a better sense of sound or touch to compensate for the loss of vision. So if you visualize sounds as mental images and colors, they would probably get even more vivid if you didn't have sight.
Yes, synesthesia processes through visual mentality first before applying it to reality through art.
This.
She needs to listen to Pink Floyd while tripping on shrooms. She'll really see colors.
This happen because the person is very sensitive and sense the energy. Like psychis, clairvoyants, etc.
angie p yeah... no this happens because neural pathways get crossed in the sensory portion of the brain, it’s all based on individual association and perception, I have a synesthesia myself as do many of my friends and not one of us has the same perceptions
You’re both right.
I love your music rooftop makes me cry
I want what you'll having
What if humans were meant to have this, among many other traits, normally? What if we have digressed genetically? Yeshua said we have powers that can move mountains, walk on water, change water to wine. Most of us don't have this. That would make most of us genetic deviants.
That is your higher self not cross wiring open wiring
She is deeply deeply behind on what synesthesia is.... and not just because this is from 2018, because she truly has no clue what she's describing despite it happening through her.
This only happen in a normal being during injesting LSD were you can see sounds ....
NOT BUYING HER STORY WHAT SHE SAYING , SHE THINKS SHE HAS IT, IT SOUNDS LIKE A STORY
blank pallet2
yo what are you talking about
i meant i dont think she has it, i have something but im embarrased and dont to say what i have it
It's not that uncommon dude. A lot of people have this. It's a crossing of the senses in your brain pathways.
She is reffering Synesthesia to visualize colors and art that has not come into existence yet. For example, some people without it are able to visualize art but they normally visualize something that already existed such as cities like Paris, New York, etc. The synesthesia she has is able to foresee colors and art that not many are able to visualize. With drawing and art skills, she is able to apply it to reality.
2⃣4⃣.0⃣1⃣.2⃣0⃣2⃣0⃣.
@Jody May u wrongly typed 7.😅