Synesthesia Sequencing

syn·es·the·sia /ˌsinəsˈTHēZHə/ — the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

I’ve had synesthesia since I was a small child, which, for me, means I see small, colorful shapes dancing around each other in tightly woven, undulating patterns in the air before me. They change in color, shape, size, and vibrancy in response to music, scents, atmospheres, and physical and emotional feelings. I started to see these patterns more vividly when I developed vertigo a few years ago, noticing the details of each shape more clearly. Since then, I’ve delved into illustrating the patterns on paper for others to experience. Most of my pieces represent songs, as they are the easiest to accurately document since I can play songs on repeat. Here are some of those pieces:

In the spring of 2018 I made a collection called “What I See” that pertained specifically to my disabilities — my goal was to visualize the invisible, that is, my invisible illnesses such as Fibromyalgia and Meniere’s Disease.

The first piece, “Coils and Daggers,” is a diptych of black and white images of my body parts where I experience the most chronic pain, with the patterns drawn on transparent paper mirrored with the images.

The second piece, “The Crunch,” is an animated GIF of the patterns evolving into more patterns—a first attempt at animating my drawings to more accurately portray my synesthesia.

The third piece, “Seven Days a Week,” is a long strip of grid paper with seven sections mimicking a weekly pill sorter—each section has a large letter and circles where the braille letters would be. This piece is a representation of the one thing that is the most consistent thing in my life and the most persistent reminder of my chronic illnesses, because this shape is often the first thing I see in the morning, every morning, and it’s one of the few habits I keep up with out of necessity.