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Moore, S., 2010.

Getting the picture: Digitally visualizing and animating synaesthesia

Output Type:Conference paper
Presented at:American Synesthesia Association conference
Venue:Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN
Dates:1/10/2010 - 3/10/2010

"To be honest, um, I see things really flowingly, ...within my head ... very flowingly, and forward moving, and really hard to describe..."
How would you describe synaesthesia to someone who doesn't know what it is? Every synaesthetic reaction is unique and yet there are similarities in the ways in which they are experienced. An Eyeful of Sound is a collaborative short film project completed in 2010 between synaesthetic people, researchers and film makers concerned with visually describing synaesthesia to a wider audience. It is an impressionistic portrayal of a synaesthetic person's everyday perceptions. The audience is given the scope of the synaesthetic responses, and an understanding of what it is like to see the world through these eyes. Synaesthesia is shown interacting with other more recognisable environments, like a street or a forest, but since the 'real' world and synaesthetic world are both animated they carry equal weight with the viewer, attempting to give a more psychologically realistic view of the condition.

Animation director Samantha Moore will talk about making the film and the problems and challenges in collating, verifying and realising synaesthetic reactions into the form of animated film. To do so she worked with Dr Jamie Ward (University of Sussex), and synaesthetic interviewees Tessa Verrecchia, Emma Suddaby and Julie Roxburgh, as well as animators, producers and artists. This presentation will be illustrated by clips of the final film along with some of the process of animating synaesthetic responses.