Tag: synesthesia
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The two Kandinskys
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) was a Russian painter, art theorist, co-founder of the “Blue Rider” art movement, pioneer of abstract painting,1 and part of the Fauvism and Bauhaus of Weimar movements. Neuroscientists regard him “as one of the most prominent examples of a synesthetic artist.”2 Kandinsky postulated a fundamental synesthesia between color and…
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Synesthesia, empathy, and the “art” of medicine
Maeve PascoeCleveland, Ohio, United States “Do my name next!” people would exclaim as I tried to explain that I am not “doing” anything, I merely perceive things differently. Not many medical conditions double as parlor tricks, but the benign condition of synesthesia is unique in its ability to astonish. For much of my childhood, I…
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When the sensory lens is an artistic prism: The brain, Kandinsky, and multisensory art
Gregory W. RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States In 1812 an Austrian physician named Georg Sachs published a medical dissertation about his family’s albinism.1,2 Conspicuous by inclusion, Sachs claimed to simultaneously hear and see colored music. His claim of a sensory duality is considered the first explicit mention of what would be later identified as synesthesia (from…