FAQ

“Marina Pinto: Imagine if you had the ability to "see sound, smell colors, and taste shapes."  The condition is called synaesthesia, which means "joined sensation."  It shares a root with anesthesia, which means “no sensation."  The condition has actually been studied for about 300 years, but very little is known about it.

"... Author Vladimir Nabokov is said to have been a synaesthete. In his autobiography he wrote, "the long ‘a’ of the English alphabet …has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French ‘a’ evokes polished ebony.”  And Cassidy Curtis, an animator in California sees letters as colors.  And not only are individual letters represented by a particular color, but letters in words can often take on even more colors, …”

- (Excerpt from web promo for CBC News: Sunday profile of Marina Pinto originally aired on February 23, 2003).

This is also my experience, just as the notes of a song become a flowing whole that is greater than the sum of each part.

Here is how you can learn more about synaesthesia:

• International Synaesthesia  Association
• A Brief History of Synaesthesia in Music (Article by Sean A. Day)