Melissa McCracken
Synesthesia affects people differently, but Melissa McCracken's form—known as chromesthesia—means she spontaneously and involuntarily sees colours when listening to music.
In an interview with VICE McCracken referring to her unique form of synesthesia
Do you have to close your eyes to see the colours or do they cloud your sight?
Synesthesia doesn't interfere with my sight in any way and it's not hallucinogenic. It just floats there in a similar way to how you would imagine something or visualize a memory. I don't need to close my eyes but it helps me visualize it better if I do.'
McCracken's painting visualising the colours she saw as she listened to David Bowie's - Life on Mars.
Do you have to close your eyes to see the colours or do they cloud your sight?
'Synesthesia doesn't interfere with my sight in any way and it's not hallucinogenic. It just floats there in a similar way to how you would imagine something or visualize a memory. I don't need to close my eyes but it helps me visualize it better if I do.'
Do certain music genres look prettier than others?
'I think so. Expressive music such as funk is a lot more colourful, with all the different instruments, melodies, and rhythms creating a highly saturated effect. Guitars are generally golden and angled, and piano is more marbled and jerky because of the chords. I rarely paint acoustic music because it's often just one person playing a guitar and singing, and I never paint country songs because they're boring muted browns. The key and tone also have an impact, so I try and paint the overall feeling of the song.'
Radiohead - All I need
Pink Floyd - Time
Radiohead - Karma Police
Relating to the therapeutic themes presented in sensory architecture in the essay, a potential practical outcome could be a VR experience presenting almost tours of places (potentially in the retail industry), but through the lens of someone who has synesthesia. Although the visuals/colours seen in synesthesia are very subjective, so the VR could change its visuals to present this subjectivity.
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