Synesthesia is a rare neurological trait where one sense overlaps with another.
When someone with flavour-to-colour synesthesia tastes a combination of flavours, they may experience a combination of shapes, textures and colours.
When professor Sean Day takes a mouthful of octopus salad or turkey stew for example, his vision is transformed into a melody of colours.
Ben worked with Sean to carefully bring a number of his meals to life in print.
An Interview with Sean day:
What made you want to get involved in this project?
When people think of “synaesthetic artwork”, overwhelmingly what is thought about is in terms of music and colors. For example, painting a visual depiction of a piece of music, or trying to convert a famous painting into a musical piece, or putting together a light show to accompany a musical performance. But there are readily over 75 different, other types of synaesthesia. Yet very few people ever consider exploring other modalities along different lines of synaesthesia-related artwork. Some people are familiar with Kandinsky’s artwork, or Scriabin’s Prometheus, or have seen films of old Pink Floyd concerts. I wanted to show people that there are indeed other realms to “synaesthetic” artwork.
I myself have a music-to-color type of synaesthesia; but I also have flavor-to-color and odor-to-color synaesthesia. I have an extensive background in music, and have spent all of my life playing with those colors I see when performing on different instruments or when listening to music from others. But I find that I have very little talent for visual artwork, such as drawing, painting, or sculpture. I’ve never been able to create a depiction by myself of what I see synesthetically for any flavor. Yet I’ve always wanted to, as my flavor-to-color synaesthesia is just as much a basic part of “who I am” as my music-to-color synaesthesia is. Here, with this project, by collaborating with others who are talented visual artists, I finally have to opportunity to do what I’ve been hoping to do for over 50 years.
What does having synesthesia mean to you?
One of the things which is somewhat difficult for many people without synaesthesia to fathom is that having congenital synaesthesia does not mean that your life is constantly full of “Oh, WOW!” experiences. A defining aspect of congenital synaesthesia is that the synaesthetic perceptions are basically invariable: if the letter (grapheme) ‘A’ is red, that is what it is and always will be; if the sound of a piano is sky blue, that’s what it is and always will be. Likewise, you don’t get to pick what is connected to what. Things you like don’t necessarily go with things you like, nor vice versa. If the color you see for pasta is puce, that’s what it is, whether you like it or not.
I’m 60 years old now, and have had synaesthesia all of my life. When I was in my pre-teen years, I had many “Oh, WOW!” experiences, encountering new foods or musical instruments, such as wasabi or a glass harmonica, for the very first time. But, as said, the experiences are always the same; the flavor of coffee, for example, has produced the same dark oily green pool for me for over 40 years now, and the sound of a piano the same sky blue for over 50. Nowadays, I have to travel overseas to have an “Oh, WOW!” experience in a restaurant, or have food shipped from specialty import stores. I can’t remember the last time I had an “Oh, WOW!” experience hearing a new musical instrument, but it must have been over seven years ago.
I don’t see having synaesthesia as having a “gift”, or as somehow “magical” or a “superpower”. I see it as being a trait, like my having male pattern baldness, or having a mole on my cheek. It is the way I have always perceived music and flavors; so, it is the “normal” for me. It has its good aspects and its bad aspects – but, having lived with synaesthesia for all my life, nowadays it has mainly its quotidian aspects.
Are there any key messages or insights you have to share with the world on synaesthesia?
There are big, essential and critical differences between something being rare and something being abnormal. Synaesthesia is like autism, or Down syndrome, or having green eyes, or having six fingers on your left hand. It is rare, but normal. That is how genetic factors work normally in growth and development, from time to time. Just like rolling two sixes on a pair of dice is totally normal, but only happens an average of one out of 36 rolls.
Thus, synaesthesia, like autism and Down syndrome, presents us with the realization that there are people out there who perceive the world differently than you do – and that that is normal! It is a major misconception to believe that those other ways of perceiving the world are eternally incomprehensible and unknowable to you. They are not. It just takes a lot of hard work, and a willingness to care enough to do that work.
What’s your favourite meal and why?
In regards to meals I eat for the synaesthesia they produce, my favorite meal varies, from time to time, so I’ve never really had just one favorite. But I can name a handful of my all-time top choices:
Unagi with shaved ginger, which makes me see a huge, brilliant bright orange floating cloud of what looks like shaving cream.
Turkey with mole poblano, which produces a gorgeous shade of light bluish lavender, sprinkled with tiny cut rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.
Mango ice cream, or a mango lassi, which makes me see a large field of turquoise color, with wavy stripes of cherry red across it.
And, to wash this all down, nothing could compare to a glass of Talisker scotch whisky, which produces a rioting nightmare of blobs and streaks of blazing neon reds, oranges, pinks, white, greens, blues, and purples (but no brown, yellow or gray) against a background of very dark purplish smoke; a scene right out of Hades.
How does your day start differently?
I start my morning, just about every day of the year, before almost anything else, with a mug of coffee. Which means I wake up, just about every day of the year, due not only to the taste of coffee and the effects of caffeine, but also to seeing before me, within hand’s reach, a large dark green pool of dense oil. The basic color and appearance of that dark green oil has not changed in over 40 years now. It’s a comfortable and comforting old friend. But I do drink different flavors of coffee, such as Irish Cream, or hazelnut, or cinnamon, or the nefarious pumpkin spice, to add variances of tinges of other colors to the green.
The synaesthetic visuals which I see for flavors appear before me as solid objects which I cannot see through. They only last for about three or four seconds, and then dissipate over the course of two or three seconds. But, during that time, I cannot see beyond them. So, I never – ever – eat or drink things while I am driving.