Patricia Lynne Duffy

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Patricia Lynne Duffy is the author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds, the first book by a synesthete about synesthesia. [1] Blue Cats has been reviewed in both the popular press as well as in academic journals, Cerebrum and the APA Review of Books. The book describes Duffy's own experience of synesthesia, as well as that of the many synesthetes she interviewed, along with theories of what causes synesthetic perception.

She is the author of the chapter, "Synesthesia and Literature", included in the Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia (Oxford University Press, 2013). Duffy has given a number of presentations on synesthesia in literature, with an emphasis on her four categories of literary depiction, at universities including the University of Texas at Houston, the Leibniz University Hannover, McMaster University [2] and Vanderbilt University as well as an event hosted by the organization Ediciones Fundación Internacional Artecittà at the University of Granada. [3]

In addition, she has presented on the topic of synesthesia at a number of universities including Yale University, Princeton University, the University of California, San Diego, Rockefeller University, the University of Virginia, the University of Almería, the University of Jaén, Stockholm University and others. Duffy was invited to be a Plenary Speaker on synesthesia at the "Towards a Science of Consciousness" conference at University of Arizona in Tucson. [4] She is a co-founder of and consultant to the American Synesthesia Association.

Duffy is an instructor in the UN Language and Communications Programme. She has an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, [5] from which she received the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award. She is a member of the UN Society of Writers and on the management committee of the UN Staff One Percent for Development Fund as well as the founder of the development fund's Authors-for-Literacy reading series. [6] She has taught English at New York University, the City University of New York, and the UN Language and Communications Programme, including staff training abroad at UN offices in Addis Ababa, Arusha, Entebbe, Kigali, Monrovia, Nairobi, and Port-au-Prince. Her article on development micro-projects, "Kitengesa, Uganda: Happy Developments" was published on the web site of Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. In addition, Duffy has written articles for publications including New York Newsday , the San Francisco Chronicle (article "All the Colors of the Rainbow"), the Boston Globe , and the Village Voice . Duffy wrote two award-winning essays, "Taipei Tales" and "Dining in French" for the literary journal Literal Latte . Her work is included in the anthologies They Only Laughed Later: Tales of Women on the Move (Europublic Press) and Soulful Living (HCI). She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia and lived and worked in China for a year and a half.

Her special interest is in what she terms "personal coding", the unique way in which each person codes information and makes a one-of-a-kind "inner map" of the world around them. She has been interviewed about her research and her synesthesia by a number of publications including the New York Times , [7] the Washington Post , Smithsonian magazine, Discover Magazine , and Newsweek , [8] as well as on TV and radio channels such as National Public Radio, the BBC, Public Radio International and the Discovery Channel.

Related Research Articles

The clavier à lumières, or tastiera per luce, as it appears in the score, was a musical instrument invented by Alexander Scriabin for use in his work Prometheus: Poem of Fire. Only one version of this instrument was constructed, for the performance of Prometheus: Poem of Fire in New York City in 1915. The instrument was supposed to be a keyboard, with notes corresponding to colors as given by Scriabin's synesthetic system, specified in the score. However, numerous synesthesia researchers have cast doubt on the claim that Scriabin was a synesthete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual music</span>

Visual music, sometimes called color music, refers to the creation of a visual analogue to musical form by adapting musical structures for visual composition, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation. An expanded definition may include the translation of music to painting; this was the original definition of the term, as coined by Roger Fry in 1912 to describe the work of Wassily Kandinsky. There are a variety of definitions of visual music, particularly as the field continues to expand. In some recent writing, usually in the fine art world, visual music is often confused with or defined as synaesthesia, though historically this has never been a definition of visual music. Visual music has also been defined as a form of intermedia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grapheme–color synesthesia</span> Synesthesia that associates numbers or letters with colors

Grapheme–color synesthesia or colored grapheme synesthesia is a form of synesthesia in which an individual's perception of numerals and letters is associated with the experience of colors. Like all forms of synesthesia, grapheme–color synesthesia is involuntary, consistent and memorable. Grapheme–color synesthesia is one of the most common forms of synesthesia and, because of the extensive knowledge of the visual system, one of the most studied.

Ordinal-linguistic personification is a form of synesthesia in which ordered sequences, such as ordinal numbers, days, months and letters are associated with personalities or genders. Although this form of synesthesia was documented as early as the 1890s, researchers have, until recently, paid little attention to this form.

Lexical–gustatory synesthesia is a rare form of synesthesia in which spoken and written language causes individuals to experience an automatic and highly consistent taste/smell. The taste is often experienced as a complex mixture of both temperature and texture. For example, in a particular synaesthete, JIW, the word jail would taste of cold, hard bacon. Synesthetic tastes are evoked by an inducer/concurrent complex. The inducer is the stimulus that activates the sensation and the taste experience is the concurrent.

The American Synesthesia Association (ASA) is a not-for-profit academic and public society whose mission is to foster and promote the education and the advancement of knowledge of the phenomena of synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation in one sensory modality leads to experiences in a second, unstimulated modality. The ASA attempts to promote and provide a means for the people who experience and/or study synesthesia to be in contact with each other. As part of its educational mission, the ASA provides information to scientists, health professionals, academicians, researchers, artists, writers, musicians, lay persons and people who experience synesthesia.

The phrase synesthesia in art has historically referred to a wide variety of artists' experiments that have explored the co-operation of the senses in the genres of visual music, music visualization, audiovisual art, abstract film, and intermedia. The age-old artistic views on synesthesia have some overlap with the current neuroscientific view on neurological synesthesia, but also some major differences, e.g. in the contexts of investigations, types of synesthesia selected, and definitions. While in neuroscientific studies synesthesia is defined as the elicitation of perceptual experiences in the absence of the normal sensory stimulation, in the arts the concept of synaesthesia is more often defined as the simultaneous perception of two or more stimuli as one gestalt experience. The usage of the term synesthesia in art should, therefore, be differentiated from neurological synesthesia in scientific research. Synesthesia is by no means unique to artists or musicians. Only in the last decades have scientific methods become available to assess synesthesia in persons. For synesthesia in artists before that time one has to interpret (auto)biographical information. For instance, there has been debate on the neurological synesthesia of historical artists like Kandinsky and Scriabin. Additionally, Synesthetic art may refer to either art created by synesthetes or art created to elicit synesthetic experience in the general audience.

Fictional works that have main characters with synesthesia and non-fiction books to non-specialist audiences reflect the condition's influence in popular culture and how non-synesthetes view it. Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which one or more sensory modalities become linked. However, for over a century, synesthesia has also been the artistic and poetic devices that try to connect the senses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromesthesia</span> Sound to color synesthesia

Chromesthesia or sound-to-color synesthesia is a type of synesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of color, shape, and movement. Individuals with sound-color synesthesia are consciously aware of their synesthetic color associations/perceptions in daily life. Synesthetes that perceive color while listening to music experience the colors in addition to the normal auditory sensations. The synesthetic color experience supplements, but does not obscure real, modality-specific perceptions. As with other forms of synesthesia, individuals with sound-color synesthesia perceive it spontaneously, without effort, and as their normal realm of experience. Chromesthesia can be induced by different auditory experiences, such as music, phonemes, speech, and/or everyday sounds.

<i>A Mango-Shaped Space</i> 2003 book by Wendy Mass

A Mango-Shaped Space is a 2003 young adult novel by the American author Wendy Mass. A Mango-Shaped Space is Mass's fourth fiction novel. The book received the American Library Association Schneider Family Book Award in 2004. The novel has since been nominated for, and received, a number of other awards. The hand lettering on the cover is by Billy Kelly. The book is recommended for grades 5–8. A 7-hour long audiobook version, narrated by Danielle Ferland, has been produced.

Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. There are many occurrences of synesthesia in books, television and film.

Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synesthesia</span> Neurological condition involving the crossing of senses

Synesthesia or synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. For instance, people with synesthesia may experience colors when listening to music, see shapes when smelling certain scents, or perceive tastes when looking at words. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. Awareness of synesthetic perceptions varies from person to person with the perception of synesthesia differing based on an individual's unique life experiences and the specific type of synesthesia that they have. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme–color synesthesia or color–graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, or days of the week elicit precise locations in space, or may appear as a three-dimensional map. Synesthetic associations can occur in any combination and any number of senses or cognitive pathways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Cytowic</span> American neurologist and author

Richard E. Cytowic is an American neurologist and author who rekindled interest in synesthesia in the 1980s and returned it to mainstream science. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his New York Times Magazine cover story about James Brady, the Presidential Press Secretary shot in the brain during the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Cytowic’s writing ranges from textbooks and music reviews, to his Metro Weekly "Love Doctor" essays and brief medical biographies of Anton Chekhov, Maurice Ravel and Virginia Woolf. His work is the subject of two BBC Horizon documentaries, “Orange Sherbert Kisses” (1994) and “Derek Tastes of Earwax” (2014).

<i>Wednesday Is Indigo Blue</i> Book by Richard Cytowic

Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia is a 2009 non-fiction book written by Richard Cytowic and David Eagleman documenting the current scientific understanding of synesthesia, a perceptual condition where an experience of one sense causes an automatic and involuntary experience in another sense. The afterword is written by Dimitri Nabokov, a synesthete, and the son of the well-known author and synesthete Vladimir Nabokov.

Carol Steen is an artist, writer and curator who lives and works in New York. She has had over 20 solo gallery exhibitions, her first solo exhibition in 1973 was at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and her work has been in over 50 group exhibitions including shows at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brookgreen Gardens Museum in South Carolina, the Cranbrook Museum in Michigan, and the DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts. Steen's work has also been exhibited at the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY, the Museum of Modern Art of Ukraine, and Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ideasthesia</span> Phenomenon in which concepts evoke sensory experiences

Ideasthesia is a neuropsychological phenomenon in which activations of concepts (inducers) evoke perception-like sensory experiences (concurrents). The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἰδέα and αἴσθησις, meaning 'sensing concepts' or 'sensing ideas'. The notion was introduced by neuroscientist Danko Nikolić as an alternative explanation for a set of phenomena traditionally covered by synesthesia.

Mirror-touch synesthesia is a rare condition which causes individuals to experience a similar sensation in the same part or opposite part of the body that another person feels. For example, if someone with this condition were to observe someone touching their cheek, they would feel the same sensation on their own cheek. Synesthesia, in general, is described as a condition in which a concept or sensation causes an individual to experience an additional sensation or concept. Synesthesia is usually a developmental condition; however, recent research has shown that mirror touch synesthesia can be acquired after sensory loss following amputation.

Eva Díaz Pérez is a Spanish journalist and writer. She is also a teacher of cultural journalism at the EUSA University Center and a lecturer. She has received the Andalusian Journalism Award, and in July 2019 she was appointed director of the Centro Andaluz de las Letras (CAL).

References

  1. ↑ Simon Baron-Cohen, Ph.D. (October 1, 2001). "Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes". The Dana Foundation. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  2. ↑ "McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Conference Presenters and Abstracts". American Synesthesia Association, Inc. September 26, 2008. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  3. ↑ "VI International Congress Synesthesia, Science & Art, 18-21 may 2018, Programme". Ediciones Fundación Internacional Artecittà. May 18, 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  4. ↑ "WORKSHOP - Synesthesia Sunday, May 1 - Full Day, Programme". University of Arizona. May 1, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  5. ↑ "TC Holds first academic festival". Teachers College, Columbia University. December 22, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Authors-for-Literacy Readings at the United Nations". May 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  7. ↑ Erica Goode (February 23, 1999). "When People See a Sound and Hear a Color". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  8. ↑ Anne Underwood (November 30, 2003). "Real Rhapsody in Blue". Newsweek. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
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