art as ritual

art
Yes, I think the radio program on synaesthesia was primarily an interview with Cytowic about his book. Small world.

...the burnt out ends of long, smoky days......

a lot of poets must be synaesthetes.......

poets
Shepaints, yes, either that or they are able to write as if they were synasthetes, demonstrating the great artistic potential of that "abnormality".

I once did a paper on tactile stimulation aiding the dyslexic speller. Studies showed that when the dyslexic spellers were allowed to touch the letters and make words with the objects, they did just as well as non-dyslexic spellers who did not touch the wooden letters. I also read something awhile back, I can't remember where, that had to do with different colors (sight) stimulating different parts of the brain and producing varying chemical responses. It was just in the priliminary stage, but they were hoping it would lead to a breakthrough for combating blindness. JL, your professor was a dolt.

Shepaints, how true--and the impact on the reader can lead to another level of consciousness. Reading an extraordinary passage can have such a profound impact that one can almost feel and taste the words.

dyslexia
Kayla, was it your position that tactile simulation served as a reinforcement by redundancy or as a substitute for visual stimulation alone? I should think it could work both ways. Yes, he was a dolt for not taking my sincere effort seriously. Thank God, while I was far from perfect as a teacher, THAT was never my failing. Maybe I should thank the dolt for that.

ritual art
Diane, I have, as have most people, experienced touching musical phrases as smell or tastes. I cannot tell which (probably both) because the "synasthetic" sense was so subtle. But it was clearly not JUST a matter of sound. One is most aware of this when they experience music, i.e, flamenco or the allegretto movement of Beethoven's seventh sysmphony. as a "visceral" experience.

JL, music, I think, has the most powerful effect on my senses, causing the effects you mentioned as a matter of course, especially when I am alone and can listen without interuption, letting it take me where it will. I mentioned writing in response to Tartarin's post about poetry, because I tend to be surprised when writing affects me so strongly; with music, I've come to expect a kind of out-of-body experience.

I remember reading Middlemarch, sitting back to catch my breath, wanting to lift the words from the page to examine them like jewels.

hmmmm....I read somewhere that many children are synaesthetes
but education and even ridicule erases this awesome
ability.......

I once watched an interview with a synaesthete who described
how uncomfortable words could be for her......the taste of
mashed potatoes in conjunction with hearing a word like 'highway' for example....
The sensory overload (and exhaustion) often involved in getting through the day.......fascinating
stuff.......

JL, The paper was written to further substantiate the theory that multi-sensory stimulation can enhance learning. I teach using multi-senory to help the students grasp concepts. During music class, we listen and put colors to certain phrases in the piece. There is no concensus, only individual associations. One student might say that Waltz of the Flowers is pink while another sees it as blue. During painting class, I always play music. This thread has given me several new ideas for teaching. This week I'll try tactile and color and maybe incorporate music as well. With my students, parts the brain have never fully developed or have been damaged. My theory is that via multi-sensory, other parts of the brain can be stimulated to enhance and facilitate the learning process.

ritual
Kayla, very reasonable approach. I hope we'll be able to get reports on results of the application of your theory for the learning process.

ritual
Kayla, reasonable theory. I hope we'll be able to know from you the results of its application. I've always felt that words are not the only source of "knowledge" available to us. Obviously (but ignored), knowledge of the world is a sensual experience.

Actually the written word in one "sense" is the artificial symbol of knowledge. It has no direct connection to the experience as the senses do. The written word is merely the affirmation or reflection the experience.

ritual
Yes, Kayla, the words of language are abstractions ABOUT sensual experience--immediate appropriations of Nature or simply Nature itself(?). But sometimes poets present words as sensual, even sensuous, experience. By "knowledge" in my easlier post I was referring to all the things people who have sight know (e.g., the appearance of mountains, mist, the color blue, and so on), as opposed to those who have never seen. The same applies to the hearing vs deaf folks. But I do not want to overlook the fact that some congenitally blind or deaf people have experiences the sighted and hearing miss out on. Nevertheless we are talking about sensual knowledge--as opposed to second order/abstract knowledge "about" the world through words.

And it iis through the abstract that we try to recreate or recount the sensorial experience. We do this via words, music, painting, etc. There is an innnate surge in us to re-enact and create. There were times when I was on stage and the scene was working so well that I actually felt as if I was moving in some kind of substance, spun honey or some frothy thing. Even on a blank stage doing "poor theatre," I'd be emmersed in colors. I think there is ritual in the very act of creating. We can talk about it, write about it, but when we are in the midst of it, it becomes our life's blood, our essence. The Greeks had a word for it, but I can't spell it. It meant essence.

Exquisitely put, Kayla, and for those of us who have been there, no matter how long ago, the memories reamain fresh, resonant, with all the sensorial details intact.

It seems there is a disturbance in the universe. I have tried to paint my way out of the funk of war with no success. Two paintings started and two paintings and painted them over and started over again and still I am lost in dismal.

Joanne: I would humbly suggest NOT painting your way OUT of the funk of war but INTO it. Your truthful conviction should carry the painting , even if you use a boquet of flowers as your subject. Allow your inner realities to affect the process.

Thanks color but I was trying flowers and it turns out to be nothing. Just color. Pretty colors but not what I had in mind or what I drew on paper.

Sounds like a great start Joanne. If you feel a struggle, that is GOOD! Push your your colors beyond "pretty"; and there are choices here, so I can't really say more.