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OCAD University and the University of Toronto are hosting several free public events in conjunction with the American Synesthesia Association’s upcoming conference in Toronto on May 31 – June 2, 2013 in Toronto.
Friday Evening, May 31, 2013
When Sound Meets Colour
7:30 – 10:00 PM
Free Public EventUniversity of Toronto
Walter Hall
80 Queen’s Park Crescent
Toronto, Canada
7:30 – 8:15 PM
Samantha Moore, University of Loughborough, UK Some Sort of Coloured Quilt: Collaborative Animated Responses to Synaesthesia
Samantha Moore, an award winning British animated documentary maker, will speak about her film, An Eyeful of Sound, an animated short that visually renders the perceptions of audio-visual synaesthetes. Samantha received a Wellcome Trust grant which funded her short animated documentary film, An Eyeful of Sound (2010). The film was made in collaboration with Dr Jamie Ward (reader in psychology at the University of Sussex, UK) and three people with synaesthesia was the winner of the Nature Award for Scientific Merit, Imagine Film Festival (USA) 2010, amongst other awards from film festivals internationally. Samantha is currently developing her research as she completes her PhD through practice at the University of Loughborough, and working on a new piece entitled Out of Sight, an animated documentary and representation of interior brain states; she is working with people with prosopagnosia (face blindness) and phantom limb syndrome.
8:15 – 8:45 PM
Edward M. Hubbard, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, WIOverview of the Invitational Music Visualization Workshop
Edward Hubbard, Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will describe and present the initial outcomes and sample visualizations from the Music Visualization Workshop, held earlier in the day.
9:00 – 10:00 PM
The Gryphon Trio, University of Toronto Musical Performance
The Gryphon Trio will perform select excerpts of music by synesthete composers that they performed earlier in the day, at the Music Visualization Workshop. The music was performed live for a group of synesthetes and non-synesthetes who were asked to create on paper, or on an iPad, what they saw when they listened to the live music.
Saturday Evening, June 1, 2013
Sense Connections
An evening inspired by the synesthetic experience7:30 – 10:00 PM
Free Public EventOCAD University
Main Auditorium
100 McCaul Street
Toronto, Canada
7:30 – 8:30 PM
John M. Kennedy, University of TorontoDrawing without Vision
How can a blind person draw the world? EW is a blind woman who draws pictures. She has been totally blind since infancy. In an artist statement for an exhibition in Kelowna, 2013, she writes that she is attempting to re-create on paper what she experiences with her non-visual senses. Her targets include tastes, smells, touch, the flow of time, temperature and space. In addition, she tries to capture emotions, atmosphere, feelings, fantasies, ideas, even her own imagination of colours and light. She often combines several of these distinct elements. I will discuss the relation of EW’s goals to synesthesia.
John Kennedy is a University Professor (distinguished rank), and Emeritus, at the Department of Psychology, University of Toronto. His research is in the psychology of perception and cognition with special reference to representation by pictures. He developed a new analysis of figure and ground as one of a set of foreground and background percepts, described as apparent surface borders. ‘I described the complete set of possibilities for surface borders. I then hypothesized which of these were relevant to touch as well as vision. The developmental hypothesis has been supported. Indeed, my most recent papers, in press, support the idea that the highest levels of development possible in drawing in perspective are reached by the blind, as they are by the sighted. This line of investigation was described by the NY Times as one of the ’ideas that change the way we think’ and by The Times as one of the top ten ideas of the year. Associated Press wrote in 2006 my work was seminal and influences the development of new programs in museums and galleries around the world.
8:45 – 10:00 PM
Christos Hatzis, Toronto, Canada Bruno Degazio, Sheridan College,Canada Harmonia Concept by Christos Hatzis Realization by Bruno Degazio
Christos Hatzis, Professor of Composition at the University of Toronto, is widely recognized as one of the most important composers writing today. A Juno award winner, twice, his works have been commissioned and performed by numerous notable musicians and orchestras worldwide.
Bruno Degazio, Professor of Digital Tools in the BA Classical Animation program of Sheridan College, Canada, is a film sound designer, composer, researcher and educator. His many concert works for traditional and electronic media have been performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia. His film work includes the special-effects sound design for the Oscar-nominated documentary film, The Fires of Kuwait and music for the all-digital, six-channel sound tracks of the IMAX films Titanica, Flight of the Aquanaut and CyberWorld 3D as well as many other IMAX films, feature films, and television dramas.
10:00 PM
Greg Jarvis and his band,
Flowers of HellEl Mocambo 464 Spadina Avenue, upstairs
Past News
Article
There is an article by David Brang and V.S. Ramachandran, "Survival of the Synesthesia Gene: Why Do People Hear Colors and Taste Words?"
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001205
Other Synesthesia Conferences
The Fourth International Congress of Synesthesia, Science and Art
IV Congreso Internacional de Sinestesia Ciencia y Arte 2012
was held in Almeria, Spain on
February 16 – 19, 2012
http://www.sinestesia2012.info/index.php?lang=en
UK Synaesthesia Association Conference
Merton College, Oxford
April 14th and 15th 2012
United Kingdom Synaesthesia Association
The members of the UKSA committee are pleased to announce that the 2012 UK Synaesthesia Association annual conference was hosted by Roi Cohen Kadosh, Devin Terhune and Jackie Thompson at Merton College, Oxford over the weekend of 14th & 15th April, 2012.
The Keynote Speakerwas Professor Colin Blakemore, Ph.D., FRS, FMedSci, HonFSR, a leading British scientist and science communicator to the public. Known for his immense contribution on vision and early development of the brain, Professor Blakemore is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
http://www.uksynaesthesia.com/2012OXFORD.html
Books
MacMillan Publishers has put out a downloadable electronic kindle edition of Patricia Lynne Duffy's book, Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens.
It is now available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Cats-Chartreuse-Kittens-ebook/dp/B005CW6P32/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323090875&sr=1-1
Patricia Albers has written a new book entitled, Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter: A Life. 544 pages. This is the first full-scale biography of the painter Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), a synesthete who had colored letters, colored sound, personality-color synesthesia, and emotionally mediated synesthesia.
Her book can be found on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Lady+Painter&x=0&y=0
Tasting the Universe, by Maureen Seaberg is in stores now.
http://www.amazon.com/Tasting-Universe-People-Rainbows-Symphonies/dp/1601631596/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289201576&sr=8-1
The New York University Consciousness Project held a workshop on "The Phenomenology of Synesthesia" on Saturday November 20, 2010.
Hosted by Dave Chalmers
Synesthesia is the syndrome in which a stimulus in one sensory modality reliably yields an experience associated with a different sensory modality. The focus of the workshop will be the question "What is it like to be a synesthete?". There will be talks and discussion from philosophers, psychologists, and synesthetes.
All are welcome.
WORKSHOP: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF SYNESTHESIA
Saturday, November 20, 2010
New York University Philosophy Building
5 Washington Place
1st Floor Lecture Theatre
9:30- 10:00 AM
Coffee
10:00 - 11:00 AM
Carol Steen (Artist, Synesthete, Co-Founder American Synesthesia Association) "Do you see what I see?"
11:15 - 12:15 PM
Lawrence E. Marks (Yale University, Psychology) "Three (scientific) questions about synesthesia".
12:15 - 2:00 PM
Lunch
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Berit Brogaard (University of Missouri, Philosophy) "Does color synesthesia differ phenomenally from visual imagery?"
3:15 - 5:00 PM
Panel Discussion (led by Jon Simon, Philosophy, NYU) Panel: Berit Brogaard, Patricia Lynn Duffy, Lawrence Marks, Maureen Seaberg, Carol Steen
Synesthesia: Art and the Mind
McMaster Museum of Art
September 18 – December 20, 2008
This exhibition featuring the art of known synesthetes, David Hockney, Joan
Mitchell, Marcia Smilack, and Carol Steen, and works by artists thought to
be synesthetic including Charles Burchfield, Tom Thomson, Wassily Kandinsky,
and Vincent van Gogh, was co-curated by Carol Steen, artist, New York City;
and Greta Berman, Professor of Art History, The Juilliard School, New York
City. This show was made possible by Carol Podedworny, director, McMaster
Museum of Art, and Dr. Daphne Maurer of the Department of Psychology,
Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University.The exhibition catalog, Synesthesia: Art and the Mind can be ordered from ABC Art Book Canada. $20.00, 62 pages, 11 color reproductions.
http://www.abcartbookscanada.com/mcmaster.html
Amy Ione and Ellen Levy have written reviews for Leonardo, The MIT Press, about the Synesthesia: Art and the Mind exhibition held at the McMaster Museum of Art, and the Invitational Workshop held on September 25, 2008 in conjunction with the show. The workshop participants included artists, art historians, art professors, scientists, and synesthetes.
Amy Ione's reviews of Synesthesia: Art and the Mind at the McMaster Museum of Art can be found at:
http://leonardo.info/reviews/nov2008/ione_exhibition.html
Synesthesia: Art and the Mind, exhibition at McMaster Museum of Art.
Carol Steen images courtesy Carol Steen, © 2008, shown with permission. van Gogh image, courtesy McMaster Museum © 2008, shown with permission. Charles Burchfield images from the Estate of Charles Burchfield courtesy D.C. Moore Gallery, NYC, © 2008, shown with permission. Photo credit Jennifer Pettiplace.
Invitational Workshop Panel for the Synesthesia: Art and the Mind exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art. From left: Greta Berman, co-curator; Carol Steen, co-curator; Daphne Maurer, Conference Host; Carol Podedworny, director McMaster Museum.
Additional panelists included Patricia Albers, Independent Art Historian, Writer, Mountain View, California; Therese Dolan, Interim Dean and Professor of Art History, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA; Sophia Oftedahl, Independent Art Historian and Curator, Oslo, Norway; and Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo State College, New York. Sophia Oftedahl, Independent Art Historian and Curator, Oslo, Norway. Patricia Albers, Independent Art Historian, Writer, Mountain View, California.
Hockney images courtesy David Hockney: The Garden from L'Enfant et les Sortileges, 1980; Act II, Scene VIIA, Trial by Fire from Magic Flute, 1977; Act II, Scene III; A Moonlit Garden, from Magic Flute, 1977; © 2008 David Hockney, shown with permission. Kandinsky image, courtesy McMaster Museum © 2008, shown with permission. Photo credit Carter Jones.
Ellen Levy's commentary on the Invitational Workshop at the McMaster Museum of Art can be found at:
http://leonardo.info/reviews/nov2008/levy_invitational.html
Participants at the Synesthesia: Art and the Mind Invitational Workshop. Front row, Charles Maurer and David Shore
Invitational Workshop participants. From left, Patricia Albers, Greta Berman, Carol Steen, and Marcia Smilack.
McMaster Museum of Art
On February 2, 2008 PRI's Studio360 broadcast a radio program on synesthesia entitled, "Synesthesia for the Rest of Us". The program was hosted by Kurt Andersen and created by producer Michael May. V.S. Ramachandran, Richard Cytowic, Debra Ginsberg and Carol Steen were featured.
Synesthesia for the Rest of Us
Synesthesia causes people to hear music – or see letters or numbers – in color. Neuroscience is beginning to unravel what’s going on in the brains of people with this cerebral phenomenon, but hasn’t yet explained why the genetic mutation exists. V.S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at UC San Diego, has a theory, as he explains to producer Michael May.
Download MP3
Synesthesia Bringing Out the Contours
Features recent paintings by Carol Steen.The article, written by Frances McDonald, was first published in
Australian Art Review issue 11, July-October 2006.
Synesthesia Bringing Out the Contours pdf
http://www.artreview.com.au