Research on Synesthesia

Reviewing sources:

So, for my final project I have several research tasks that must be completed. This week, I spent time reviewing tow books that have helped me ground my project conceptually. Over the next few weeks, I will dive into purely academic papers; however, I thought that it would be good to give my readers a clue as to where I am coming from.

Music Video and Synesthesia:

Synesthesia is my main research topic, and to gain a sufficient basis conceptually I am revisiting Dr. Kevin Williams "Why I [Still] Want My MTV", which delves into the topics of music video and Aesthetic Communication. Williams does a good job of covering the theoretical basis of synesthesia as a phenomena in its entirety.

When I have read Williams' book before, I marked pages pertaining to synesthesia to aid me in putting my current project together. While the text is primarily about Music Video, Williams is thorough in his examination of communication theory; especially as pertains to synesthesia. It fits into my project well, since I intend to produce a film that communicates on more than just the visual level. For a review of some of the concepts Williams deals with in his book check out this post.

Music and Synesthesia:

Over the summer I started reading Oliver Sack's "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain". If you've read (or seen the movie) Awakenings, you are familiar with how Sacks approaches his topics with a combination of research and narrative.

Sacks work was important to my project because He is a very thorough researcher, and like Williams, includes footnotes citing all his sources and explaining concepts in greater detail. Sack's book deals with the phenomena of music and why we react so strongly to it.

Throughout his medical career, Sacks encountered people who had lost their hearing or had suffered brain damage. In many of these cases, people developed strange reactions to music; everything from hearing music all the time, to having a completely changed way of experiencing music after their accident.

Sacks work ties into my research because he identifies cases of synesthesia explaining several of the causes. He also treats synesthesia as a topic of interest instead of an abnormality to be dismissed; which is critical to developing an understanding of synesthesia.

For a primer on Synesthesia, check out this post.