Synesthesia and Cymatics

Currently I am working on a project to convey the elements; fire, water, earth and air through abstract shapes and colors. This process involves placing textured objects and previously developed film stock on unexposed film stock in a dark room. Then the film is exposed by flashing a light and the textures begin to appear on the film stock after it has been dipped into a developer. Next the film is rinsed in two consecutive tubs of water to before dipping it in the fix (which sets the images on the film stock and makes it safe to view in regular light). Meanwhile, my partner manipulated his film stock by painting with ink, oil and of course paint, to give the film strip the textures of the ddd and flow of water. When we are finished our piece will have a rhythmic quality that portrays elements in not only color but texture and movement as well.
Synethesia is a condition where an individual's sensory experience is mixed with unique results. This happens in many ways. For example; numbers or letters can be perceived to have a color. Essentially, synethesia can occur when any sensory experiences are mixed, sounds can trigger tactile experiences or emotional experiences while numbers can appear to have spatial positions. It is believed that synethesia occurs when neural pathways are less inhabited and different sensory processing systems over-share information.
This film project of directly manipulating film stock to create a variety of rhythms, colors and textures is meant to evoke a concept for the viewer. In this case the concept is an element. To do this, it is important to use of these principals of sensory intertextuality.
Cymatics takes this concept a bit further and makes use of this principal of sensory interaction by capturing the pattern that sound waves produce. This emerging technology offers hope that people who are deaf will be able to enjoy visual music. This is a similar concept to the one displayed in the previously discussed film where synethesia is clearly employed artistically to turn an auditory experience into a visual experience. Generally cymatics involve a thin plate or membrane that vibrates with sound to shake loose particles or liquid into patterns or shapes the correspond to the sound pattern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJAgrUBF4w