Kandinsky and his artful world

Wassily Kandinsky! Did it ring a bell? Since my recent posts have been about synesthesia, I am going to share one of the expressionist artist who is also diagnosed by this disease. But he had make full use of this disease to be successful in the art industry! Kandinsky in whom musical tones elicited specific colours, was a tone-colour synaesthete. He used his synesthesia to inform the artistic process by capturing the visual equivalent of a symphony on canvas.

He was the father of abstraction. When he was younger, he said he had heard peculiar hissing sound when mixing different coloured paints in his childhood paintbox. He achieved pure abstraction by replacing the castles and hilltops towers of his early landscapes with stabs of paint or, as he saw them, musical notes and chords that would visually "sing" together. Isn't it amazing!!!! Lets look at a few more of his works.

  

Understanding synesthesia

Lets go deeper into synesthesia! I think people with synesthesia are unique as they have extra sense, unlike the rest of us. Colours usually paint a better picture of things and its good to add colours to our dull life! Hey, me too, I would want to read newspapers (which is usually grey and dull) in colours! Being a lazy reader I am.. hahaha. However did you know that synesthesia people do have their disadvantage? 

It is such a pity that most of them are actually bad at maths! They find it extra challenging to add numbers which are, to them, mean, to nice numbers which caused a certain level of anxiety. Synesthesia patients do not want to expose nice numbers with mean numbers, in any way. 

Personal bias is another disadvantage. Graphem synesthesia patient find certain numbers/letters to be pretty or soothing while the rest being ugly. Some of them have Ordinal Linguistic Personification (OLP) synesthesia, this extends to the personality of letters! 'A' might be friendly and 'D' might be sullen and rude. They make their preference accordingly. It is sometimes challenging for them. When meeting new people, person with sound-colour synesthesia may be naturally drawn to someone with pretty voice and avoid those with sharp and glaring voice. WAIT!!!!!! They are not judging anyone or being bias towards the people around them as they can only limit who they make social interaction with due to their disease.

Synesthesia meaning

It is a condition in which the stimulation of one sense automatically evokes perceptions in an unstimulated sense. Example? The sound of the bell trigger seeing the colour blue! 

When you eat a chicken, does it feel pointy and round? Do you get confused about appointments because Tuesday and Thursday have the same colour? When you read a newspaper or listen to someone talking, do you see a rainbow of colours? IN THAT CASE, YOU HAVE SYNESTHESIA! 

One theory suggests children learn to associate numbers or letters with colours, possibly to aid memory. Most common form of synesthesia involve written words, letters, digits and/or auditory stimuli! They find it hard to account they're experience being diagnosed with it. 

Usually, 3 is pink (sometimes yellow/pink/red) and truck is always blue. This disease is harmless and is rare to occur. How rare? One in 200 people. They have good memory for phone numbers and security codes due to colour.

Here's their chart!

Another example:

Death

Truck

Forced connection #7

When a phone rings, what do you do? You pick it up, yes. Unless the caller is annoying you. Hahaha. When its ringing, isn't there a forced connection to the people present? They are FORCED to pick up the call. There is a strong connection between ringing and the people. So basically I discovered this few days back when my house phone was ringing. I forced myself to pick it up cause I was kind of lazy. Then, I realise the ringing sounds actually alert us to pick it up, causing forced connection!

Forced connection #6

I was trying very hard to find forced connection. Then I came to realize some things around us are an example of forced connection. Like, magnetic doors. When you close the door, there is this forced magnetic kind of thing pulling the door to close it. You just had to trigger the door by pushing when you're opening and the door will do its job by closing it for you. When its closed, you can't open it just like that. You have to press this switch on the wall next to the door and then you can open it. There is certainly a forced connection! First, between the door and the wall. Second, between you and the door. 

Forced connection #5

Recently we did 3d in class and yes I CAN RELATE TO IT WELL! 3D drawing actually has a strong forced connection between the viewer and the artwork itself. If the artwork was from a well-known artist and people usually know the common meaning behind his artwork, then its possible that the artwork & artist himself evoked a forced connection with the viewer! The viewer will get engaged to the artwork and start questioning the skills, the meaning and such. Also, they will start to see the drawing at many different angles. I mean, come on, who doesn't fantasize 3D drawings! Lets have a look at some 3D drawings. 

See, didn't I tell you so? There is this feeling of staying connected to the drawing for a while. Your eyes are fixated to the object isn't it? Well yeah. That's a forced connection. 

Forced connection #4

Have you ever been in the Art Science museum? The architecture in Singapore are all brilliant. I mean, just look at Esplanade and Marina Bay Sands! Anyway, I have been to Art Science museum for the titanic exhibition last year, for the Harry Potter exhibition, the Lego and Andy Warhol exhibition. I was really amazed and stunned because..........the museum is design in a shape of a hand? And how is it that, when we are inside the museum, it seemed like we are walking fine on a flat piece of land? And we don't have to travel according to the shape of the museum! I really think its an amazing work of art. Art is everywhere and I believe whenever something is strange or creative, that definitely is an artwork. So, this is a forced connection! I really love the shape of the museum and how we are perfectly walking fine inside.