Olivier Messiaen: Synaesthesia - Music and Colours

Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)



Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, widely regarded as a major composer of the 20th century.

Messiaen was gifted with Synaesthesia, whereby he perceived colours when he heard sounds and musical chords. He cited the importance and relevance of using these colour combinations in his compositional process.

His music is rhythmically complex (he was interested in rhythms from ancient Greek and from Hindu sources); harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations.

Many of his compositions depict what he termed "the marvellous aspects of the faith", and drew on his deeply held Roman Catholicism.

Messiaen was deemed as 'a bit eccentric' and he had a particular fascination for birdsongs; he believed birds to be the greatest musicians and considered himself as much an ornithologist as a composer.

He notated bird songs worldwide and incorporated birdsong transcriptions into most of his music.

His innovative use of colour, his conception of the relationship between time and music, his use of birdsong and his desire to express religious ideas are among features that make Messiaen's music distinctive.

Little Bird was originally written in French and translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books.

Korean designer Young-jun Kim created this charming animation based on the book.

The entire story unfolds with few words and primary colors, but mesmerizes with its evocative honesty and gentle sophistication, inviting readers of all ages to look again and again as we rediscover our inner child’s gift for finding infinite beauty and curiosity in the little things.

A lovely quote from an e. e. cummings poem graces the first page:

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living

Synesthesia: Laughter on the Canvas

Laughter is an uncontrollable emotion that brings joy. It's not, however, something you'd normally see depicted graphically in a painting.

Sonja Landis, 35, is a Carlsbad artist who brings laughter to life with the stroke of a paintbrush and some help from sound engineers.

Sonja Landis started The Painted Laugh about three years ago, when she heard her son laugh and saw colourful sound waves swirling around him.

She has a documented but not widely understood condition called Synesthesia. It's a neurological condition where two senses involuntarily cross. Her type allows her to see sound in the air.

When Landis first painted the sound waves of laughter, she did it for herself and hung a piece above her mantel.

Once people saw the painting, everyone wanted one. It eventually evolved into a business and she has been distributing them all over the country ever since, and plans on selling internationally.

After the paintings became popular, she decided to add actual sound. This way, parents and grandparents could hear their children's laughter whenever they wanted.

A button is placed behind the canvas of her paintings. Push it and it plays a recording of your child's laugh.

"There is a universal truth to laughter that doesn't need an explanation between cultures and between languages," Landis says. "And that's what I love about this the most."

Landis has partnered with Crayola, and has experimented with laughter therapy for children's hospitals.

Click here to watch a YouTube video made by The Painted laugh 

Sonja Landis also has a project running that is trying to create or develop a Painted Laugh APP for Smartphones and iPad devices.

The video below outlines her thinking on this.

The Black Book of Colours - The Partly Sighted Companion

Today must be the day for tickling the outer limits of our senses. From the synesthetic explorations of sound through colour earlier today, we take the creative mind-bending a step further: Experiencing colour through the lack of colour.  

The Black Book of Colours, from author Menena Cottin and illustrator Rosana Faria, is a remarkable book of simple, elegant illustrations of natural objects, from strawberries to rain to bird feathers, depicted not through colour and shading but through embossed lines, inviting the viewer to experience them tactilely rather than visually.







The book is designed as an empathy tool that allows a sighted person to step inside the world of the blind, who experience the world through their fingers rather than their eyes.



Though intended for children, The Black Book of Colours is an absolute treat for adults, not merely as a feat of aesthetic elegance, but also as a beautiful philosophical metaphor for all those things in our lives that both are and aren’t, like the nature of reality or solitude or some great love we can touch with the tender tips of our fingers but never fully grasp.