Needless to say I realised I have absolutely no synaesthetic ability whatsoever. Although the music did evoke some feeling in me, I can't say there was anything remotely visual that came to mind. Faced with a crayon in my hand and a piece of paper that needed to be drawn on, the only thing I could produce was something that looked like a waveform. When the music was fast and erratic, my drawing tended to have more peaks and became smoother when the tempo was reduced.

Sound is typically visualised as a waveform.

A discussion at the end of the event brought up the fact that we are used to having music represented as a waveform since it's what we see on our stereos and it's how music is typically represented visually. There is no way of knowing how people may have drawn music before science discovered that there is a wave nature to sound. Also, the question was posed as to whether or not the visualisations of synaesthetes are influenced by culture. All the synaesthetes' visualisations looked like some type of abstract art - but would a synaesthete not familiar with abstract art still see something similar?

A link between creativity and synaesthesia is also suspected - although it is hard to know if synaesthates are predisposed to being creative or if it's their synaesthetic experiences that inspire them to pursue art. Artist Lynette Kay who attended the event is just one example of a synaesthete who listens to music and paints what she sees. She selects a piece of music (usually not something classical) goes into her studio, and creates a representation of the colours and shapes, at different spatial depths, that emerge with time.

According to Kay, it's a wonderful experience that never gets annoying. I can't imagine what it would be like to see images everytime I hear a sound - but perhaps it would be like constantly watching tv. I would definitely have to get good at multitasking.

For more info:

University College London - Syneasthesia Research
http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/jamie.ward/synaesthesia.htm

Sounding Art - Jane Mackay, Artist
http://www.soundingart.com/