The Synesthetic
Mediator
Malin Zimm
Synesthesia (greek, syn- together and aisthesis-
perception) is a neurological condition of involuntary cross-modal association,
where a stimulation causes a perception in one or more different senses. It
denotes the rare capacity to hear colours, taste shapes, or see music. It is an
additive experience, where two or more senses are combined into a more complex sensation without losing their own identities.
Synesthetic architecture is about fusion, not only
in the sense of joining materials together to enclose space, but as a method of
joining ideas on all levels. My architectural proposal is an amplifier of
sensations, in some levels taken to the extreme, where maximum reverses to
minimum. The Synesthetic Mediator is a tool for inducing perceptual fusion,
merging senses and combining concepts to release the energy of alternative
perception. The structure will, by spatially causing a distortion of the
senses, invoke the synesthetic multimodal state in order to deepen the direct
experience into a meditative state of perception. The Synesthetic Mediator is a
visitor centre in the back of your mind.
Synesthesia, synesthetic, cross-modality,
architecture, neurology, mediating perception, fusion, sensory deprivation,
reconditioning, waves
altered states of perception
³I can reach my hand out and rub it along the back
side of a curve. I can't feel where the top and bottom end: so it's like a
column. It's cool to the touch, as if it were made of stone or glass. What is
so wonderful about it, though, is its absolute smoothness. Perfectly smooth. I
can't feel any pits or indentations in the surface, so it must not be made of
granite or stone. Therefore, it must be made of glass.²[i]
The neurological condition known as
synesthesia denotes involuntary physical experience in which the stimulation of
one sense modality causes an additional perception in a different sense or
senses. The above quote is a synesthete explaining his tactile experience of
the taste of mint. This additional perception is regarded by the synesthete as
a real and vivid experience, often outside the body, instead of imagined in the
minds¹ eye.
Synesthesia is "abnormal" only in being
statistically rare. An estimated 1 in 25000 people2 has, not necessarily suffers from,
synesthesia. It is in fact a normal brain process that is prematurely
displayed to consciousness in a minority of
individuals. Neurological research offers different
theories of synesthetic mediation although many aspects of the condition still
remain a medical mystery. Psychophysical experiments and measurements of
cerebral metabolism indicate that synesthesia is a left-hemisphere function,
relying on limbic brain elements more than cortex regions. The limbic
system shares structures and pathways for attention, memory, emotion, and
consciousness and is unique in its way to act on incomplete information. The
limbic system enhances cortical processes by determining the value of incoming
information before uploading it into consciousness as a perception.
Continuously creating order from the incoherent sensory stream, it has the rare
capacity of reducing entropy, due to the development of operating with optimal efficiency at the
least energy cost. Recent research has shown
that infants do not discriminate between sensory input and that synesthesia
could be a normal phase of the cognitive
development. This supports the theory that synesthesia is a normal brain
function in every one of us, but that its workings reach awareness in only a
handful of people as a conscious peak of a normally unconscious neural process.
In the dawn of humanity, we could have
perceived the world synesthetically, an ability that disappeared as the evolutionary trend was an increasing anatomical separation
of function. Synesthesia is a violation of conventional perception in a
world that has emphasised objectivity and rational behaviour.
inducing synesthesia
The site-bound physical space of the Mediator is just
like the human body: a container for individual experiences, a tool for
communication, interaction and transportation. The experience of the physical
space of the Mediator is secondary to this experience of the synesthetic
features of the brain. The aim of the proposal is to induce a synesthetic
experience in the visitors, by taking both architecture and function to the
limits of perception, to the critical point where synesthesia might occur in
³normal² brains. Synesthesia can be induced in various ways, of which most
include chemical interventions or surgery. How can we get the brain to produce synesthetic hallucinations as a normal response? Sensory
deprivation proves to be an efficient method: the
reaction of the neurological system in absence of any stimuli is to invent its
own. A brain deprived of external input starts to project an external reality. The
Mediator is a device for breaking down sensory preconceptions, resulting in a
zone of alteration and pulsation, misbehaving space ruled by confused time,
where the individual inner perspective is the only true vantage point of
perception.
the stigmatised site
The site for the project is located on the beach
outside Sellafield nuclear power station in Cumbria, on the north west coast of
England. The choice of site is partly motivated by the presence of waveforms ranging
from high-frequency radiation to slow ocean waves and the topography of the
dunes. Sellafield is Britain's largest nuclear power plant and the most
controversial industrial site in the country: originally constructed to develop
the atomic bomb, only later redefined to meet the increasing demand of
electricity for British industry and households. The industrial complex has
changed name three times during its operational historyfrom Windscale to
Calder Hall to Sellafield in an effort to erase the negative stigma of the
name after various nuclear incidents. The site illustrates the fundamental
questions of the project: fluctuating waveforms, energy and entropy, fusion and
fission, deconditioning and rebranding. Sellafield is associated with the destructive forces
of fission, the method that has been prevalent in most areas of research:
releasing potential information and energy by dividing and splitting, by
breaking entities down to parts. The Synesthetic Mediator attempts to
counterbalance the hazardous process of the nuclear power plant, operating by
the principles of fusion, focused on combining ideas rather than dissecting
them.
the Synesthetic Mediator
informotion
The common denominator of all sensory input is the
mode in which it travels. Displacement of information is a result of travelling
waves of energy. Sound, light, chemical and mechanical energy all translates
into auditory, visual, olfactory and tactile experiences respectively. Since
the brain is an electrochemical organ, the activity emanating from the
processing of incoming data can be displayed in the form of brainwaves of
different frequencies.
The observation of oscillations of matter has brought
science to wave mechanics and a scale almost beyond comprehension, and still,
nothing seems to come to a stop, everything is in motion. The architectural
approach is inspired by the dynamic qualities of waveforms and the consistency
by which all sensory perception is transferred. The building proposal is
derived through a digital synesthetic reading of the site. Processed through
synesthetic software, the recorded sound of the site, as well as the image of
the site, were translated into two waveforms. The first waveform was
accomplished by visualising captured sound from the site, using software called
SoundView. The second waveform was derived by processing visual data from the
site in MetaSynth, a software package that translates images into sound. The
third waveform is the natural topology of the dunes and the beach. The three
representational waveforms were finally extruded, scaled and intersected to
form the architectural layout for the Mediator.
dynamic points of convergence
The visitor will encounter a series of chambers,
located on three different levels, corresponding to the conceptual organisation
of the nervous system and the associative routes of synesthesia. The chambers
on the first level aim at breaking down sensory preconceptions by distorting
space and time. They also evoke an initial questioning of normal sensations and
the body¹s relation to physical space. The entrance hall is the first step in
the de-conditioning process. The Time delay chamber is blurring the boundaries of the interior and exterior space, where
the exact view of the site is continuously displayed on the opaque interior
walls with an eight hour delay. The illusion of displacement in time is
achieved by a 360-degree view camera and a realtime projection on the interior
walls, which function as a domed screen. At 4 pm, you take shelter from the
rain and enter the chamber where the walls display the view from 8 am and a man
is walking a dog on the beach in the dimmed morning sunshine. You follow the
pathway sloping further into the building, and enter the Lie detector, a conference room and an indicator for
the deceptiveness of the body. The conference table and the chairs are fitted
with sensors that detect skin resistance and microphones that pick up signals
for voice stress analysis. Indicators on the furniture allow the users to
identify physiological changes when a subject is knowingly engaged in
deception.
the Ray forest chamber the Lie
detector
As you proceed further inside, you will be mentally
prepared for the intermediate level chambers, spaces that require interaction.
You pass by the Whispering gallery and listen to the wall of memories,
random recordings of previous visitors, and your comments are captured for
other visitors to hear. The Ray forest chamber down the path takes your picture
and displays it on the floor as rays of coloured light. The rays work as a
giant theremin, electromagnetic amplifiers translate the vision into sound so
that each ray triggers a tone as you move, creating music from the image of
yourself.
Getting ready for the sensory process to
be bared to consciousness, you pursue to the chambers on the deepest level, extreme spatial
conditions that will constitute the final immersion into alternative
perception, and release the full potential of the mind. The Anechoic chamber is an echo-free enclosure with a near total sound absorption
level, achieved by area maximisation.
Fibreglass sound absorbing wedges cover all six sides, also blurring the
visual boundaries of the chamber, adding to the experience of the diminished
sound levels that enables you to hear your own heartbeat and breathing. The
brain compensates the loss of auditive input by heightened attention to all
other senses, and hallucinations can occur after only a short while. The
Floating crypt is located in the depth of the Mediator, featuring isotanks filled with
body-tempered salt water. Sensory deprivation is synonymous with conditions of
darkness, silence and a lack of a sensation of gravity. The float tank works
like a de-conditioning tool, separating the body from all external stimuli and normal perceptional relations
with the world. Ninety per cent of all the activity affecting our central
nervous system is related to gravity. The lack of sensation of gravity
therefore decreases sensitivity to and awareness of the external and internal
reality. In floating condition the left hemisphere
facilities of the brain are suspended and the right hemisphere ascends in
dominance. This makes the iso-tank the most reliable mediator for inducing
synesthesia, within controllable means.
the Floating crypt
The
self-conscious system
A spatially induced
synesthetic experience is a preview of a future that undoubtedly will make use
of new technology in media, games and interfaces to simulate and stimulate all senses to a higher degree. The
Synesthetic Mediator illustrates the state of creative confusion that we are
most often protected from. What we could be looking into is the immersion of
the body into the digital realm and the introduction of a broadband of
misbehaving senses: a perception process allowing us to experience sensory
effects beyond the normal. The translation of biological impulses into
computational commands by use of neural signals is part of the technical
process that will lead to digital synesthesia.
Sensory input is processed in the unconscious
levels of the mind before it reaches the higher cognitive levels in form of
perception. Since language is a function of the ³higher², more abstract parts
of the brain, the senses can not be described without the use of metaphors. The
Glass Bead Game, described in the novel Magister Ludi by Herman Hesse in 1943, is a semantic
mediation tool where metaphors are put into a system of rules where they reach
beyond their initial linguistic function and turn into new constellations. The
analogy of the Glass Bead Game is consistent with this project as an attempt to
illustrate the maximum integration of the individual into a realm ruled by the
understanding of links between ideas. The meditative discipline of the game
takes place in a future where the players reconfigure the total contents and
values of all cultures so as to devise surprising configurations that convey
new insights. The circle is beginning to close between the Glass Bead Game and
the media that, although unmentioned by Hesse, to this date has ineffably
accomplished the ideas in the novel- the internet and the notion of hypertext.
The introduction of a parallel virtual realm marks the transitional state from
one way of thinking into another. The present society is the evolutional
stepping stone that Hesse refers to as "the Age of the
Feuilleton", a
medial climate characterised by fragmented information. Hesse does not describe
the game in detail but focus on the revolutionary power of this new model of
the mind, something that appeals to a growing web community of Glass Bead Game
developers and players. Hesse tells us that the game soon developed to a high
degree of flexibility and capacity for sublimation, and began to acquire
something approaching a consciousness of itself and its possibilities. All
different disciplines began to measure linguistic configurations: " ...
the visual arts soon followed, architecture having already led the way in
establishing the links between visual art and mathematics."
The Synesthetic Mediator provides a forum
within which the principles of the Glass Bead
Game can metamorphose into physical models. In a space where normal perception
is challenged, the capacity to adapt, even if it means to engage in a process
of unlearning, will be crucial. Architecture is the platform for multidimensional mediation and bi-sociation, linking conceptual frameworks that appear to
have nothing in common. The neurological alchemist is a seer of patterns
and maker of connections.
³What are you waiting for? Let¹s
perform. Let¹s open those neural floodgates.²
Videodrome
References:
Baron-Cohen, Simon & Harrison, John
1997. Synesthesia: Classic and Contemporary Readings.
Oxford: Blackwell
Cronenburg, D. 1982. Videodrome
Cytowic, R.E. 1993. The Man who Tasted
Shapes. Cambridge: MIT Press
Cytowic, R.E. 1989. Synesthesia: A Union
of the Senses. NewYork: Springer Verlag.
Hesse, H. 1943. Magister Ludi- The Glass Bead Game
(orig. title Das Glasperlenspiel)
New York: Henry Holt & Co
www.microweb.com/ronpell/MusicVisualizers.html
www.uisoftware.com/PAGES_COM/ms_presentation.
html (MetaSynth)
www.SwRI.edu/soundview.html