We tend to assume that others experience the world in the same way that we do and it can sometimes be a bit of a shock when we realise that their world is different.
There's some fascinating research being done at Sussex University by Jamie Wild into synaesthesia. This is the 'condition' where people experience the ordinary world in extraordinary ways.
They can see numbers in colour, words can have tastes, sounds can have colours too, as well as days of the week. For example, the sound of a violin may be blue. The sound is both heard and seen, but the colour doesn't replace the sound, it exists alongside it, so is considered as an extra sensation.
And of course, if you've been born with synaesthesia, you have no idea that others don't taste bacon at the sight of a five pound note.
I can still vividly remember having my first eye test when I was about 7 years old. No one had ever told me you were supposed to be able to read the blackboard, I thought everyone
copied from the person sitting next to them. And when I still couldn't read the chart the assumption was that I didn't know my alphabet and so they gave me pictures of animals to identify instead. Doh!
James tells a lovely story about a woman who had no idea that her way of experiencing the world was fundamentally different from the people around her. She didn't 'discover' her synaesthesia until her early twenties when she made a comment to her parents about a number. They were disputing a number she had given them and she said, by way of proof, that it couldn't have been 70 and had to be 40 because it was a red number with a warm feel and it was only half way up the line to 100. 'it is extremely strange when the two people who know you better than anyone else regard you as though you were a complete alien!'
Often people will name their children to fit their synaesthesia and choose their partners on the same basis. A new mother was thinking about her son's name which is red and yellow like hers. Her husband's name is yellow. When choosing a name for her son, she knew she couldn't have a blue or a purple name – 'it would feel like having a stranger in the family'.
We assume that others see things and experience the world in the same way as us. I love sitting in my garden and looking at the colours in it. The man who designed it seemed to effortlessly tap in to exactly to what I wanted. But I sometimes wonder how any of us ever manage to communicate with each other at all!
Have you ever found that? When you're working with someone and you thought you were both talking about the same thing (mission statement, objective etc) and then you realise that although you're using the same words, in the same language, they mean and see things in a completely different way? I'd love to know if you have!
Great post on colour appreciation. Each human has a unique red green blue cone receptor mix, so a unique view of the world. A congential colour defect exists in some, red/ green being the most common
Did you know?
some dogs can not see Colour, they see black and white. Im so glad i can see colours.
Posted by: eyetest | November 19, 2009 at 10:00 PM