My
Synesthetic
Colors
Lexical-Numerical Rules
Lexical Rules
- Whether the letter is capital or lower-case makes no difference;
it appears the same color in either form.
- The colors of my letters are all solid, with the exception of
Q: It is metallic silver, and it has a sparkly, shimmering
quality to it.
- The initial letter of a word generally determines the color of the
whole word when I am reading quickly. Sometimes certain
letters or groups of letters blend together giving the word a
multi-hued appearance. For example, my name appears to
me as Jennifer
Maite
when
I read it in a document. Upon a slower examination of
any word, however, each letter will take on its own specific
color. I see my name as Jennifer
Maite
when I spell it letter by letter.
- Punctuation is always black. It has no
color to me.
Numerical Rules
- The colors of my digits are all solid, with the exception of
0: I see it as three-dimensional and clear. Like clear
plastic tubing formed into a circular shape.
- In multi-digit numbers, all digits retain their individual
colors. For example, 4217
has four colors, with no one color dominating the others.
-
The teens numbers (10 - 19) are the only numbers with
slightly different "rules". The 1 turns black and
blends with the color of the second digit, making the number
appear a shade darker than its corresponding ones digit. For
instance, the number 1 is individually
white, and the number 3 is individually
red. But 13 appears a dark "maroonish"
color because I now see the 1 as black,
and it blends with the red 3 to turn
it a darker red
or maroon. I've tried to illustrate the differences below, but
it is hard to discern on a computer monitor.
0
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9
10 11
12 13
14 15
16 17
18 19
Numerical Perceptions
Numbers take on different shapes and characteristics to
me, and I am assuming this is due to my synesthetic perceptions of
them. I will describe how I perceive some of them here:
First, I like odd numbers much more than even ones--I don't know
why. I love patterns and sequences that come in groups of
threes. I like inequality statements for this reason: all
numerical relationships can be classified in three ways: greater
than (>), equal to (=), or less than (<). I enjoy a
musical waltz because it is in 3/4 time and I find the pattern particularly pleasing.
Continuing In the realm of threes, cubic numbers (8, 27,
64, 125, etc) are my favorite numbers to encounter, with 27 being my
all-time favorite number. Twenty-seven is perceived as a
very strong number--it always evokes the image of a sturdy green-brown
oak tree with a hollow pyramid-shaped trunk. The number 64 looks
like a red hollow cube with yellow and blue splotches in it, and 125 is
an orange-green pentagonal shape.
I can define specific relationships between the color of
a number's digits and the shape and colors in which I perceive it.
For instance, 27 is green-brown (the same colors as the tree) and it is
3³ , which accounts for its triangular base. For the 64-cube, the
yellow-blue splotches are the same shade as the digits 6 and 4, and it
is a square base because 64 is 4³ and squares have four sides.
The pattern continues with 125: It is a white-green-orange number
and is 5³ , while pentagons have 5 sides. Given these definite
patterns, though, I think these shapes are something that the colors of
the digits "morphed" into subconsciously, rather than true
synesthetic perceptions of them. Nevertheless, they are the way
that I perceive these numbers, and while all numbers have traits that I like or
dislike, most of them are not as well-defined visually as cubics are to
me.
Read
more about my personal experiences with synesthesia.
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to the main page on synesthesia.
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