Synesthesia

[mallorys_camera]

I was out and in the garden at the unconscionable hour of 7am this morning, uncaffeinated and barely awake.

It was an hour and a half later, and solidly into heat stroke territory, by the time I finished weeding and watering chores, but I tromped anyway because I want to make an iMovie about Crum Elbow and the rose garden, and I needed to collect photos and videos.

Here’s the iMovie I made yesterday:

Watch on YouTube

Yeah, yeah. It is a bit schmaltzy. But not bad considering that it’s only the second time I’ve screwed around with iMovie.

I didn’t use Apple’s soundtrack library; instead, I spliced in a Spanish guitar melody I liked. Tiny bit of a learning curve! The music truncates a bit abruptly at the end. That’s because the piece goes on for four additional minutes. Obviously, there are all sorts of sound engineering tricks I’m gonna have to teach myself. Also the music kinda fades in and out, and I’m gonna have to figure out how to keep grasshoppers in the center of the frame—I actually can’t see them if I bring the camera up close.

Today, I finally figured out how to use the zoom feature that’s incorporated into the iPhone’s video mode. Baby steps!

But like I say, not bad for a second attempt.

Making these little movies is a great deal of fun, and I’ve already begun writing my Cannes Palme d'Or acceptance speech.

###

Nothing else happened yesterday except that I finished a mind-bogglingly bor-r-r-ring client assignment and almost finished rereading Broken Monsters.

Lauren Beukes is a terrifically accomplished writer. In particular, she has a way with figurative language: “the roulette of human connection;” “trust is a luxury item, like designer shoes and fancy coffee;” “she remembers being full of rage so clear and hot, it was like the light blowing out on an old film camera.”

I once read a book by a neurobiologist who posited that the realm of connotation—metaphors, similes and the like—was invented by synesthetes.

Makes sense since synesthesia is thought to be caused by abnormal wiring of the neurons in the hippocampus, which is also the part of the brain that fires up in MRI scans when people use metaphors.

Thus, when the ancient bard gazed upon the waters of the Mediterranean, “wine-dark” wasn’t a term he conjured for imaginative effect but literally what he saw: When he looked at water, he tasted wine.

I’ve always loved that theory!

Comments

[moondance66]

I have synesthesia - I see smells. Unfortunately mostly unpleasant ones, and mostly in people. Luckily it doesn't happen with random people in crowds, but when I'm directly looking at someone for a while, they often start to smell - bad. It has absolutely zero relation to how well-groomed they are or how they are dressed. It's like my brain sees their body odor or bad breath or sweaty, sour smell, or their too heavy cologne - or all of it. It happens on trains a lot because you spend a lot of time looking at (not trying to look at) the same people.
When I was on dating wesites, most men who sent me photos, smelled really really bad to me.

The only objects that smell bad to me, are buttons. There is nothing in every day life that smells as horrible as buttons. I got over it enough to live with it (though mostly through avoidance!) and by now I can tolerate (and even like) men in suits, but it took decades.

I'd rather have a form of synesthesia that makes you see colours. Seems much more fun and useful.

This is a very happy and summery movie!

[mallorys_camera]

Everything has a gender to me, and it's not always the Latin or romance language gender. But I don't think that's synesthesia! 😀 Yah, I think you're right: It would be much more fun to hear colors (which is what I think you intended to write. 😀 )

Movie¬

[smokingboot]

Not so much shmaltzy as cute without being twee. That Spanish guitar music is just right!

Re: Movie¬

[mallorys_camera]

The Spanish guitar music is actually the vid's greatest accomplishment because I had to import it in from another source, synchronize it and truncate it at the appropriate point. 😀