Exposition

Are you colour deaf? (2024)

Phoebe Rousochatzaki
open exposition

About this exposition

Originating from antiquity, the idea of associating colour with music has been researched extensively in recent decades. The terms for this phenomenon include crossmodal correspondences and synaesthesia (or chromaesthesia), both of which refer to associations our brain makes from stimuli that it perceives through different senses. Correspondence between sound and music, and light and colour, has been a scholarly topic for years—mostly from a scientific point of view. This thesis aims to investigate different views on the subject, focusing on its artistic/aesthetic rather than neurobiological components. Music-colour correspondence was born from the need of philosophers to make sense of both music and the world. Linguistics has proven ambiguous when used to explain or make sense out of music, hence colour has been a very powerful replacement. It is possible to draw parallels between sound and light because of their similar ontological nature (vibration). The goal of this thesis is to prove that such an association can enhance a classical music performance for the audience (as related to engagement) and for the performer (as related to analysis, artistic input). As a case study, Olivier Messiaen’s Theme and Variations is analysed in this rather unconventional colour-coded way. Keywords: synaesthesia, chromaesthesia, crossmodal correspondences, Olivier Messiaen, colour and music.
typeresearch exposition
keywordssynaesthesia, chromaesthesia, crossmodal correspondences, Olivier Messiaen, colour and music, Colour, music
date19/10/2023
published02/09/2024
last modified02/09/2024
statuspublished
share statusprivate
copyrightPhoebe Rousochatzaki
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2345490/2590639
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/koncon.2345490
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue1. Master Research Projects


Simple Media

id name copyright license
2345525 newton_wheel Isaac Newton - Opticks, 4th ed., 1730. From Book I, Part II, Proposition VI, Problem 2. Public domain
2347990 colour circle Goethe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours#/media/File:Goethe,_Farbenkreis_zur_Symbolisierung_des_menschlichen_Geistes-_und_Seelenlebens,_1809.jpg Public domain
2352469 newton_manuscript_colour Isaac Newton, Cambridge University Library Public domain
2359547 Castel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bertrand_Castel#/media/File:A_caricature_of_Louis-Bertrand_Castel's_%22ocular_organ%22.jpg Public domain
2367912 Booba-Kiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect#/media/File:Booba-Kiki.svg CC BY-NC-SA
2369173 Ward et all 2016 The relationship between pitch and lightness for synaesthetes and controls. Ward et all, Sound-colour synaesthesia: to what extent does it use cross-modal mechanisms common to us all? Cortex. 2006 Feb;42(2):264-80. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70352-6. PMID: 16683501, p.270 All rights reserved
2371409 David Ramsay Hay_1 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2395452 Aristotle https://www.colorsystem.com/?page_id=31&lang=en Public domain
2395572 kepler-harmun-planet-tunes https://www.openculture.com/2019/05/johannes-kepler-created-a-theory-that-each-planet-sings-a-song.html#google_vignette CC BY
2554306 table cc Coloured hearing, colour music, colour organs, and the search for perceptually meaningful correspondences between colour and sound. I-Perception, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695221092802, p.11 All rights reserved
2571758 goethe_background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours#/media/File:Goethe,_Farbenkreis_zur_Symbolisierung_des_menschlichen_Geistes-_und_Seelenlebens,_1809.jpg Public domain
2579136 sketch_newton Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford All rights reserved
2579268 kruger clavecin oculaire Courtesy Amsterdam University Library All rights reserved
2579560 guyot clavecin oculaire Courtesy of Utrecht University Library All rights reserved
2582841 David Ramsay Hay_1 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2583098 castel table Kenneth Peacock All rights reserved
2583201 stained glass https://www.musicandpractice.org/volume-2/visualizing-visions-the-significance-of-messiaens-colours/ CC BY-NC-ND
2583463 Mode 2.1 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2583892 mode 2.2 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2583893 mode 2.3 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2583894 mode 2.4 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2583898 mode 2 chords Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2583963 neapolitan sequence Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2584133 mode 3.1 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2584135 mode 3.2 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2584136 mode 3.3 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2584140 mode 3.4 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2584141 mode 3 chords Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2588553 theme et variations Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2588774 Mode 6 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2588775 Mode 7 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2588776 Mode 7_chords Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2588779 mode 7_transpositions Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2590484 hay_1.1 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590487 hay_1.2 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590490 hay_1.3 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590494 hay_2.1 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590505 hay_2.2 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590521 hay_2.3 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590530 hay_3.1 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590533 hay_3.2 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2590541 hay_3.3 David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2591754 music of the squares David Ramsay Hay All rights reserved
2591797 theme Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2591816 1st variation_1 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2591818 1st variation_2 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2594476 mode_2_visual Håkon Austbø All rights reserved
2594513 visualisation mode 3.3 Håkon Austbø All rights reserved
2597223 Korsakov vs Scriabin Spence, C., & Di Stefano, N. (2022). Coloured hearing, colour music, colour organs, and the search for perceptually meaningful correspondences between colour and sound. I-Perception, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695221092802, p.21 All rights reserved
2603358 Mode 2_1 Phoebe All rights reserved
2603372 cc_list Andrey Anikin, N. Johansson, "Implicit associations between individual properties of color and sound Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics" (2019) 81:764–77, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-018-01639-7, p.766 All rights reserved
2603482 Plamer_emotion Palmer SE, Schloss KB, Xu Z, Prado-León LR. Music-color associations are mediated by emotion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 28;110(22):8836-41. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1212562110. Epub 2013 May 13. PMID: 23671106; PMCID: PMC3670360, p.8838 All rights reserved
2606241 loksias_program Phoebe Rousochatzaki All rights reserved
2606255 Mode 2_2 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606280 Mode 2_3 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606292 Mode 3_1 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606297 Mode 3_2 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606302 Mode 3_3 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606312 Mode 3_4 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606321 Mode 6_1 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606325 Mode 6_2 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606330 Mode 6_3 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606349 Mode 6_4 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606371 Mode 6_5 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606379 Mode 6_6 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606401 Mode 7_1 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606408 Mode 7_2 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606413 Mode 7_3 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606417 Mode 7_4 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606421 Mode 7_5 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606426 Mode 7_6 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606717 IMG_2364 Loksias All rights reserved
2606774 loksias_program_2 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606795 loksias_program_2 Phoebe All rights reserved
2606809 colourful papers Phoebe All rights reserved
2606844 IMG_2332 Loksias All rights reserved
2606866 Loksias Phoebe Rousochatzaki All rights reserved
2608035 loksias_critique Loksias All rights reserved
2616063 IMG_0067 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2616079 IMG_0068 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616086 IMG_0069 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616093 IMG_0070 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616122 IMG_0071 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616130 IMG_0072 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616166 IMG_0073 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616170 IMG_0074 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616174 IMG_0075 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616176 IMG_0076 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616254 IMG_0077 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616265 IMG_0078 Oliver Messiaen All rights reserved
2616493 table_loksias Phoebe All rights reserved
2935268 messiaen 1 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2935276 messiaen 1.2 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2935278 messiaen 2 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2935280 messiaen 3 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2935282 messiaen 4 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved
2935284 messiaen 5 Olivier Messiaen All rights reserved

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