Aportaciones teóricas y prácticas sobre la sinestesia y las percepciones sonoras en la pintura contemporánea

Abstract

Theoretical and Practical Contributions of Synesthesia and Sound to Contemporary Painting. Doctoral thesis by Timothy B. Layden Directed by Doctor Domenec Corbella Llobet This thesis analyses how synesthesia and music have influenced the development of contemporary painting. It compares the historical and mythological roots of the visualization of Sound with contemporary arts, science and philosophy. It gives examples of works of some of the most important contemporary painters explaining their influences and interrelations with the poetry and painting of the last two centuries. It describes the most important links, authentic and contrived, between painting and audio-visual synesthesia, giving examples of poetic associative audio-visual synesthesia in the arts as well as examples of the artistic expressions inspired in the projected synesthesia of true synesthetes. Moreover it highlights the connection between synesthesia, artistic expression and subjectivity. It describes how music inspired the birth of abstract painting and how this influenced the development of numerous movements in modern art which have developed into post modern art and the movements of today, which flourish in subjectivity encouraging originality and individuality. Based on the above research and the synesthetic and artistic experience of the author the following conclusions are made: Synesthesia is fundamental to human experience. Synesthetic sensations are subjective, connected to emotion and memory, and often felt as intangible and ineffable, beyond the individual experiencing it; art is the most accurate way of communicating such experiences. Today freedom of expression thrives, giving us the ability to choose like never before. ethnic, cultural and religious interaction is a defining factor of each individual ethnicity, culture and religion making the ability to understand different points of view crucial for the development of society. Artists have an important role in communicating the deeper and subtler levels of life that give value to experience. Emotions, intuition and synesthetic perceptions, which inspire wonderful works of art and revelations in science, and motivate invention are more powerful than reason and logic. Art is part of human nature, it is where we can communicate more than the obvious, deeper than the surface and more explicitly than words. Its value is in how it opens eyes to new points of view, inspires creativity and influences change. Through artistic creativity and by being more aware of synesthetic aspects of experience we can participate more consciously and actively to involve ourselves in lifes evolution, as individuals integrated with nature. "