What's It Like To Hear Colors? - A VR 360° Synesthesia Experience

♫ music ♫ My name is Kaitlyn Hova. I'm a software engineer, neuroscientist, and a musician. I also have synesthesia. Synesthesia is a blending of the senses. 1 in 23 people have a form of it. For me, when I hear, specific musical notes, I see specific colours... ...and these colours are much brighter... at night. ♫ violin ♫ What you're seeing in front of me, is a lot like what I see ...when I hear this music. ♫ violin ♫ Each one of these coloured lights corresponds to a particular note The colours are always the same. ♫ violin ♫ I've seen these colours my whole life. But I didn't know that was unusual, until I was 21 years old. ♫ violin ♫ It was the final music theory course, for my music major, that, at the end of my class, my professor mentioned that some people can physically see sounds as colours. ♫ violin ♫ And to me... I thought... duh... ...and everyone in the classroom turned to look at me. ♫ violin ♫ We did tests, where they played notes on the piano ...and I told them what colour it was... ♫ violin ♫ ...and at that point I knew that I had synesthesia. ♫ violin ♫ Synesthesia can manifest itself in so many different ways. It can blend itself together vision, taste, smell, sound... ...it can be almost anything. ♫ violin ♫ But for me... it's always been about the colours in music. ♫ violin ♫ Synesthesia makes the music a very visual experience. ♫ violin ♫ Now, listening to a piece is sort of like watching a video. ♫ violin ♫ I can listen to it over and over again... ...and focus on different colours and patterns, each time. ♫ violin ♫ Now... if you turn to face the city... (using arrows on top left corner of video) you can really step into my shoes, and see what I see. ♫ violin ♫ I'm not sure what I would do, if my synesthesia went away. But, I'm sure that the world would look a lot different. ♫ violin ♫ ♫ music ♫

Channel: Seeker

Views: 1,323,643

Rating: 4.9553719 out of 5

Keywords: Synesthesia (Disease Or Medical Condition), synesthesia, health, vr, virtual reality, 360 (Film), 360, vr video, 360 video, color, what is synesthesia, senses, neurology, psychology, synesthesia test, synesthesia experience, violin, synesthesia violin, music, kaitlyn hova, education, educational, dnews, d news, science, discovery news, san francisco, discovery channel, discovery vr, discovery channel vr, #360, #360video

Id: obrBAysVef0

Length: 4min 19sec (259 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/RamzaS]

Or you could download the free Discovery VR application and watch it with head tracking.

[u/monstergeek]

That is so beautiful.