Slaves to our senses

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 The dreaded creative block, all artists cross space and time have at some point experienced a creative block, the loss of inspiration, the lack of a concept gripping enough to unleash creativity, the feeling of staring into a blank hole and not knowing what to do next. In such cases, almost always we go in search for new ideas to feel new things. Reading Ackermans account of synesthesia and all that follows, made me realize that art, in its essence is a pursuit of feelings. Feelings that find themselves impregnated in out hearts through our senses. 


Humans are in a never ending chase to 'feel'. I think this is born out of the limitations of our physical bodies. Which is another interesting thought that came to me. The various drugs that humans take, are all with the aim of feeling things that we are not able to usually. The heightened vision, increased perception, bright colors/ patters, omnipresent sounds, all cause sensory overloads that we are unable to experience when in our normal state.

 Does this them mean that we are living in a diluted version of our sensory lives? If our senses are capable of being enhanced then why is it that those enhanced levels are not accessible naturally? The way I look at it, synesthetes are a living embodiment of higher sensory perception, and the fact that they are referred to as a link to primitive brain structures was a little conflicting in my mind. It seems funny to me that while calling them primitive we on the other hand go trough several trials and tribulations to cross the borders of our senses. Ackerman spoke about the various weird tools and tricks some of the greatest artists of all time have used to spark their creativity, and all those instances made me realize that in essence we really are slaves to our senses. 

Though we are able to sense the world through our body, there is a common notion among people that it also limits us from fully feeling/ experiencing the world around us. The out of body experiences that people long for while tripping on LSD or a high dosage of shrooms are all testament to this notion. My final thoughts pertaining to this particular thread is the idea that it might be the way that we look at our senses, the way we have them broken down into being fully separate entities, with no overlap that might be keeping us from experiencing them in a more wholistic manner. What if it is the fact that we have from birth been taught that the senses are separate and that causes us to experience them the way that we do? Ackerman gives an account how we are all sysnesthetes on some level as babies, that makes me wonder if there is anything that can be done to preserve this ability, instead of indulging in all these wild ways to re experience it later in life. 


Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 22, 2022 at 7:52 AM

    I think we can create experiences, through rituals, that at least imitate synaesthetic experiences when we participate in them. In a sense, we're always taking in all our sense experiences at once, as sort of background - we're seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting (even if it's the air or the insides of our own mouths), and touching things all at once all the time, but not necessarily focusing on everything as pertinent. And when we're eating, we tended to be more focused and aware of the the things we're sensing (unless we're eating junk food while watching TV ;-), which is why I think meals in particular are rituals which can heighten our awareness of synesthesia-like experiences - even without psychedelic drugs. I think also the multi-sensory experiences of visiting a Hindu temple, with incense burning, vibrant colors, sounds of chanting, touching deities or offerings to them are pretty synesthesia-like, as I mentioned in class.

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