Multisensory perception is a powerful contributor to the arts. Every human being intuitively facilitates connections between the various senses. Without such perceptual processes, living would not at all be possible. Due to the fact that the perceptual system in general includes the capability of interactions between the senses, a multisensory artwork can be understood by a broad community.

However, there are further possibilities given by individual phenomena like synaesthetic perception. Synaesthesia (in the narrow sense) is strictly individual. Such phenomena remain constant throughout life and are pronounced at relatively few individuals.

Synaesthesia provides an extended pool of elements which are suitable to enrich an artwork. It may provide unexpected inspiration and can add emotional value. Synaesthetic art is thus result of active creative processes and skilled craft, which in contrast to the fixed synaesthetic perception itself can be subject of systematic development and stylistic adaption.

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Examples of important types of visualization of sound and music:

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Essays and Presentations on Multisensory Arts

Journals

Sechs kleine Bilder zu sechs kleinen Symphonien von Darius Milhaud. AXON, Newsletter der Deutschen Synästhesie-Gesellschaft, 01/2019, 6-8

Eine Alpensinfonie. Synästhetische Kunst zur sinfonischen Dichtung von Richard Strauss. AXON, Newsletter der Deutschen Synästhesie-Gesellschaft, 01/2022,  8-9

Conference Proceedings

Hugo Meier-Thur – Synesthesia and Life in Black and White. VI International Congress on Synesthesia, Science & Art, Alcalá la Real, Jaén, Spain, 18.-21.5.2018, 109-18

Impetus and challenges of synesthetic music painting. In: Jörg Jewanski, Sean A. Day, Saleh Siddiq, Michael Haverkamp, Christoph Reuter (Eds.): Music and Synesthesia. Abstracts from a Conference in Vienna, scheduled for July 3-5, 2020. Wissenschaftliche Schriften der WWU Münster, Reihe XVIII, Band 14. Dortmund: readbox unipress, 2020, 35-41

At the same place: Particles of sound. 51-6

Walther Behm – Synesthetic art and teaching. Materials of the 4th International Academic Conference Polylogue and synthesis of arts. Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, St Petersburg, 2021, 84-9

Synesthetic painting related to Symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich. In: A.V.Sidoroff-Dorso (ed.), Synaesthesia: Cross-sensory aspects of cognitive activity in science and art. Proc. 2nd IASAS-Symposium, October 17 – 20, 2019. Moscow, 2021, 424-7

Scope and limits of synaesthetic arts. Proc. VII International Congress “Synaesthesia: Science and Art” *The digital / physical challenge* Oct 26-29, Granada & Alcalà la Real/Spain, 2022, 241-50

(PDF) Scope and limits of synaesthetic arts

Synästhetische Grafiken im Begleitheft zur Ausstellung „Musik aufs Auge“, Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, 27.9.2023 – 5.1.2024, 34-5

Presentations without Publication

Auge und Ohr. Verbindungen zwischen Musik und Bildender Kunst: 1) Alte Feuerwache, Köln, 19.11.2005  2) Kunst- und Kulturinitiative EngelsArt, Engelskirchen, 19.2.2006

Synesthetic versus Common Approaches for Multisensory Arts. Convergence, Seminar on multisensory approaches in artistic performance and interactions. Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, Belgium, 20.5.2022

Synästhetische Kunst in der Zeit der “Farbe-Ton-Forschung”. Deutsche Synästhesie Gesellschaft DSG, Neuwied, 18.11.2023

Multisensorische Konzepte in Kunst und Design am Beispiel der Werke von Paul Klee und Wassily Kandinsky. Vortrag zur Ausstellung: Galka Scheyer und die Blaue Vier – Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee. Städtisches Museum Braunschweig, 18.4.2024

Synästhesie im Werk von Wassily Kandinsky und Hilma af Klint. Dialogführung mit Juliane Zetzsche in der Ausstellung: Hilma af Klint und Wassily Kandinsky – Träume von der Zukunft. Kunstsammlung NRW – K20, Düsseldorf, 1.5.2024

Synaesthetic artists of “Farbe-Ton-Forschung” (colour-tone-research) in Germany 1925-36. UKSA/ASA Conference at Somerville College, University of Oxford. 10.5.2024

Synesthetic approaches on painting of non-tonal sounds. How do visual elements correlate to physical features? International Conference Synesthesia: interdisciplinary research in a multisensory world. University of Amsterdam + The Orgelpark, Amsterdam, May 27 – 29, 2026

Contributions to Exhibitions of Synesthetic Art