By: Marcos Lutyens & Tim Thompson/Paul Sable
Curated by: Marisa Caichiolo
Presented by: Building Bridges Art Exchange in collaboration with
the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists (IASAS)
and UCLA I Sci Center

Synaesthesia is an inherited trait, like red hair or brown eyes, and is found in less than 3.75 percent of the world’s population. It is defined as a cross-firing of any one of the five senses in which one sensory experience triggers additional sensory experiences in one or more of the other four senses.

Synaesthesia does not replace one sensory mode with another; it adds perceptions from another sensory modality to the initial “normal” perceptions. There are at least 60 forms of synaesthesia.

Plantigrade, an experiential installation by Marcos Lutyens, presents patrons with a psycho-synthetic terrain they are invited to walk across barefoot, paying special attention to the sensations of color and texture coming through their feet. This is a sensibility developed by Surrealist writer René Daumal, called paroptic vision, and by extension para-tactile sensing. The project has been enhanced with the collaboration of celebrated author and neurologist, Richard E. Cytowic.

Space Palette by Tim Thompson and Paul Sable is a musical and graphical instrument invented by Tim Thompson that lets you music and paint visuals simultaneously by waving your hands in the holes of a wood frame. No pre-recorded media, sequences or loops are used – everything is generated in real time by your hands.