Synesthesia for Universal Design: An exploratory thesis on synesthesia as a potential method for universal design.

Abstract

The objective of this thesis aimed to explore a methodology in which participants pair sound to abstract paintings by extracting compositional elements in the form of color and shape from those paintings and pairing them with sound elements of pitch and timbre. The selection of sound choices were based on experiences from a select number of chromesthetes to use as a control to discover if the general public will make the same sound to color associations as those select chromesthetes in order to raise awareness of synesthesia and apply this knowledge in creating multisensory experiences and environments for universal design practice. An online testing environment was created using compositional elements (color and shape) from abstract paintings in which 5 sound options relating to pitch or instrument were provided. One of these options was used as the chromesthete control option. Based on participant responses, each question was evaluated to determine if the majority of participants chose the chromesthete control. If the chromesthete control was not the majority chosen option, additional analysis was completed to understand if there was an accord for one option over others. Ultimately, results were low, in most instances below 40% uniamity. Sound choices were dispersed for many questions, of which the highest agreement in sound choice was 20%.