Synaesthesia: What is the taste of the color blue?

An exhibition presented by Building Bridges Art Exchange, sponsored by the
International Association of Synaethetes, Artists, and Scientists, and in partnership
with Art Sci Gallery at UCLA

Curated by Marisa Caichiolo

Installation by Anne Patterson/Image by Peter Acker

September 23rd - November 1st
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 23rd, 2017, 7pm - 10pm
RSVP: buildingbridgesax@gmail.com

Jon Adams - Raewyn Turner & Brian Harris - Anne Patterson - James Wannerton - Appelusa - M.J. Cordoba - Marjan Vayghan - Tim Thompson - Christine Söeffing - Marcos Lutyens in collaboration with Dr. Richard E. Cytowic

Building Bridges Art Exchange, sponsored by the International Association of Synaethetes, Artists, and Scientists, and in partnership with Art Sci Gallery at UCLA present Synaethesia:
What is the taste of the color blue?, an exhibition of captivating art installations this Autumn in Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA.

BBAX Curator/Founder Marisa Caichiolo will curate this exhibition in collaboration with Victoria Vesna, Director of the Art Sci Center, in coordination with Special Exhibitions Producer, Daniel Schuster. This, over five week display of synesthetic creativity, promises to enthrall both dedicated collectors and art enthusiasts alike.

Produced by IASAS, CC Hart, Sean Day
Produced by BBAX, Daniel Schuster
Produced by Art/Sci Center UCLA, Victoria Vesna

This exhibition will explore how artists who have unique sensory experiences, synesthesia, reveal their experiences of the world through their exquisite art.

Synesthesia 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. Synesthesia 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 different forms of synesthesia.

Jon Adams works in a variety of mediums, is a trained geologist and considers himself to to be an 'Outsider Artist'. Adams has Asperger Syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder) and experiences synaesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense leads to automatic, involuntary responses in a second sense, for example, 'seeing sounds'. The artist's work explores sense and sensitivity through the 'hidden' and plays with perceptions of normal and the inaccessible.

Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris individually and collaboratively engage both simple elements with engineering to create experiential art. Their work is intertwined with science, utilizing a fusion of commonplace and made objects fused with high level electronics which Brian invents and develops for camera and robotics along with Raewyn's olfactory scientific research and art practice. In Turner and Harri's collaborative work they create multisensory experiences and manifestations of unsensed data and invite the audience to sample, taste, smell and participate. They have been collaborating since 2010.

Anne Patterson has synesthesia, meaning that her sensory perceptions overlap; when she hears sound, she sees color. Trained as an architect and theater production designer, this unique combination of senses combines to create an artistic practice, hovering somewhere between the theatrical and the experiential. She continues to explore creating synesthetic environments with site- responsive installation, Pathless Woods, an investigation that began with her acclaimed 2013 installation Graced with Light, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

James Wannerton is an Englishman with an incredibly rare ability to taste sound. That might seem absurd, but it is very much a reality for people with a condition called synaesthesia, which causes senses that are usually separate to intermingle. Even as a young boy, James always experienced an involuntary taste on his tongue every time he heard a sound. Hearing the name Anne Boleyn in history class, for example, gave him a strong flavor of pear drops. He associated most of the British monarchs with a specific taste, making it easy for him to remember facts and events.

Appelusa, is a world champion artistic roller skater, and also an accomplished actor, writer, voice-over artist, photographer, mixed media, and performance artist. As a visual artist, she strives to depict how synaesthesia affects her perception of daily life by combining technology, roller dance, photography, and music. She is a founding member of the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists (IASAS), and serves as the organization's Dance Curator.

M.J. Cordoba, Doctor of Fine Arts (1994), has been researching on the synaesthesia field since the 80's. In addition, she also researches in other topics such as engraving on new materials and illustration systems on synthetic polymers (piece of work published by the Institute of Science and Polymer Technology, CSIC, in the year 2005). Forerunner of the study and promotion of synaesthesia in Spain, she has managed to organize four International Congresses on Synaesthesia, Science and Arts, unique in Europe due to their multidisciplinary character, and bringing together the highest level of researchers among universities from 40 different countries.

Marjan Vayghan informs her life experiences through multiple forms of synaesthesia, Marjan Vayghan's creative practice is informed by her flexibility and relationship with colors, sounds and cross-pollination of senses and the multiple realities these sensations engender.

Tim Thompson is a software engineer, musician, and installation artist. His wide-ranging artistic work includes a programming language for MIDI, interactive installations at Burning Man and other festivals, musical performances with Playstation dance pads and QWERTY keyboards, and realtime video looping and processing with a handheld security camera. The Space Palette is a collaboration with Paul Sable, who did all the woodworking.

Christine Söffing, born in Dortmund, Germany, studied the history of art, German language and literature, computer science, psychology and art in Münster, Germany. She has committed herself to working as an artist, while also giving workshops for drawing, painting, sculpture and video for children, young people and adults. Since 2010, Christine Söffing has served as head of the EMU-Ensemble, which offers experimental music and art through the Musisches Zentrum Ulm University concerts and sound-installations uniting art and science.

Marcos Lutyens's practice has centered on the investigation of consciousness to engage the visitor's embodied experience of art. Exhibitions of infinite scale and nature have been installed in the minds of visitors. His investigations have included research with social groups such as the third-gender Muxhe, Raeilians, synaesthetes, border migrants, space engineers and mental architects to explore how unconscious mind-sets shift across cultures and backgrounds.

Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, MD, MFA, currently Professor of Neurology at George Washington University, is a pioneer in synaesthesia research and, as an author, his books are considered the foundation for much of what we now understand about inherited synaesthesia. Dr. Cytowic and artist Marcos Lutyens often collaborate to create an ongoing dialogue between science and art.
Events Calendar:
September 23, 2017 – Exhibition Opening Art Reception at BBAX sponsored by IASAS 7:00 to
!0:00 PM
October 1, 2017 – Synaesthete Dance Experience at the Actors’ Gang Theater in Culver City 6:00 to 7:30 PM
October 8, 2017 – Wine Tasting with Synaesthete Sommelier, Jaime Smith, at BBAX 2:00 to
4:00 PM
October 14, 2017 - Synaesthete Literary Event at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Venice 7:30 to 10:00 Pm
October 19, 2017 – Art Reception at Art Sci Center UCLA 6:00 to 9:30 PM
October 20, 2017 – Science Symposium at Art Sci Center at UCLA sponsored by IASAS 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
October 21, Closing Art Reception and Concert with Synaesthete Violinist, Kaitlyn Hova, at BBAX, by
IASAS 5:00 to 10:00 PM

For more information about this and other exhibitions at BBAX, please visit our website.

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