Samantha Winward’s Capstone Exhibit Combines 3D Design and Personal Storytelling to Shed Light on the Science — and Wonder — of Synesthesia
What color would you assign to the sound of a trumpet blaring — red or yellow?
In her capstone project, BFA graduate Samantha Winward allows participants to experiment with assigning colors to school subjects, shapes to letters, personalities to numbers, sounds to colors, flavors to words and more! As someone with synesthesia (a phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers), Winward decided to thoroughly research and understand her own condition, which she feels is often misunderstood. Then, when it came time to showcase what she had learned, Winward leaned into the principles she learned in the Department of Design.
The result? A bright, engaging capstone that entices and educates passersby in the West Campus Central Building. The title of the exhibit — “Thursday Tastes Like Lemons” — comes from lexical-gustatory synesthesia (tasting words or sounds), which is one of the types of synesthesia that Winward chose to showcase.
Among the various forms of synestesia that Winward covered, she highlights chromesthesia, “which is a type of auditory-visual synesthesia where sounds trigger vivid, automatic color experiences,” Winward shared in the exhibit. “A trumpet might shoot out golden sparks; a whispered syllable might unfurl as a pale green ribbon.”
Winward herself has both grapheme-color synesthesia (perceiving letters and numbers as colors) and ordinal linguistic personification synesthesia (involuntarily assigning personas to numbers, letters or days). “Because of the taboo nature of synesthesia,” she shared, “many people do not realize that they have it until much later in life; they just assume that everyone else thinks and experiences the world the way they do.” Winward clarifies that because there are over 200 different types of synesthesia, the chances that you have it are far greater than you might realize!
One of the biggest challenges that Winward faced while working on this project was figuring out how to make synesthesia feel tangible without relying solely on words. “I wanted people to experience it rather than just read about it,” she explained. So, the show is highly interactive. There are buttons that make sounds, colored stickers that attendees can place on letters, rainbow string to attach to school subjects and — most strikingly — eleven busts that depict Winward’s personifications of numbers 0–10.
“My hope is that you will engage with the models and other interactive stations so as to help gain an understanding of synesthesia and show the importance of recognizing perspectives that are unlike our own,” Winward’s artistic statement reads.
She has had synesthesia her whole life, but she did not know that there was a name for it until age 21. She explained that “synesthesia is largely genetic; my sister and I have the same type of synesthesia.”
In discussing this project with her dad, Winward could tell that he was skeptical. After explaining what she saw and experienced, he paused and said, “You know, when I was younger, I swore that letters had colors.” Winward said that she turned to him and exclaimed, “Dad! You have synesthesia!” People of all ages are realizing that their experiences can be explained by a genetic trait.
“I think the most impactful part of this capstone project for me is that I have helped a handful of people discover that they also have synesthesia,” Winward said. While she acknowledges that the discovery is not life-changing, it can change someone’s perspective on life and individuality.
“In discovering that you have synesthesia, a new aspect is added onto your identity; an undiscovered part of yourself has now come to light.”
