DATA SHEET
Title / Título:
Hearing the rainbow / Escuchando el arcoíris
Team members / Miembros del equipo:
Áurea Muñoz del Amo (ES) artist / artista; Cachito Vallés (ES) artist / artista; Carmen Salazar Pera (ES) artist, bachelor of medicine and surgery / artista, licenciada en medicina y cirugía; Helena Hernández Acuaviva (ES) artist / artista; Natalia Herrera Pombero (ES) artist, architect / artista, arquitecta
Scientist / Científico:
Francisco Manuel Ocaña Campos (ES) professor of experimental psychology and principal investigator of the Neuroscience of Well-Being research group / profesor de psicología experimental e investigador principal del grupo Neurociencia del Bienestar; Antonio Burgos Rodríguez (ES) degree in pharmacy and secondary school teacher / licenciado en farmacia y profesor de secundaria; Benjamín Rodríguez Expósito (ES) degree in biology, PhD in psychology and professor at UNED and Nebrija University / licenciado en biología, doctor en psicología y profesor en la UNED y en la Universidad Nebrija
Neuroscience of Well-Being Research Group of the University of Seville / Grupo de Investigación Neurociencia del Bienestar de la Universidad de Sevilla
Seed / Semilla:
“Synesthesia” / “Sinestesia”
Technique / Técnica:
Installation, mobile sculpture, and videomapping / Instalación, escultura móvil y videomapping
Dimensions / Dimensiones:
90 x 160 cm
SEED
Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sense triggers an automatic and involuntary response in another. Some people can “see” sounds in colors, “taste” words, or “feel” textures when listening to music. Although historically considered a rarity, neuroscientific research has revealed that synesthesia is a manifestation of the brain’s connectivity and an extreme example of how our senses naturally interact in everyday perception.
THE VISION OF THE CREATORS OF THE WORK
To see the colour of music, to savour the sound of rain, to feel taste pricking the skin, to see the calendar all around, knowing precisely the position of a memory by its place and hue… To possess the gift of synaesthesia is to perceive the world through a symphony of sensory perceptions which, under the right stimuli, allows one to experience the world in an entirely unique manner. A multitude of sensations which, far from constituting a delirious cacophony, reveal the harmony underlying the non-metaphorical relationships between the various worlds belonging to each sense.
As an installation, Hearing the Rainbow seeks to bring the viewer closer to a mode of multimodal perception denied to the majority of the population. It offers an approach to the synaesthetic impression from an external and respectful perspective, in a broader attempt at understanding through artistic practice. On this basis, the implicit movement within the work reveals, according to the impact of chromatic stimuli, the relationship or otherwise of a series of sounds with their respective associated forms and colours. These are metaphorical and imposed associations for the non-synaesthete, but subjective, personal, immediate, and irrepressible for those endowed with this multimodal perception.
Here, the viewer’s own experience is key. Through immersion, it is possible to complete this multidisciplinary work. The artists here become mere facilitators of the sensory experience, to be lived by those who wish to experience a simulation of this most special perception. For all those who wish to hear the colours of the rainbow…
CURATOR'S VISION OF THE WORK
This SciArt installation invites us into the intimate realm of synaesthesia. a rare neurological condition where senses blend, allowing one to “hear” colors, “see” sounds, or “taste” shapes. This installation simulates that sensory symphony, not by claiming to replicate it, but by evoking its poetic logic. Through immersive interaction with light and sound, viewers experience a constructed reality where color triggers sound and form, encouraging a rethinking of how we process and relate to the world.
The work challenges Cartesian separations of the senses, proposing a more integrated, embodied understanding of perception. It avoids exoticizing or pathologizing neurodivergence, instead positioning synaesthesia as a valid and enriching mode of being. In a social context where standardized cognition dominates, the installation honors cognitive diversity and opens a space for empathy and wonder. The artists step back, letting each visitor’s subjective experience co-create the work, as an act of radical inclusion and sensory liberation.
Con la colaboración de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología – Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades @fecyt_ciencia
