The ‘globalization’ of the senses: transpositions between vision, audition, taste, smell and touch

CAIVANO, JOSE LUIS

Les Signes du Monde: Interculturalité et Globalisation, Actas del VIII Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Estudios Semióticos

International Association for Semiotic Studies

Lugar: Lyon; Año: 2007; p. 1 - 12

The associations among different senses are known as synesthesia. This is produced when stimuli received trough a certain sensory channel are perceived and interpreted as sensations of another kind. The most usual transpositions involve vision and hearing, but also taste, smell and touch. A good deal of theoreticians from the fields of psychology of perception and psychophysics have developed order systems for the stimuli or sensations affecting the five basic channels through which humans perceive and process information from the environment. Among these, color order systems are the best known. There are also models that organize visual textures, spatial shapes, and non-visual sensory continua, such as sounds, tactile sensations, tastes and odors. The aim of this paper is to address the concept of synesthesia, to present a survey of some models that organize sensory continua and, from their comparison, speculate about the way synesthetic transpositions that involve vision are produced.