Ready to get your synesthesia on?
Synesthesia is the phenomenon where senses mix and you can experience a melding of the world: for example, let’s ‘see’ sound. Here is what birdsongs from a nightingale and a canary look like, according to one artist:
Artist Andy Thomas may not be striving for synesthesia, but that is what the animations evoke. According to his website, Thomas draws inspiration from nature’s forms and patterns. All the structures that pulse, swirl and spike in these videos echo colors and shapes found in orchids, birds and insects. And all of those fit together in a “circle of life” kind of way. “Insects eat the plants, birds eat the insects,” he writes.
Thomas recorded his own clips and gathered sound from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, which looks like a fascinating site to explore. Thomas’s other works are also worth a gander—and they’re all kind of trippy. Check out this abstract cuttlefish, this “tropical parasite,” or anything else in his galleries. His work makes terrestrial nature stunningly alien.
H/T This Is Colossal | Screenshot via Andy Thomas/Vimeo