March Dissertating, Day 1

To encourage myself to be more regular and thoughtful in my dissertation research, I'm going to attempt to summarize my reading periodically. I know I won't do it every day, but perhaps short reading/writing sessions are what I need to get things going. I decided to revisit from the beginning a book that has provided much insight for me throughout my comps and first chapter, Kevin Dann's Bright Colors, Falsely Seen. Dann argues against the Romantic notion of synesthesia being a glimpse into a unseen, higher plane of consciousness, though he does believe that it is something we are all capable of. Tonight, I only revisited the introduction, but here are a few points I picked up that may be helpful:

*When someone perceives something that the rest of us do not, it raises questions about whether or not the perception is "true". If we acknowledge that it is, then we tend to think of their perception as MORE true. This seems to be at the core of Western Romanticism, as well as common beliefs about synaesthesia. (vii)

*In these kinds of phenomena, empirical validity doesn't matter as much as their existence as cultural and intellectual artifacts. For example, the existence of angels, spirits, elves, fairies, etc. has had little impact on history, but the belief in them has. (vii)

*Romanticism seems to regard synaesthesia as "the path to liberation from the prisonhouse of the senses and their tyrannical overseer, reason." (ix) Note: Which 19th century writers/artists used synaesthesia to exercise this idea of LIBERATION?

*Many of those who support synaesthesia maintain that the ultimate function of literature and the arts is to manifest this fusion of the senses (ix).

*Romantics are fascinated by synaesthetes because they view them as having "escaped the consequences of the fall into rational consciousness suffered by the rest of us" (x).

*Liberatory Romanticism has viewed the bizarre sensations associated with synaesthesia as containing esoteric truths that we only need to learn to decipher (x).

NOTES: I am not really concerned about whether synaethesia represents a higher plane of thinking or a window into the unknown or a daily occurrence that we all can learn to master. I am, however, fascinated by how and why the 19th century writers and artists fostered these ideas. Was synaethesia liberating to them? Was it simply a way to rebel from reason? Did it help them tout their own doctrinal beliefs, or convince the public that they had attained true artistic vision? Or, did they just like the pure sensuality of combining the senses? I hope to find examples of how several artists/painters used synaesthesia to various ends in their work.

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Here's a short update. I have a few interesting things going on...


1) Internship at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - for the last two summers, I've interned at the Virginia Museum in Exhibition Planning. The first summer I assisted them with some ideas for their Ning Statewide Partners site, and I created an audio tour on Women Artists. Last summer, I began work on a second audio tour on African American artists that I just finished a couple of weeks ago. I will be expanding this tour for the Education Department over the next few months, and plan to continue to do various projects for the museum.

2) I'm involved in the new Department of Olfactory Art at the MAD in New York. It's all very classified right now, but I'm so excited to be working with Chandler Burr and can't wait to embark on some new projects in the world of olfaction!

3) I've written what I called a chapter of my dissertation, about 35 pages where I contrasted the synaesthetic intentions of Baudelelaire's Correspondences and Rimbaud's Voyelles. I think I made a couple of breakthroughs, but my most significant discovery is that I really don't want to spend my dissertation work trying to translate French, and I want to move to the British writers instead. I'm also toying with straying from synaesthesia altogether and moving to the senses in general or smell specifically in the 19th century.

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Two Years?

I suppose I'm not a very competent blogger. I think it takes a careful blend of having something to say and self-confidence that I haven't developed fully yet. I wrestle with feeling like all aspects of social networking are just self-important cries for attention. I know that they aren't, completely, because there are blogs that I love to read, and people who say things in blogs that inspire, comfort, intrigue, and teach. I'm just not certain yet that I am able to say those things. I do think, though, that there is a small group of interesting people out there who share my passion for all things olfactory, and thus, I don't want to let go entirely the idea of writing and talking about it periodically. I will try to revisit this blogging thing upon occasion to see what happens.

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