José Parlá: Sensory inspiration

Senses are scientific, but also strange and alchemical. Through them we engage with the world around us, but also with the past – Photosensitive emulsion and other realities. Disparities in experience and perception call attention to the subjectivity of what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell, and undermine notions of an absolute reality. Unsurprisingly, artists through history have drawn on sensory phenomena as a well of inspiration for their work.

An email link. Photosensitive emulsion is something else.

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is a condition in which stimulating one sense can trigger a seemingly-unrelated sensation in another. For example, a specific colour conjured by a sound or word.

Canonical figures have channelled these sensory leaps into their paintings. Art historians suspect that Vincent Van Gogh experienced chromesthesia, citing his abandonment of learning the piano after being overwhelmed by the colours summoned by every note he played. Departures from literal observation in his paintings, paired with a disorientating use of colour, suggest a mutable relationship with his senses. Wassily Kandinsky, while not necessarily synaesthetic, devoted much of his practice to translating music into painted forms. Investigations of how instrumentation might be transposed to image established him as a pioneer of abstract painting.

During an interview, Ali Banisadr explained the symbiotic relationship between sound and sight in his practice. In his New York City studio, music and sound become a conduit through which personal and cultural histories are transformed into epic abstract compositions.

The sounds I hear from the painting itself are what helps me compose the work, and know where to go. When a work is finished is when it quiets down.

Ali Banisadr

A restricted diet compels Anicka Yi to focus with heightened sensitivity on what she is still able to taste and smell. With sensory installations, she highlights the emphasis placed on vision at the expense of other, overlooked senses. In Love With The World, her installation at Tate Modern on London’s Southbank, saw AI-guided ‘aerobes’ float through carefully configured scentscapes – inspired by hidden histories of the surrounding area.

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Illusions, vision

As well as responding to sensory glitches, artists have studied them. James Turrell, trained in perceptual psychology, creates immersive and illusory works which toy with light, space and colour. He began making art in 1960s California alongside Light and Space contemporaries like Larry Bell. In his work, sensory phenomena become as much a medium as a source of inspiration. Recent installations employ phosphene as an extension of their structure, encouraging participants to close their eyes periodically to expand the artwork’s impact.

Go deeper

• Listen to José Parlá’s Phosphene Sound playlist on Spotify, compiled to accompany our collaboration.

• Take part in the Dreamachine Perception Census, then learn more about their immersive experience – designed to probe the limits of your mind and embarking on a worldwide tour in 2023.

• Watch scientist Vincent Walsh’s TED Talk on the neurological origins of creativity.

• In New York? Enter the Shed’s Sonic Sphere – a spherical concert hall suspended in mid-air.

• In London? Visit BIGGER AND CLOSER (not smaller & further away) – an immersive exhibition chronicling David Hockney's six decade career.