Belfast in My Colours: A Synaesthetic Exploration of My Temporary Home

Belfast in My Colours A Synaesthetic Exploration of My Temporary Home

Carrie C Firman Titanic Centre

Traditional Instruments

Divis Tower

Homes

Belfast in My Colours A Synaesthetic Exploration of My Temporary Home

Carrie C Firman

Special thanks to: Digital Arts Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi

This book is set in Capsuula Regular

by Henrich Fichna All views and interpretations are those of the author.

Carrie C Firman : www.carriecfirman.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License. Š 2011 Carrie C Firman. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-4709-7530-2

Synaesthesia is the consistent, involuntary combining of sensations which are usually considered separate. It is not a disease, a hindrance, or problem; it is a fantastic phenomenon. It is difficult to determine the percentage of the population that is synaesthetic. One theory is that we are all born with these sense crossings but unlearn them as we are taught the traditional difference between sight, sound, emotion, etc. Another states that it is hereditary.

It may be due to either increased connections or lack of inhibition between sensory areas of the brain. Regardless of its cause and origins, the study and interest in synaesthesia (both in metaphoric and authentic forms) have experienced an astronomic increase in the last decade, including an open interdisciplinary dialogue of neurologists, psychologists, writers, artists and more.

Synaesthesia takes many forms and is entirely unique to each individual. Some have coloured alphabets, where, for example, the letter A is as much a specific shade of green as it is the letter A. The same type colour associations can take place with numbers, days of the week, musical tones, mood, and many, many more combinations.

This project explores my synaesthetic connections between colours and personalities. During two months living in Belfast, I collected symbols of the surrounding atmosphere, attitude, and history that stood out most. When drawing each of these things, I applied the colouring that most suited each item’s reputation, history, and character by matching the personalities that I synaesthetically perceive when describing different hues. For the traditional instruments, I drew upon my synaesthetic perception of colour when hearing sound.

As a compilation, I wish this to be a small example of the ways mental imagery and perception, while experienced by all, are very different for each one of us. It is these differences that makes each of us our own. This book is a bit of me.

(Rainy Days)

Umbrellas: don’t leave home without one in Belfast. This traditional brolly assortment is drawing in my colours of a rainy, gloomy day: cold, sedentary, purple-tinted greys.

(Victorian Row Houses)

Soft reds are family; they are full of life, inherently warm and humble, unlike the brighter and bolder reds. They are slightly worn, but comfortable from wear. They tend to stay in the background but are long-lasting; they are domestic, home.

(Translink Metro Bus)

Greyscale is a simple, bare essential and often taken for granted. It is humble and hardworking, It is the public transit system.

(Traditional Instruments)

Traditional instruments in the colours that their sounds make according to my synaesthesia: concertina, Bodhrรกn (drum), uilleann pipes, harmonica, wooden flute, Celtic harp, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin.

(Albert Memorial Clock)

Deep and pure yellows and oranges demand attention. They rise and come forward, glowing with importance and insistence, and are difficult to ignore. They are time.

(City Hall)

Brown, a strong, stable, base colour. Remains a steady complementary friend to bright, light, and weak colours but never demands attention. Brown works in the background, critical in its support and multiple uses, regardless of changing outside opinions about itself. Brown is government in Belfast.

(Stormont Assembly Building)

This building has had a life less than 100 years, but a rough one. It shows in tired brown-greys.

At the centre it is the medium, worn purples of a hard-fought but solid, permanent character.

(Queen’s University)

Green-tinted greys are serious, studious, pensive, brooding. They are a bit removed from the main flow of things and vary in their degree of comfort. They hold a quality of being difficult to overlook or move around, much like attaining higher education.

(Ulster Museum)

Red is versatile, attractive, firm, a primary building block of colour, if a bit pompous. Its pride is boosted by the flashy pink, which aims to allure and entice. They are the Museum, which houses a proud and fun collection celebrating and promoting the region.

(Palm House, Botanic Garden)

Green is the most fickle colour. Warm, cool, bright, dull, medium, middling, it has the widest range of mood and capability. It is for this reason, not the similarity to foliage, that it best represents the diversity of nature. Supportive brown signifies the overwhelming care of this 160-year-old sanctuary to life.

(St Anne’s / Belfast Cathedral)

Yellows as a beacon and shades into solid, complementary and supportive brown; yet the colours are fading as the role of the church in the city and society is diminished.

(St George’s Market)

Steely commercial blues, faded purples of long-lived prominent existence, bold greens of nature’s local produce, brownish greys of a slightly-tired, well used building, and lively middle oranges of chattering crowds of people, all adorning the humble, hardworking greyscale building essential to the city and its history.

(Peace Wall)

Brownish greys are tired. They are decreasing in strength and fading into the background. Hopefully the same will continue to be true about the Peace Walls.

(Divis Tower)

Standing at the intersection of the city centre and sectarian West Belfast, this tower of flats is known for its most famous tenant - the British Army – who occupied the top floors during the Troubles. Yellow-green and dark reds, especially in combination, are vigilant and uncomfortable; loud and demanding attention. The neutral grey holds them together and is functionality.

(Samson & Goliath)

Steely blue of machinery and commerce, these shipbuilding cranes represent the industrial heritage of Belfast. Purples of weighty permanence and prominence reflect their importance to the city skyline.

(Victoria Square)

Steely blues are the calculating aspect of commerce, bright red its screaming for attention. Deeper reds have an air of pride. Medium purples are less showy but more solid or permanent. Lighter blues speak of hope.

(Waterfont Hall)

Only two colours mix in this new multipurpose building: cyan and grey. It is cold, commercial, and mechanical, but a hardworking and essential part of the rebuilding city.

(Titanic Centre)

Purples add a solid, weighty, less showy and soothing support to the bright hopeful blues. Their combination is promise, as is this and other new developments in the city post-Troubles.

(Odyssey Arena Trees)

Light blues, almost shrill in their brilliant newness and hope, dance and stretch in groups. It is usually considered a receding or background colour, much like these trees are cropped and overshadowed by a shiny new massive building.

Stormont Assembly Building

Samson & Goliath

St George’s Market

Palm House

Peace Wall

Victoria Square

Queen’s University

Odyssey Centre Trees

St Anne’s Cathedral

City Hall

Waterfront Hall

Albert Memorial Clock

Ulster Museum

Metro Bus

Rainy Days

ISBN 978-1-4709-7530-2

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