Synaesthesia, literally meaning “union of the senses,” is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense produces an impression in a second sense. Synaesthetes might taste the words they pronounce, see colours when listening to music or smell the voices of people around them. Some five percent of the population is estimated to experience some form of synaesthetic reaction.
Layers of Reality is both a personal and a semi-scientific research study of the phenomenon of synaesthesia. In this volume, German photographer Anna Püschel, a synaesthete herself, questions her perception of reality. For this publication, she works through a large image database, testing and cataloguing her synaesthetic reactions. What emerges from Püschel’s investigation is an engaging personal attempt to understand how we perceive and construct reality.
