Translated Into Sound

"Can you hear a photo? See a sound?"

Thanks, NPR, for totally blowing my mind with that opening hook. There I was, scrolling about looking for some short 'n sweet inspiration, and those two questions just land on me out of nowhere. Needless to say, I clicked and was instantly side-tracked for awhile. I found the whole idea so interesting, that I decided I must share it with you guys.

Plus, that whole synesthesia thing? It's great for poets. If you can get a descriptive handle on the senses and then flip it all around, you can do some pretty interesting things. So, that's what we shall do today!

The Inspiration

So, like I said, you can thank NPR for sparking the poetry prompt below. The gist of the article is this: an artist named Adam Brown has found a way to turn photos into sound. He figured that music summons certain mental images, so why shouldn't images summon a certain sound? Thus his project, Concentrism, was born. Of course, this mysterious connection between the visual and the audible was just the beginning---the idea of turning light waves into sound was also broached in the article. A pretty neat read, right? If you want to learn more, you can click here to be taken to the original article on NPR.

via NPR.org.
In case you were curious, this is a shot of Adam Brown doing some groundbreaking work turning this photo of a cat into a sound. A man after our own hearts.

The Poetry Prompt

Synesthesia, or the wild interplay between senses, is pretty fascinating stuff. Some people actually do have the actual neurological condition, where some wires get crossed and the senses cross over. I first learned about synesthesia when I read a story about a synesthete who could hear color. As in, they'd hear music and see different colors depending on what kind of music they were hearing. Jazz was blue, that's what stuck with me in particular. I just loved this idea. Fast-forward a bit, and I find out that the lit crowd uses the term "synesthesia" to describe this cross-over or interplay of the senses in literary and poetic works. By working with this idea, then, you'll be picking up the threads of yet another thematic and technical poetic tradition---and that's pretty cool, right? 

So, today we're all going to put our synesthete hats on and get a little surreal:

1. Think about your favorite painting, photograph, or visual scene. Imagine what it would sound like. You can start by filling in the sounds----if it's a rose garden, are there bees buzzing? Is there a breeze blowing? Can you hear the gardener crunching her way down her gravel drive to prune the rose bushes? I don't know, man, you tell me. 

Once you fill in the blanks of sound, start to get weird---what does roses sound like? Do they sound different based on their colors? Describe all of this in as much detail as possible. See what kind of poem you get out of it.

2. Flip the switch. Think about your favorite song, sound bite, or voice. What would it look like, if you were to visualize it? Does your Dad's voice remind you of chalky gravel? Does "Stairway to Heaven" remind you of the light shining through a skylight in your church? Does a morning dove bring to mind fields of flowers? And so on and so forth.

I think it would be easiest to tackle this one using free association---so free writing. (Unsure of what that is? Click here.) Just free write for 10 minutes on all the images you can associate with the sound that you've chosen. The more you let go, the better images you'll get. Don't be afraid to get weird, that's the best part of all of this.

I hope these prompts help you develop some solid imagery to use in your own work. As always, if you write something you love so much you'd marry it if you could, don't be afraid to send it our way! We love to see (hear?) what you're working on.