About

Synesthesia and Scent Scape

The story of the inner scent landscape.

Synaesthesia comes in many forms. When I was a child, I often would talk with my father and aunt, who also are synaesthetic, about how they experienced certain things. We would have in-depth conversations about colour, shape, time, sound and how they are all combined. I assumed it was how everyone saw the world, until I began to read more recent research about it. Although I realized I have many forms of synaesthesia, the one that proved to be most unusual was the smell/visual version.

Early days of realizing this sense combination, were more primitive. I had a visual scene after perceiving the scent of things and people I encountered. I began just for fun with it, smelling friends and telling them what I saw. But as I practiced it more on more people’s scents, I started to recognize categories and within those categories, vivid details. When I see where in the natural landscape the scent is, I then begin to see the details of that landscape and its’ surroundings. I can see the way the components work within it’s unique combination and environment.

Every individual is a completely unique combination within the scent landscape. From flowering treetops with wind flowing through the branches, to the backwaters of the sea winding through mangroves. From ancient pines clinging to the side of a high river cliff, to a field of new fragrant grass growing from the rich mineral ash of a distant fire. I like to help a person see their landscape and envision a path in both the difficult and beautiful times by thinking of how nature behaves and flows.

synaesthesia (noun) /ˌsɪn.əsˈθiː.zi.ə/ˌsɪn.əsˈθiː.ʒə/a condition in which someone experiences things through their senses in an unusual way, for example by experiencing a colour as a sound, or a number as a position in space