In you can understand and catalog all such components of material, most especially the last being patterns, you can assign numeric values to the components based upon their interrelation and from there code interrelations such as color, spatial layout or sound frequency.
Let’s take a moment to examine a few common examples of synesthesia and ideastesia in modern life.
CALENDARS
How does one link abstract information into a to the concrete schema that can be viewed, described, deciphered, adjusted and navigated through visual and other sensory information? A calendar serves as a prime and common example of this process in motion. In it, time, a phenomenon which exists in and of itself but in as an abstraction. Low and behold mankind makes sense of it and grasps some measure of control by breaking it into various consistent, measurable increments, i.e. seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.
These process of organizing blocks of time into a systematized format, they are then aligned consistently that is visually present and clear. In a monthly calendar for example, there is a box for each day, each following day is arrayed to right of the previous, until you reach week’s end, then the box goes down and back to the left. Each week forms a line until you reach in the end of the month, then the page is turned to the following month.
In this process, the reader attains a predictable rhythmic feel surrounding the cycles of time’s movement, along with the progression of its passage, roughly what can be expected next and how plan and organize schedules for activities. In order to function and make sense of this process, a two-dimensional schema has been devised. This is important because it implicitly conveys a dual nature to time itself, for it is in some sense both linear and cyclical, it moves ever forward, never fully repeating itself, yet it reliably echoes the same patterns embedded within, each day has a morning, noon and night, each year contains a winter, spring, summer and fall. In such, a template is constructed for our conscious minds on the structures of our routine, while the events vary, are designed, fine-tuned and never fixed, they dance upon a floor whose parameters are known and fairly uniform. Hence, we take the metaphor and make it implicit in structure so as to use it.
MAPS
Maps are another example of how the sense-metaphor process is executed in our daily lives. In this instance, the representation does not cross senses or realities but rather remakes an existing one, in this case, physical space. So as not to the mistake the map for the territory as in the old axiom, the map posits an area far beyond a size one can hold and scales it down.
Within the contours of the map and its representative terrain, as with the calendar and time, spaces broken into consistent blocks and increments, a scales providers the reader with the comparison of real-world physical space to the map’s symbol, i.e. one inch represents a half mile, etc. A compass what directions are represented, with up customarily meaning north (though it can vary). Once you are versed in direction and space, you can then navigate the different entities within the terrain, i.e. buildings, roads, park, water, bridges, etc.
MUSICAL NOTATION
Musical notation is perhaps the clearest synesthetic example one can devise, for it clearly translate information and phenomena from the audial state and places into a schema of the visual. Once again, various increments are utilized to measure pitch, notes are placed on a scale, (the G Clef) the bars represent an octave, each octave contains its linear progression from low to high (down to up) do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, then repeating at do. Two-dimensions are employed, with up and down (what on the Cartesian Plane would be the Y-axis representing pitch, and X-axis as it is customarily depicting time).
Through this design, any trained or even semi-trained musician can easily decipher all the key elements contained in a musical piece, melody, beat, volume, tempo, etc. by examining all the mark and components placed in their proper context. This process has the power to turn the creative art of music into a quantifiable science with structure and measure. This way, the musician, composer, singer, writer and listener can all communicate in this common lingo and build upon its progress.
CONSISTENCIES
What do all these modalities have in common? Each utilizes the visual form, they all employ scale (with consistent and understood direction), dimensions (usually two, although through digital technology three-dimensions are increasingly possible) and regular increments of measure. Possessing multiple dimensions is vital to the functionality of all of these schemas, for it enables the designer to calculate multiple factors that are oftentimes connected to each other but are also independent of each other.
As in the dependent and independent variables presented in most scientific graphs, the varying elements must be measured on their own terms, even as all information can be placed on a continuum to compare its nature and value to surrounding phenomena. All measures break down information so that it can be measures and compared with surrounding components. Therefore, we can intimate that information can be more effectively transmuted, gleaned and understood by assigning it numeric value, placing it on a continuum, putting other information or aspects of information on a parallel continuum, where the interrelation information and respective values can be weighed and contrasted. From there, further elements can be made by assigning colors, shapes and sizes to each component.
With all this in mind, how do we apply these patterns of deciphering and breaking down information to core academic disciplines such as mathematics and language?
With arithmetic it is clear we can utilize similar schemas to connote first the value of numbers chronologically, then you can visually represent the interrelation of the basic mathematical functions, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. From there, we can utilize the X-axis for addition and substation and the Y-axis for multiplication and division. Then you can delineate the patterns of numbers, i.e. add and even, prime numbers, factors and multiples, digit patterns, square number, etc. through color coding.
Language can delineated by breaking down letter-sound combinations into color codes and shades, then use an X and Y-axis paradigm to connect phonics and semantics.