Synaesthesia Science and Art Forum

What if letters had colours, sounds had shapes, and words could be tasted? For some people, they do.

The Synaesthesia Forum brings leading and emerging researchers to Auckland for an afternoon exploring synaesthesia, the fascinating condition in which the senses blend, so that a person might see numbers in colour or feel music on their skin. Held as a satellite event of the joint Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference and Asia Pacific Conference on Vision (EPC/APCV 2026), the forum looks at synaesthesia as a window into perception, consciousness, literature and creative practice.

Across seven short talks and two panel discussions, you'll hear from Dr Noam Sagiv (Brunel University London), Prof. Anina Rich (Macquarie University), Dr Patrick Shepherd (University of Canterbury), Distinguished Prof. Brian Boyd (University of Auckland), artist Raewyn Turner, Carol J. Steen (Touro University and the American Synesthesia Association) and Anton Sidoroff-Dorso (Macquarie University). Topics range from the neuroscience of consciousness and grapheme-colour synaesthesia to Vladimir Nabokov's famously coloured alphabet and the role of blended senses in art.

Whether you're a researcher, student, artist, clinician, a synaesthete yourself, or simply curious, you'll leave with a clear sense of where the field stands and where it's heading.

Presented by the Synaesthesia Research Group, Macquarie University.

Date: Wednesday 1 July 2026
Time: 12:00 to 3:00 pm
Venue: Room 303-G20, Building 303, 38 Princes Street, University of Auckland
Cost: Free, registration required
Register: https://mquni.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3lMgABbVS5DM6pw
Conference info: https://visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/
Enquiries: synaesthesia@mq.edu.au