“I was relieved to hear that many synaesthetes are not aware that their reality looks different to those of others—and that, once they find out about their divergence in perception, they mostly state how much they appreciate the way their brain brings the world to them. I started a project on synaesthesia because I do not perceive it only as a funny twist of evolution. For me, this topic also raises the fundamental question of the extent to which we as individuals share the same reality.

Layers of Reality is not a reference work, but a personal journey into my individual perception. My goal is to show that this phenomenon is not a disease, nor are synaesthetes making anything up. We are not sick and we do not need to be treated. Synaesthesia creates much controversy, as I learned during my research, and I do not aspire to solve all misconceptions or explain this phenomenon in every tiny detail. What I want is to make it accessible by offering a personal approach, and to help spread awareness about synaesthesia. By enriching my own findings with scientific approaches from different disciplines, I hope this book will answer a few questions and raise many more.

I feel we should all remember that what we perceive is not static, but a construct of our senses. It is our perception that shapes our world. There is not one single reality.”

Anna Püschel

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Anna Püschel graduated from the Luca School of Arts in Ghent as a Master of Arts, where she is currently living and working. Anna Püschel’s work explores different ways of acquiring knowledge. Her practice spans analogue photography, image distortion techniques, archiving and writing. In her work she explores the ways how we try to make sense of the world. Which structures of power influence our access to knowledge, how do we acquire understanding, what gives us certainty? Through melting subjective artistic creation with objective scientific data, her work embraces a variety of ways to search for answers.

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