History Main / EditorialSynaesthesia

* In ''CampLazlo'' other campers were unwilling to take a bath after getting extremely dirty. So they hide from Lazo behind a bush. Unfortunately for them, Lazlo saw their stink lines above the bush.

* In ''FarCry: Instincts'' smell is shown as a coloured aura and trail.

* Sveta's Track Psynergy in ''GoldenSunDarkDawn'' allows her to find scent trails, which appear as a streak of white vapor close to the ground. [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman This is used all of twice in the game.]]

* Also, parodied in an episode of ''RockosModernLife'', when Rocko has an attack of appendicitis. The doctor points out the pain stars on Rocko's chart and says that all they have to do is replace them with wavy lines of relief.

* A ''MagicSchoolBus'' episode had goggles that let the kids see sound with "The Producer" later explaining that seeing sound is impossible and was just done for the episode.

* The character 'Honey' in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' always has floating flowers around him.

[[folder:Commercials]]
* In the "Dancer" commercial for Kellogg's Pop-Tarts, the pastries in the toaster give off a visible vapor. Ten percent of the vapor is strawberries, representing the ten percent fruit in the filling.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'', there are scenes where taste is represented by abstract shapes dancing to jazz.
** Anton's little 'memory' of his childhood when he eats ratatouille counts as well. It doesn't display the taste itself, but it certainly shows the ''feeling'' the taste evoked.
* In the film version of ''Literature/AnonymousRex'' scents carried by particular dinosaurs are often displayed by the main character talking about the scent as well as vivid visual depictions of the scent items. For example, one dinosaur smells of peaches and cream and, as the main character talks about it, images of brightly lit peach slices falling into cream appear on the screen.
* Averted by ''Film/{{Polyester}}'', in which audience members were given "Smell-O-Rama" scratch and sniff cards.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''RoseIsRose'', garlic breath is represented by skulls surrounding the person with it, while flowers, rainbows, and smiling suns represents peppermint breath.
* In ''FootrotFlats'', when Jess is in heat she exudes little hearts.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Commercials]]
* Commercials for painkillers and other pharmaceuticals typically illustrate pain as an animated red circle that fades out towards the edges. The growing and shrinking circle is reminiscent of the throbbing nature of some kinds of pain.

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''MadMax'', when one of the bikers headbutts a guy they splice in a single frame of pure white. Maybe conveys "impact" more than "pain," but it's rad as hell in any case.
* Done slightly differently in ''TransformersTheMovie'', where Sludge (the Brontosaurus) is smacked down so hard at one point, his eyes get momentarily left behind before telescoping back into place. Ouch.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Sequential Art]]
* Notes to indicate music in "[[http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Busch_Werke_v1_p_404.jpg&filetimestamp=20070106152826 The virtuoso]]" by Creator/WilhelmBusch.

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy]]
* Played with in a Demetri Martin sketch on lines... he drew a cup of coffee with wavy lines. "That means this coffee is hot". He flips to another sheet with a drawing of a coffee cup but with the wavy lines straightened out. "Now it's loud." Then he placed the lines to one side. [[MotionLines "Now it's fast."]]
-->'''Demetri''': If you hear hot coffee coming at you, you better move.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

** Justified in the case of the example image itself, as it is using the "lightning strike" representation of arcing electricity - which is exactly what would visibly occur should you be struck, only bright blue-white rather than black, in most situations where such signs are necessary.

[[folder:Comics]]
* The "tingly sensation" SpiderMan gets when his SpiderSense buzzes is usally depicted as a series of lines around his head.

'''Both:''' Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

** One of Link's masks in ''TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' gives him the same ability to see smells.

* ''TheSims2'' uses green particle effects to visually show smelly things, like rotten food, stinky clothes, and odorous sims.

Due to the fact that most entertainment is experienced exclusively through vision and sound, anything that a fictional character perceives by other means (such as smell) cannot be conveyed directly; when it's important for the audience to sense it, the artist must find a way to visually portray whatever it is the character is sensing (especially true of the SmellySkunk).

Due to the fact that most entertainment is experienced exclusively through vision and sound, anything that a fictional character perceives by other means (such as smell) cannot be conveyed directly; when it's important for the audience to sense it, the artist must find a way to visually portray whatever it is the character is sensing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the vision of an animal which uses its sense of smell to 'see' is represented in streams of different colours, each representing a different scent.
* A ''MagicSchoolBus'' episode had goggles that let the kids see sound with "The Producer" later explaining that seeing sound is impossible and was just done for the episode.

* "Stink lines", often accompanied by hovering insects in cartoons

* In ''Literature/ChildrenOfGod'' by Creator/MaryDoriaRussell, an alien who has a far better sense of smell than a human is tracking a missing friend. She "sees" his scent as points of light along the trail ("like firespore"--presumably a bioluminescent fungus.)

Named after Synaesthesia/Synesthesia, a condition where sensory areas in a person's mind overlap/interconnect, so they may see sound, taste letters and so on. (see the book ''The Man Who Tasted Shapes'' by Richard Cytowic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Tasted_Shapes]]).

* ''{{CSI}}'': Bloodhound-O-Vision - the visible world was shown in black and white smells were colourful spots on it. In reality, dogs don't see in black and white but compared to us have a reduced number of colours they can see, with colour vision equivalent to red-green colour blindness in humans (deuteranopia).

* Used in the Heaven's Feel route of ''FateStayNight'' in the form of static appearing in the background [[spoiler:to show Shiro's decreasing ability to keep Archer's arm from shattering his mind]] and a blood CG being used to show injuries caused by the mental and physical strain. Averted in the other two routes, as all injuries have a sound effect due to being in battle.

* Creator/StephenKing's novel ''Eyes of the Dragon'' has a passage written from a dog's point of view, in which scents are described as lines of various colors.
* Creator/WalterMoers does the same thing for Wolpertings in ''Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures''.

* The xenomorph from ''Alien VS Predator'' series of games sees smell as a coloured aura around other players, even through walls.

* ''{{CSI}}'': Bloodhound-O-Vision - the visible world was shown in black and white smells were colourful spots on it. Actually, dogs don't see in black and white but compared to us they have a reduced number of colours they can see, dogs have colour vision equivalent to red-green colour blindness in humans (deuteranopia). See discussion for further info.

** [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4248 stars and lightning when Squigley wakes up from exercising]], plus a broken heart for existential angst.
** [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4247 an explosion where Tomey bites]] -- this one has lightning to indicate Tomey's fury.
** [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1579 Squigley's hangover.]]

* The character 'Honey' in ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' always has floating flowers around him.
* One arc in ''{{Mononoke}}'' depicted smell with colors, whereas almost everything else was DeliberatelyMonochrome.
* In ''SaintSeiya'', the background switches to a wireframe and a background color scheme themed to the character firing up his aura. Hyoga for instance gets a white/blue-ish background when using his cold-based powers, and as he senses the presence of a fellow cold powers user, to give the audience the visual cue that he is somewhat familiar with it, the background changes to this. Also counts in some ways as AuraVision, but it's mainly there to give the audience an insight on the surnatural perceptions that the Saints possess.

** The JamesBond games do this. Some of them even use the "blood runs down the screen" effect used in the "gunbarrel" sequence.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''{{CSI}}'': Bloodhound-O-Vision - the visible world was shown in black and white smells were colourful spots on it. Actually, dogs don't see in black and white but compared to us they have a reduced number of colours they can see, dogs have colour vision equivalent to red-green colour blindness in humans (deuteranopia). See discussion for further info.
[[/folder]]

* In Disney's ''{{Fantasia}}'', every scene is a representation of the images that the music invokes in the artists' minds. The segment that is the purest example of Editorial Synaesthesia is the one of "The Soundtrack", as abstract forms flowing into each other. Other segments are full stories that the music evoked for the artists.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''{{Sinfest}}'',