Art | Science | Neurodiversity

The photo shows a billboard for the AI company exa.ai. eaturing a magnificient white pegasus unicorn flying over a cotton candy pink clouds. There’s a clear blue sky in the background, and an arcing rainbow. The text reads 'Hallucintaions are fun, but not from your AI."

AI Marketing Has a Hallucination Problem

I hallucinate. These forced perceptions come to me only at night and are, at times, terrifying. Sometimes, right as I fall to sleep, I open my eyes and see large objects that look like multilegged mutant starfish. They dangle in the air above my head shimmering and swirling, their bodies crazed like pottery. They appear…

The word synesthesia as seen by CC Hart and when perceived via grapheme-color synesthesia

Words, Words, Words…

My partner and I like to play the Spelling Bee game in the New York Times. We have a strategy; I try to solve the pangrams while he picks away at the other words on the list. It’s typical for us to learn an unfamiliar word every few puzzles, often from the field of ornithology.…

Oh No! Scotoma…

By: carolyncchart November 11, 2025November 14, 2025

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It’s been a few years since I’ve had an ocular migraine, but the flashing lights and zigzag crenellations paid a visit this past Saturday. I was helping my friend Julia with a gorgeous headband she’s creating based on an ancient Assyrian headdress when the first flickers appeared in the periphery of my left eye. I…

Empathy, Friendship, and the 100 Yard Dash

By: carolyncchart August 3, 2025August 4, 2025

Art | Science | Neurodiversity1 Comment

One of the people I love most in this world celebrates a milestone birthday today. Her name is Lisa, and although we live a continent apart, she is in my heart and on my mind every single day. Lisa is funny, kind, and just kooky enough to join me in odd adventures, like spontaneous chocolate…

Please Touch the Art

By: carolyncchart July 23, 2024July 23, 2024

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Any visitor to a museum or gallery expects to see a familiar placard. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH, or another iteration of keep your hands to yourself is often posted next to an exhibit or on a nearby wall. This reminder that contact with the art is forbidden frustrates those of us who want a multisensory…

Gingerly

By: carolyncchart July 1, 2024July 1, 2024

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I am a natural redhead, part of the less than 2% of the global population that is inherently ginger. Genetic testing has confirmed I carry the melanocortin 1 genetic variant, otherwise known as MC1R. This means I lack the receptors to pick up a biochemical signal to create eumelanin, the brown form of skin and…

Quiet, But Not Quiescent

By: carolyncchart June 3, 2024June 3, 2024

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I love the word quiescent, meaning “being at rest; inactive or motionless”. I fell in love with the word the first time I read it on a box of Popsicles, the treat that is quiescently frozen. I imagined the brightly colored twinpops, dormant as winter flowers, resting peacefully in their box under the spell of…

Gumbo and Shostakovich

By: carolyncchart January 8, 2024January 12, 2024

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On Saturday evening, I made a Creole gumbo for supper, loaded with andouille, okra, and shrimp. It takes several hours to make this traditional Louisiana stew, starting with a classic roux that bubbles and squeaks in the pot as it morphs from off-white to brown over the course of an hour. The hissing and popping…