Let's talk Synaesthesia: Maike Preißing x Julia Keinath

What does a sound look like? And what happens when colours don’t mix on a palette, but blend in the eye of the viewer instead? These are just some of the questions explored by Maike Preißing, a psychologist, synaesthesia artist and neurodiversity coach, in her podcast Let's talk Synaesthesia. Based in Oxford, Maike speaks to people from around the world about synaesthesia, a fascinating perceptual phenomenon in which different senses become intertwined, enabling sounds, colours, shapes, and other sensory stimuli to evoke unexpected associations.

Paul Signac: The Port at sunset, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez), 1892, Oil on Canvas, 65 x 81 cm, Hasso Plattner Collection — Paul Signac: *The Port at sunset, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez),* 1892, Oil on Canvas, 65 x 81 cm, Hasso Plattner Collection

The latest episode features Julia Keinath, an art historian and curatorial assistant at the Museum Barberini. She talks about the current exhibition Symphony of Colours. Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism and how, together with Georges Seurat, Paul Signac developed a new painting technique in the mid-1880s: applying pure, unmixed dots of colour that come together to form an image not on the palette, but in the eye of the viewer. The technique was closely informed by contemporary discoveries in optics and the physiology of perception—connecting directly to the questions at the heart of Maike Preißing’s podcast: how we see, hear and experience the world, and how our senses shape our perception.

Available wherever you get your podcasts.

To the Podcast

For those who would like to experience the subject live, Julia Keinath and Maike Preißing will meet again at the Barberini Get-together on 8 October. The evening will feature a Young Curators Talk, followed by the talk Interconnected Senses – How synesthesia influences our view of art and the world.

The event is exclusively open to students and trainees from Berlin and Potsdam, with free admission.

Julia Keinath is a curatorial assistant at the Museum Barberini. She studied art history at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, where her master’s thesis focused on works by Impressionist artist Dora Hitz. At the Museum Barberini, she has contributed to the curation of the exhibitions The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro's Impressionism and Symphony of Colours. Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism. She is currently working intensively on the upcoming exhibition Barcelona Moderna. From Gaudí to Picasso, which opens on 20 March 2027.

Most recently, she appeared as a guest on the podcast Let’s Talk Synaesthesia, where she discussed the Signac exhibition and her passion for art history.

Maike Preißing is a psychologist, podcast host, artist and neurodiversity coach from Germany, now based in Oxford. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology and has worked in the fields of mental health and neurodivergence for more than eight years. Early in her career, she was part of a research team in the highlands of Papua, Indonesia, investigating women’s sexual health—an experience that had a lasting impact on her interest in human diversity and lived experience. Today, her work focuses on neurodiversity consulting, particularly autism, ADHD, sensory processing and synaesthesia, which she experiences herself in more than ten forms. In 2023, she launched her podcast Let’s Talk Synaesthesia, where she speaks with people with lived experience as well as experts from around the world about synaesthesia, neurodivergence and perception.

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