Synaesthesia animator wins international award

The Nature Journal award comes with a $2,500 cash prize

Shrewsbury animator Samantha Moore has celebrated winning a major international award for science films.

Ms Moore was awarded the Nature Journal Scientific Merit Award for her short film Eyeful of Sound, inspired by the experiences of synaesthesia sufferers.

Synaesthesia causes usually separate senses to be combined in one experience, such as sound and colour.

The New York Imagine Science festival described the film as "a cocktail of science, imagination and storytelling".

Funded by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, Ms Moore worked with neuropsychologist Dr Jamie Ward from the University of Sussex and a group of sufferers to accurately convey the experience of synaesthesia.

Watch a trailer for An Eyeful of Sound

Ms Moore said: "The people I was interviewing, when they listen to music they see it at the same time... they see colours and textures.

"I could play them the soundtrack, get them to describe what they saw and animate it."

Sufferers can associate numbers or days with certain colours or textures

Ms Moore wasn't able to collect her award in person in New York, but said she was looking forward to receiving the $2,500 cash prize.

Animated documentaries

This year, An Eyeful of Sound has also won Best Experimental/Animation at the Australian Scinema Festival of Science, and the Diploma for Documentary at the Flip Animation Festival in Wolverhampton.

Ms Moore also works as a senior lecturer in animation at the University of Wolverhampton and specialises in animated documentaries.

In recent years, she has also worked with fellow Shrewsbury film-maker Joshka Wessels to make a highly acclaimed documentary about children living with Aids in Uganda.