Synaesthesia is a term used to describe the involuntary blending together of the senses – for example, hearing a musical note might produce the sense of a certain colour or taste. In the arts, the word often refers to works that try to create this kind of effect, using pictures alone to suggest sounds, smells or textures. The idea fascinated many painters in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One was the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, who was known for painting what music looked like to him.