Tony Oursler's Synesthesia project features interviews with twelve legendary figures in the downtown music, performance and art scenes: John Cale, Thurston Moore, Dan Graham, Genesis P-Orridge, Kim Gordon, Glenn Branca, Laurie Anderson, Tony Conrad, David Byrne, Lydia Lunch, Alan Vega, and Arto Lindsay. These works were originally included as one element of Oursler and Mike Kelley's multimedia installation The Poetics Project. These conversations reveal fascinating insights and anecdotes from some of the most influential figures in the experimental rock and art underground of the 1970s and '80s, from pre-punk innovators to post-punk icons, from industrial and avant-garde music to noise bands and No Wave.

Arto Lindsay made his name with the New York noise-rock group DNA, whose inclusion on Brian Eno's genre-defining 1978 compilation No New York sealed their legend as no wave pioneers. Since then he has been a fixture of the New York downtown scene, playing with the Lounge Lizards and the Ambitious Lovers, and producing or collaborating with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Ikue Mori, Caetano Velosa, and DJ Spooky.