What others have found interesting in the past is how I conceptualize spaces around me, especially when imagining things like my DnD campaign that I run. I don't see things in my head visually, but more have a general special sense of them. I don't need to visualize my foot or my hand to know where it is. I don't need to visualize the wall of my room that I'm very familiar with; even with my eyes closed I know my relative position in the space and can find the light switch in the dark, or the fan. It's the same for my spacial reasoning. I can navigate the world perfectly fine, or conceptualize a fictional DnD battle, not visually, but more like through touch, though that's not exactly the sensation. I cannot rotate the proverbial cube in my mind, but I can conceive of what another face might feel like, and, if it's not too TMI, I have a very good mental map of my fiancée's body, and could draw her accurately, even if I can't see her.

Someone with aphantasia might be able to learn how to conceptualize in a different way, but I don’t think you can train what’s not there, any more than a blind person could train themselves to see. There isn’t a lot of study into it though, and I’ve found it difficult to get solid information on my condition, so perhaps there’s more to learn. Why, for example, do I have a very vivid imagination of sounds? I can imagine an entire song in all of its different instruments as if I could hear it, but I can’t even conceive even a little bit of what it means to see something in my head.

That is so fascinating. I think I understand now, I probably couldn't train myself to do the sound thing. I asked a friend with what you have to tell me what his home looked like growing up and he said it was white. I asked him if he could picture that home when he said it and he told me that no, it was like memorizing times tables, it's just a fact. It blows my mind how our brains work.

As far as collaborating on the art, don't discount the sounds, you could focus on that and your fiance could focus on the visuals. What a cool blend of talents.

There were some recent studies that early childhood trauma can cause it, which would explain why I suffer from aphantasia. Or I'm "lucky" to just inherit the bad genes.

And funny enough, my partner also has hyperphantasia.

A random thought, one thing that recently occurred to me, I often forget were I've placed things, that's because usually people just picture where they've seen them. At least my partner does that.