A.READING - The World’s First Cyborg

I listened to a podcast recently about an artist called Neil Harbisson who can’t see any colours. He can only see in black and white. When he was a child, he thought this was normal and everyone saw things like he did. He memorised the names of colours and what colour things are supposed to be, such as the sky is blue.

Then, as he got older, he realised that everyone else could see colours and he was missing out on something fundamental. One day, he went to a lecture about cybernetics, given by Adam Montandon, at Dartington College of Arts in 2003. After the lecture, he talked to Adam and explained his situation. Adam thought about the problem and came up with a solution. Adam knew that every colour had a vibration, so he decided to translate the colours into sounds for Neil. Adam created an antenna which is permanently attached to Neil’s head. The antenna sees the colours through a camera and then makes it into music. The sounds are transmitted to a chip in Neil’s skull which sends them to his ear through Neil’s bones. 

What this means, is that wherever Neil goes, he hears music constantly and can therefore understand all the colours around him. When he goes to an art gallery for example, he can be looking at a Picasso painting but hearing Bach. When he goes to the supermarket, all the colours translate into pop or dance music. Each face he sees has a sound. Neil has gone further than this though. He can also hear ultraviolet and infrared, which the human eye cannot even see.