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Neil Harbisson

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Neil Harbisson
File:Neil Harbisson - The World's First Official Cyborg.jpg
Neil Harbisson with his cybernetic eye.
Born
Neil Harbisson
NationalityBritish / Catalan
EducationDartington College of Arts, New York Institute of Photography
Known forCyberarts, Avant-garde, Performance art.
Notable workSound Portraits, Cybernetic Paitings, Color Scores, Capital Colors of Europe
AwardsEuroprix

Neil Harbisson (27 July 1982)[1] is a British-Catalan cyborg artist, musician and performer best known for his self-extended ability to hear colors. In 2004 he became the first person in the World to be fitted with an eyeborg[2]and to be officially recognized as a cyborg by a government.[3]Color and the use of technology as an extension of the performer, and not as part of the performance, are the central themes in Harbisson's work.

Life and Career

Early life

Neil Harbisson was born with achromatopsia, a condition that only allows him to see in black and white. He grew up in Mataró (Spain) where he studied music, dance and drama at various schools[4][5]. He began to compose piano pieces at the age of 11.

At school, he was teased by classmates, who thought he was just being lazy every time he asked one of them to pass the red paint in an art class, or pick out a blue pen. "I used to get jam mixed up with tomato sauce, and orange juice confused with apple juice. I had to ask people what a particular food was, or smell it, and when I was young, lots of people thought that was slightly odd." He dressed exclusively in black and white. "What was the point in wearing something I couldn't appreciate?" he asks.[6]

At the age of 16 he started studying Fine Art at Institut Alexandre Satorras, where he was given special permission to use only black, white and gray colors in his works. Harbisson early works are all in black and white.[7]

In May 2001, he gained media attention in Spain after climbing on a tree to save three trees from being cut in the center of Mataró. Harbisson lived on the tree for several days, and was supported by over 3,000 people who signed a petition to maintain the trees.[8] After days of protest, the city hall announced the trees would not be cut.[9][10]

Harbisson moved to Ireland in September 2001 to finish his piano studies at Dublin's "Walton's New School of Music". In 2002 he moved to England to study Music Composition at Dartington College of Arts.

The Eyeborg

In October 2003 in his second year at Dartington College of Arts, Harbisson attended a lecture on cybernetics, particularly on sensory extensions via cybernetics, given by Adam Montandon, a Plymouth University student. Neil found this of immense interest and at the end of the lecture he went up to Adam to explain his condition. From that moment they started working on the eyeborg project.[11]

The eyeborg works with a head mounted camera that picks up the colors directly in front of a person, and converts them in real-time into sound waves[12]. Neil worked hard to memorise the frequencies related to each colour: high frequency hues are high-pitched, while low frequency hues sound bolder. In Vienna, they co-presented their Eyeborg project, one of more than 400 entries from 29 different countries, and won the Europrix Award in Content Tools and Interface Design (2004), as well as the Innovation Award (Submerge, Bristol 2004).

In 2007, while hitch-hiking around Europe, Harbisson met Peter Kese in Ljubljana, a software developer from Kranj, Slovenia. Kese offered to develop the eyeborg even further so that Harbisson could perceive color saturation and not only color hues. After a few weeks he had developed a new eyeborg model that allowed Harbisson to perceive up to 360 different hues through microtones and saturation through different volume levels.

Matias Lizana, a student from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya is currently developing the eyeborg into a small chip as part of his final year project. The new chip will allow Harbisson to hear colours in stereo and to implant the eyeborg in his forehead.[13]

Cyborg status

In 2004, Harbisson was not allowed to renew his UK passport because his passport photo was rejected. The passport office would not allow Harbisson to appear with electronic equipment on his head. Harbisson wrote back to them insisting that the eyeborg should be considered part of his body as he had become a cyborg. Letters from his doctor, friends and his college were sent to the passport office to give him support. After weeks of correspondence Harbisson's prosthetic device was included as confirmation of his permanent and embedded cyborg status. [14].

Sonochromatopsia

Harbisson uses the term sonochromatopsia (sono-, Latin: sound + chromat-, Greek: color + -opsia, Greek: visual condition) to define his new condition. He explains that achromatopsia can no longer define his condition because achromatopsics can not perceive nor distinguish colors. He also explains that synesthesia does not define his condition accurately because the relation between color and sound varies depending on each person, whereas sonochromatopsia is an extra sense that relates color to sound objectively and equally to everyone.

Works

Art

Before the Eyeborg entered his life his canvases were black and white, the medium often charcoal. The Eyeborg opened up a new palette of brightly coloured paints. Harbisson's first showcase of color paintings was at the Port Eliot Festival in 2004. Followed by other showcases at the Bankside Gallery, Submerge Festival (Bristol), Ignition Showcase (Penzance), Museum's Quartier (Vienna) and at the Royal College of Art Gallery.

In 2007 Harbisson started hitch-hiking around Europe to find the main colors of capital cities. He visited over 30 countries and scanned each capital until he was able to define the each city with two main hues.[15] Under the title Capital Colors of Europe Harbisson has exhibited the colours of each capital in several European galleries including Spain, Andorra, UK, and Croatia.

Hearing colours also implies that when Harbisson listens to music he can "see" colors. Color Scores are a series of paintings where Harbisson transforms into color the first 100 notes of well-known, and not so well-known, musical pieces.[16]

Sound Portraits are portraits of people that Harbisson creates by listening to the colors of faces. Face creates different micro tone chord depending on their colours. In order to create a sound portrait he needs to stand in front of the person and point his eyeborg at the different parts of the face, he then writes down the different notes on a special 360 lined manuscript paper. He explains that photographs can not be used to create these portraits as colors are not the same on pictures than live. Since 2005 he has created sound portaits of Prince Charles, Antoni Tàpies, Leonardo di Caprio and Woody Allen among others.[17]

References

  1. ^ Registre El Maresme Issue 224, Summer 1982
  2. ^ *Wade, Greg. "Seeing things in a different light", BBC, 19 January 2005.
  3. ^ *Tibballs, Geoff. Ripley's Believe it or not! p.61 (USA 2006) ISBN 978-1-893951-12-9
  4. ^ FC "Més de 4000 espectadors ja han vist els Pastorets que acaben diumenge" Capgros 12-19 February 1999
  5. ^ JV "Alumnes del Campeny representen Terra Baixa" Crònica de Mataró 16 May 1998
  6. ^ Gordonin, Bryony. "From black and white to colour . . . eyes opened to sound of socks", Independent, 13 January 2005.
  7. ^ Brennan, Ciarán. "When what you see is not in colour", The Irish Times, 5 May 2008.
  8. ^ "Penjats pels arbres" Front page of El Punt 26 May 2001
  9. ^ de la Fuente, Antonia. "Barones rampantes de Mataró se instalan en árboles para impedir que los corten", La Vanguardia, 27 May 2001.
  10. ^ Ferran, Helena. "Famós a Mataró per <<salvar>> arbres", El Punt, 5 December 2004.
  11. ^ Nadotti, Cristina. "Daltonici, mondo a colori con l'aiuto di "Eye-borg"", La Repubblica, 31 May 2005.
  12. ^ Alfredo M. Ronchi: Eculture: Cultural Content in the Digital Age. Springer (New York, 2009). p.319 ISBN 978-3-540-75273-8
  13. ^ Pellicer, Ramon. "Sentir colors", ''TV3 (Catalonia)'', 11 May 2010
  14. ^ Miah, Andy / Rich, Emma. The medicalization of cyberspace, Routledge (New York, 2008). p.130 ISBN 978-0-415-37622-8
  15. ^ Dee, Michael. "Neil Harbisson - en kunstnerisk kyborg", Kunst for alle, p.32-35 Issue 3, 2009.
  16. ^ Jarque, Miquel "L'art de pintar els sons", Catalunya Ràdio, 8 May 2010.
  17. ^ Bergós, Mónica "El primer 'cyborg'", El Correo, 15 May 2010.
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