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Neil Harbisson

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Neil Harbisson
File:World's First Cyborg.jpg
Neil Harbisson: the world's first cyborg.
Born
Neil Harbisson
NationalityBritish / Spanish
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-Spanish 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's 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 terms sonochromatism or 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 works were all in 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), Museumsquartier (Vienna) and at the Royal College of Art Gallery (London).

In 2007 Harbisson started hitch-hiking around Europe to find the main colors of capital cities, [15] visiting more than 50 countries as well as travelling around Britain.[16] He scanned each capital until he was able represent each city with two main hues.[17] In Monaco, it was azure and salmon pink; in Bratislava it was yellow and turquoise; and in Andorra it was dark green and fuchsia.[18] Under the title Capital Colors of Europe Harbisson has exhibited the colours of each capital in several European galleries[19] including Spain, Andorra, UK, and Croatia.[20]

The eyeborg not only allows him to perceive and paint in color but it also means that everyday sounds, such as ring tones or music, become associated with colours.[21] Color Scores are a series of paintings where Harbisson transforms into color the first 100 notes of well-known musical pieces.[22]

Sound Portraits are portraits of people that Harbisson creates by listening to the colors of faces. Each face creates a different micro tone chord depending on its 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.[23]

Music

The piano has been Neil's instrument since he was a small child. He gravitated towards it quite naturally, since he hated even the existence of color. ‘It was a black and white instrument, perfect for me.’ It was inevitable that his first performed composition as a cyborg was a marriage of paint and music. In Piano Concerto No. 1, first performed at Dartington College of Arts in 2004, Neil literally painted a Steinway & Sons piano, using the color frequencies to produce notes. With his next composition, the Pianoborg Concerto, Neil wanted to demonstrate to an audience exactly how he used the eyeborg. The piano was 'prepared', by attaching a computer to the underside, the sensor of the eyeborg being positioned above the keys. When a color was shown to the sensor, the computer picked up the frequency and relayed this to the piano, which then played the corresponding note. Neil said ‘The piano was playing the pianist, which is what I wanted to achieve.’[24]

Harbisson's first color to voice performances were in collaboration with Amiina violinist María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir (wife of Sigur Rós keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson), in their performances María used a computer and a microphone to sing the microtonal color frequencies that Harbisson used while creating live paintings on stage. Their first performances were in 2004 at Ariel Centre (Totnes, UK) and at Plymouth Guildhall (UK).[25]

Since 2008 Harbisson has been collaborating and performing with Catalan artist and musician Pau Riba with whom he shares the same interest in cyborgs[26] They first performed in 2008 at Sala Luz de Gas (Barcelona), followed by other performances in Barcelona[27], Girona and Mataró.[28] One of their recent projects is Avigram (Avi- Latin: bird, -gram Greek: something written, drawn or recorded) a structure of 12 strings, one string for each semitone in an octave, installed on a roof of a farm. The installation is being recorded 24 hours a day and a melody is being created depending on which strings birds decide to rest on.[29]

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", The 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. ^ Marković, Stjepan. "Prvi sluzbeni covjek kiborg cuje trideset i sest boja" 24 sata (Croatia) pp.12-13, 17 December 2007
  16. ^ Brooks, Richard. "Colour-blind artist learns to paint by hearing", The Sunday Times, 24 February 2008.
  17. ^ Dee, Michael. "Neil Harbisson - en kunstnerisk kyborg", Kunst for alle, p.32-35 Issue 3, 2009.
  18. ^ Bojka "Katalonci "čudnim zvukovima" odredili boju Zagreba" Lupiga, 29 November 2007.
  19. ^ Marković, Stjepan. "Kiborg iz Engleske u Zagrebu 'slusao' boje"] 24 sata Promotivni Primjerak Front Page, 17 December 2007
  20. ^ "Zivi sa zicama na vrhu glave"] 24 sata (Croatia) Front Page, 17 December 2007
  21. ^ Pearce, Marcus. "The vision thing: Art and illusion", The Guardian, 22 September 2008.
  22. ^ Jarque, Miquel "L'art de pintar els sons", Catalunya Ràdio, 8 May 2010.
  23. ^ Bergós, Mónica "El primer 'cyborg'", El Correo, 15 May 2010.
  24. ^ Woodcock, Jo. "Cyborg student, the first at Dartington", Life After Dartington, page 10, Issue 26, Summer 2005.
  25. ^ "Carne Cruda","Radio Nacional de España", 2 June 2010.
  26. ^ Putx, Donat. "Mi madre es un cyborg", La Vanguardia, 28 January 2009.
  27. ^ Tramullas, Gemma. "Pau Riba invita a disfrutar de un orgasmo folclórico", El Periódico, 27 September 2009.
  28. ^ Bueno, Vern "Una performance porta 99 nous el dia 9 del 9, de 9 del matí a 9 de la nit", Capgròs, 08 September 2009.
  29. ^ "Tres artistes locals i Pau Riba creen una instal·lació a les Cinc Sènies", Capgròs, 22 Abril 2010.
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