Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is British born, Spanish raised artist Neil Harbisson. Neil has a slight problem,
considering his career, he was born colourblind.
But he's got a rather ingenious solution in the form of an antenna, surgically implanted
by doctors, into the front of his head. It might make him look like an angler fish, but
it means he can hear colours.
The antenna scans the light frequency in front of it, then transmits that signal to Harbisson's
brain, where a chip converts it into sounds which are transmitted through the bone of
his skull to the inner ear. Meaning he hears colours as an internal sound.
"So, when I look at art I can hear the art piece, so, to me, painters have become composers,
so, I can actually hear a Picasso or an Andy Warhol or this art piece that for me is just
different notes because up here it sounds higher pitch. Here we have an F Sharp, F,
A. So there's different notes and there's many silences in between because black is
silence, so it's actually a very musical painting this."
The Eureka moment came while Neil was studying at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, and
became a reality thanks to a collaboration with another student, Adam Montandon. It went
through various incarnations before being permanently attached in 2004, but it's constantly
under development.
"Since 2004 I've heard colour permanently and I feel that the software is no longer
something external, but a part of my brain, and I feel that the antenna is a part of my
body. So it's been a gradual union between technology and my body."
But how does it sound?
Interesting, not quite the Beatles but very emotive. And he's been working with the Palau
Youth Choir and the Catalan Quartic String Quartet to put the unique way he hears colour
into musical performances everyone can enjoy. Still, not quite the Beatles. But a whole
new meaning for the blues.