Ted Talk - I Listen To Colour

In Neil Harbisson's TED Talk he discusses how he used a sonic implant to allow him to hear colours.



Neil Harbisson was born with full colour blindness, meaning he only sees in greyscale.

"Harbisson's original "eyeborg" – devised a decade ago by Plymouth University cybernetics expert Adam Montandon – required him to wear headphones connected to a laptop. Subsequent operations allowed him to ditch all this, as a vibrating chip was placed first against, then inside his skull. In the process, he became the world's first cyborg artist" (The Guardian, 2014).

This device is essentially a camera that focuses on the colour of the image in real-time. The colour is then converted into sine waves that are then transmitted through a plate in the back of his head so that he can hear them. What this means is that every shade of colour gives off a different frequency and, with practice, Neil was able to distinguish the audio frequencies as different colours. Although this was rather interesting to see installed as part of someone (making Neil now refer to himself as a cyborg) it is not a new concept to me; I have already done similar things with colours and sound.

What actually interested me in this talk was how Neil had used this extra sense in a more abstract way. By learning to distinguish different sounds as colours he had, in effect, given himself Chromesthesia. The artist within him started to use this in other ways. Instead of simply using the device to distinguish colour, he started to use it to create art based on his interpretations. In the TED Talk he discussed how the faces of different people sound to him whilst comparing the sounds of different people and how some of them sound rather similar. The other way in which he uses this new sense is to use his newly-gained chromesthesia to turn famous speeches and compositions into works of art based on the colours that he hears.

Beethoven's Fur Elisa (Remarkable, 2015)

Far from simply allowing Neil to perceive day-to-day colours, the device also allows his to experience colours in a far more involved way than most as "by installing this cybernetic eye in my head I've actually transformed my own body into a musical instrument as I can play music by looking at things now" (Harbisson, 2013). He is also quoted in the video, when explaining why he is dressed the way he is, that he no longer "dresses in a way that looks good, but in a way that sounds good".

While there is nothing in this talk that I can strictly add to my teaching, I could certainly use his outlook on this technology and how he adapted it to create art to not only inspire my students but to open their minds to the artistic possibilities that can be gleaned from seemingly specifically designed technologies.

References

The Guardian. 2014. Neil Harbisson: the world's first cyborg artist. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/06/neil-harbisson-worlds-first-cyborg-artist. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
Harbisson, N. 2015. WATCH: How a Colorblind Cyborg 'Hears' Color. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-harbisson/hearing-color-cyborg-tedtalk_b_3654445.html. [Accessed 15 November 2015].

Remarkable. 2015. This colourblind artist might just be the first person ever to develop a 'sixth sense'. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.remarkably.com/colourblind-artist-might-just-first-person-ever-develop-sixth-sense/. [Accessed 15 November 2015].