Neil Harbisson is the world’s first officially recognised cyborg. Born monochromatic, Harbisson sees exclusively in grayscale and has never perceived colour visually. Since March 2004 he has worn various iterations of the “eyeborg” device, allowing him to perceive colour as hundreds of microtones of sound within just one octave. Since then, he has fused the device with the occipital bone in his skull; he spoke to tn2 about his activism, art and life with a sixth sense.

Tell me about your early experiences with colour and sound.
When I was growing up I didn’t like doing visual things. I hated art because I couldn’t sense it. I focused on music because I could fully experience the required sense. All other subjects have colour; literature is full of colour on almost every page. Even in geography and sports there are a lot of colours offered as code so music was an escape. My relationship with colour was always very love-hate. There was always music at home, so I grew up with it.

When did you decide that you wanted to do something about not being able to see colour, but still wanted to experience it?
I never wanted to change my sight. To me, seeing in black and white is a positive. I find seeing in greyscale an advantage and a lot of people have problems understanding that. Completely colour blind people see better at night, see through camouflage and recall shapes better. When I was growing up I didn’t think my sight was a problem, the problem was everyone else being able to see colour! I always hated the idea of interfering with my existing senses. I didn’t want glasses or headphones, so I started exploding bone conduction to experience the sound inside my skull. I was studying at Dartington College of Arts in England, at the time and there was a lecture on cybernetics in my second year. I went to speak to Adam Montandon (who gave the lecture) and suggested a project to extend my senses.

How did the project progress?
Developing software was easy, but at the time a computer chip was impossible. It wasn’t until 22 March 2004 that I wore anything. At the beginning, the project was just to create software that I would use with a camera and headphones. I wore them all the time so it was a permanent experience that my brain would get used to it. I wasn’t able to hear other people well, just the colour, and for the first three weeks I was very isolated, absorbing sound. The computer I had to carry was the worst, it weighed 5 kg.

What was the first colour you heard, what was it like?
Red. Well the first thing was the Windows logo, the four colours: red, green, blue and yellow. Then the first I memorised was red. I heard the wall and asked if it was red and everyone said yes. It wasn’t nice. The sounds I hear are electronic so it wasn’t, “Oh, so beautiful!”. The first five weeks were a bit too much. I got strong headaches; I was blocking a sense, and my body didn’t like that. Slowly, my brain accepted the input but it was utterly exhausting. At first it was just information, but then over months and years it became a feeling and then a perception, so it was a long journey. If I had decided to not wear it permanently, I’m sure the chain would have been broken and I would have had to start from the beginning again. The intuition was that I should wear it permanently.

Did you always intend to use the “Eye-Borg” to create art?
I always saw this as an art project, never a medical thing. Adding a new sense was itself a new art process or statement. Even if I didn’t create works of art, having a new sense was art. Creating your own senses and body parts are art forms. If this is a work of art, I am constantly showing it to other people, using my own body as a sculpture where the antenna is a unique work of art.

Your sound portraits are some of your most famous work. Tell me a little about those.
Prince Charles came to Dartington College not long after the two concerts. He asked me about my antenna and I asked to listen to his face, so he was the first. From then on, I became interested in comparing the sounds of the human faces and listening to faces I had seen all my life: friends, family and famous faces. I listen to five notes: skin, hair, both eyes and lips to form a unique chord. I’ve never come across two the same, not even twins. It’s almost impossible to get exactly the same microtone and volume.

Are there similarities between people who are related?
Yes. But the really great thing is that you relate people you never would have thought of before. Prince Charles and Nicole Kidman have very similar eyes, for example. That’s the great thing about scanning cities too; everyone thinks they are grey, but grey is the absence of hue, so is almost never there in cities. Monaco is salmon and azure, for example.

Do these things change your perception of beauty?
Absolutely. If I had a face that looked nice and one that sounded nice, I don’t know which I’d chose. Obviously its very subjective what sounds nice, but a harmonious face doesn’t make a harmonious chord so the canon of beauty is certainly changed for me.

Tell me a little about your activism, and the Cyborg Foundation.
Since 2004 the project has received media coverage, from the university paper to national news and then international. Suddenly the project was everywhere, and I started receiving emails. There was a lot of interest from others who also wanted to extend their senses but I didn’t know how to help. Moon Ribas [choreographer and fellow cyborg activist] and I decided to create an international organisation to help people to become cyborgs, to use technology to extend their senses. Also to defend the right to do this, to defend the ethics of this as a process. Then to defend this as an art movement.

The last thing is the future. Where do you see this technology going?
You can live 80 or 90 years with the same senses that will degenerate over time. Or you can have cybernetic senses that you know will get better, and allow you to perceive reality better. That will change how we think completely. You’ll look forward to getting old because every time you sense something new, you rediscover the planet. There are so many things we cannot experience, sounds, smells, even what’s behind us! We have the opportunity to create totally new experiences, and that all starts with something as simple as exploring musical notes.

Photo by Huda Awan.