LISTEN TO COLOR (NEIL HARBISSON)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvVeMxQqnys

SUMMARY:

He was born with a red visual condition with is total color illness so he have never seen color and he doesn´t know how color looks like because he came from a gray world, to him the sky is always gray, flowers are always gray and television is still in black and white, but since the age of 21 instead of seeing color he can hear color. In 2003 he started the project with the computer scientist Adam Montandom and the result with the collaboration with Peter Keshef from Slovenia and Mathias Linthana from Barcelona, is this electronic eye, it’s a color sensor that detects the color frequency in front of him and sends this frequency to a chip installed in the back of his head and he hear the color in front of him. So, he have been hearing color all the time for 8 years since 2004, so he have been completely normal not to hear color all the time, at start do he has to memorize the name you give for each color so he had to memorize the notes but after sometime all these information became a perception, he didn’t have to think about the notes and after sometime this perception became a feeling; he started to have favorite colors and he started to dream in colors, so when he started to dream in color is when he felt that the software and his brain had united, cause in his dreams, it was his brain creating electronic sounds and it wasn’t the software, so that’s when he started to feel like a cyborg, is when he started to feel that the cybernetic device was not longer and device, it had became part of his body, an extension of his senses; and after sometime it even became a part of his official image. In his passport his photo shows him wearing the electronic eye, even you’re not allowed to appear in U.K passport with electronic equipment, but he insisted to the passport officer, what they were seeing was actually a new part of his body, an extension of his brain, and they finale accepted him to appear with that in the passport photo. So, life has change grammatically since he hear color, cause color is almost everywhere. Bigger changes, for example, at going to an art gallery, he can listen to a Picasso for example, so it’s like going to a concert, cause he can listen to the paintings; and supermarkets, he find this is very attractive, to walk alone in the supermarket is like going to a night club with different melodies. Also the way he dress has changed, before he used to dress in a way that looks good, now he dress in a way that sounds good. And also, food, the way he looks at food has changed, because now he can display food on a plate, so he can eat his favorite song, depending in how he displays, he can hear and he can compose music with food. Also the way he perceive beauty has changed, because when he looks at someone he hear the face, so someone that look really beautiful can sounds really terrible or may happen the opposite.

Another thing that happens is that he started to have this secondary effect, the normal sounds started to become colors. He got to the point when he was able to perceive 360 colors, just like human vision, he was able to differentiate all the degrees, but then he though that this human vision wasn’t good enough, there is many more color around, that we cannot perceive, but the electronic eyes can perceive, so he decided to continue extending his color senses. He thinks all we wish to perceive things we cannot, like ultraviolet; that’s why 2 years ago he created the Cyborg Foundation which is a function that tries to help people become a cyborg, tries to encourage people to extend their senses by using technology as part of the body. All of us know that knowledge comes from our senses, so if we extend our senses, we will consequently extend our knowledge.

He thinks life would be much more exciting when we stop creating applications for mobile phones and start creating applications for our own body.

PERSONAL REACTION:

I really enjoy this video. It's amazing the way he can hear colors and also the way he can transform sounds of the everyday life into colors. I like the idea of being a cyborg, because you could perceive colors you can't perceive with the human eyes... Before to watch this video i have never taugh that a person can hear colors.