Neil Harbisson – To See Like a Cyborg

9. 5. 2018

Stelarc, from the series Sound Portraits

"Cyborg, short for cybernetic organism or cybernetically controlled organism. Cyborg represents the synthesis of organic and mechanical parts. Its mechanical components are usually non-removable and their assembly or disassembly is done in the form of a surgical procedure."¹

Conceptual artist Neil Harbisson is the first officially recognised cyborg in the world. He was born in 1982 with a distinct form of colour blindness, which has been solved with a new cybernetic sensory organ. The device in the back of the Harbisson's skull scans the light spectrum and then converts it into vibrations. While the colour spectrum is typically perceived by the human eye, the cyborg can perceive other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum such as infrared and ultraviolet radiation with his device. The colour spectrum visible to the human eye is at the wavelengths of 380-750nm (nanometres), i.e. 790-400THz (terahertz), while Harbisson can perceive infrared radiation at the wavelength of about 760nm-1mm and ultraviolet radiation of 400-10nm.

As a promoter of transpecies operations, Harbisson speaks of widening the senses, natural development, adaptation, and streamlining the self. He also provides examples: instead of air conditioning, people should rather have the ability to regulate their body temperature; instead of artificial light, they should have night vision. These ideas also have an eco-friendly message – people should adapt to the environment, to the planet, not the other way round. Harbisson himself is planning more changes, a further extension of his senses.

His antenna that converts colours to sounds has been improved many times. Its sensor has an access to the Internet, so Harbisson can perceive colours, ultraviolet and infrared radiation even in the space (data provided by the National Aviation and Space Agency). Harbisson's close friends have access to his technical sense as well, and they can send colours converted to sounds at any time. However, the Internet connection also means possible risk of being hacked.

Colour is a property of light

This definition, included in textbooks of elementary physics, says there is no colour without light. Next comes the question of perception and standards for representing colours in various colour models and functions in everyday life. In fact, there is still no consensus about representing digital colours in imaging devices. Let us imagine Harbisson who cannot perceive colours with his eyes but through their wavelength converted to sound. Could we possibly perceive digital colours through their mathematical records? And what about the idea of a supercolour/hypercolour promoted by Andrea Průchová, a theorist of visual culture?^² To hear colours then seems like a very proper solution.

Text | Jana Bernartová

IMAGES CAPTIONS

1 | Stelarc, from the series Sound Portraits
2 | from the series Sound Palette Cards (C Major Triad, C Major Chord, C Augmented Triad, C Major 6th Chord, C Minor Triad, C Minor Chord, C Diminished Triad, C Minor 6th Chord
3 | from the series Colour Speeches (George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Adolf Hitler)
4 | from the series Sonochromatic LPs
5 | from the series City Colours: Monaco, Andorra La Vella (Andora), Bratislava (Slovakia), Vienna (Austria), Dublin (Ireland), Lisbon (Portugal), Zagreb (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Vaduz (Liechtenstein), Bern (Switzerland), Budapest (Hungary)
6 | photo © Lars Norgaard

Cyborg [online]. [cit. 2018-03-04]. Available at: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyborg
Fresh Eye [online]. [cit. 2018-03-04]. Available at: http://fresh-eye.cz/video/fresh-eye- special-andrea-pruchova-hyperbarva/. The lecture builds on the concept of "hypericon" of the French philosopher of new media, Pierre Levy, and explores the transformation of understanding colours in the digital environment through the introduction of an experimental working concept of "hypercolour" in cyberspace.

#31 body

The image of the body can take many forms reflecting the never-ending human desire to create the imprints of ourselves. The theme of the body and corporeality has appeared in photography since the very beginning. But it does not include only the classic and much-repeated nude, already exhausted in its commercial and common academic forms. The body itself is the mortal frame of the human being and its physical existence, whose uniqueness and evanescence we are aware of although we often try to forget about it. The body is born, and it grows, matures and becomes an object or the initiator of amorous passion: the female body produces children, and the male body is involved in a sexual act. Then the human body gets older, gradually wastes away, experiences diseases and bodily injuries, and eventually ceases to exist like everything else in the cycle of time. Photography and photographers have a unique chance to capture or interpret all these phases. Plato’s conception of corporeality gave rise to the dichotomy of the “body” and “soul”. Once we identify them in our being, we can see the body as a primary form of life that fundamentally determines our being in the world and expresses who we really are. It would be interesting if our physical experience was given the same, if not higher, value like our thinking. The representation of the body is the representation of strength and weakness, and the associated social and cultural codes, including sexuality and gender types. In this magazine issue, we focus on author and photographic projects presenting the human body and nudity sometimes as an object, sometimes as a means to stimulate the viewer’s critical reflections on the current political, cultural, sexual, gender, and socio-economic issues.