Neil Harbisson and the eyeborg.
Neil Harbisson is a Northern Irish born, colour blind, contemporary artist. His earliest works were completed through black and white only, until he began to wear a prosthetic device which is called an 'eyeborg'. Now, colour and the use of technology as an extension of the performer, and not as part of the performance, are the central themes in Harbisson's work.
The eyeborg enables Harbisson to paint in colour as he literally hears colour through the electronic device. Attached to the artists' head, the electronic device transposes the light frequencies of colour hues into sound frequencies. hence Harbisson hears colour.
This is a talk which Harbisson gives, going into depth on how the eyeborg works. It is very interesting and could definitely be a source of influence in my work.
Harbisson's artwork blurs the boundaries between sight and sound. An example of this can be seen in his sound portrait of two famous speeches; Martin Luther King's, 'I have a dream' and one of Hitlers speeches.
The one on the left is Hitler, and the one on the right is Martin Luther King.
If one was to apply the colour theory to these pictures, it is evident that the emotions would indeed suit both individually. Hitler's speech is represented in a lot of green, yellow and red. These colours, as I posted in a previous blog, can be associated with aggression, Uniform, Envy and Deceitful, all of which could definitely be associated with Hitler. On the contrary, Martin Luther King's speech has more pink, purple and blue tones suggesting passion, commitment, trustworthiness and sentiment, which one would agree to be a good assessment of Luther King's ambitions.
Therefore, It seems to be evident that there is a strong connection between sight and sound, and I hope to explore that in my surrounding environments.
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