{"id":42901,"date":"2024-09-20T07:24:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T07:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/meeting-a-real-life-cyborg-was-gobsmacking-says-film-director\/"},"modified":"2024-09-20T07:24:41","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T07:24:41","slug":"meeting-a-real-life-cyborg-was-gobsmacking-says-film-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/meeting-a-real-life-cyborg-was-gobsmacking-says-film-director\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Meeting a real-life cyborg was gobsmacking\u2019 says film director"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"FirstFirst Born Films<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Neil Harbisson, who sees in black and white, says his antennae lets him “hear” colour<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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For the past 20 years, self-declared “cyborg artist” Neil Harbisson has provoked debate with his “eyeborg” – a surgically attached antenna.<\/p>\n

Harbisson, who grew up in Barcelona, is colour blind, having been born with the rare condition achromatopsia, which affects one in 33,000 people. <\/p>\n

This means he sees in what he calls “greyscale” – only black, white and shades of grey.<\/p>\n

But he decided to have surgery in 2004 which changed his life – and his senses – attaching an antennae to the back of his head, which transforms light waves into sounds. <\/p>\n

When film director Carey Born came across Harbisson, classed by Guinness World Records as “the first officially recognised ‘cyborg’,”<\/a> she was “gobsmacked and astonished”.<\/p>\n

Her next move was to meet him, and then make a film about him – Cyborg: A Documentary. <\/p>\n

It explores how he navigates his life, along with effects and implications of his unusual surgical procedure.<\/p>\n

“The reason he did it was not to substitute the sense that he was lacking – it was in order to create an enhancement,” Born tells the BBC.<\/p>\n

“So that was really the main hook that I thought was fascinating.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"FirstFirst Born Films<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Harbisson and his partner Moon Ribas, who share a similar vision about body augmentation<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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As a student, Harbisson had met Plymouth University cybernetics expert Adam Montandon, who enabled him to “hear” colour using headphones, a webcam and laptop – transforming light waves into sounds.<\/p>\n

Harbisson seized on this experience, but wanted more, by merging the technology with his own body – something Spain’s bioethical committees repeatedly rejected.<\/p>\n

He eventually persuaded anonymous doctors to operate, removing part of the back of his skull so the antennae could be implanted and the bone could then grow over it. <\/p>\n

Harbisson, who describes himself as a “cyborg artist”, has said: “I don’t feel like I’m using technology, I feel like I am technology.”<\/p>\n

The term cyborg refers to a being with human and machine elements, giving them enhanced abilities. <\/p>\n

Cyborgs are already a feature of popular culture and sci-fi, appearing in TV series like Doctor Who, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, and films including Terminator and Robocop. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"FirstFirst Born Films<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Director Carey Born: “Cybernetics will happen – it is happening”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The chip in the back of Harbisson’s head allows him to hear the colours not through his ears, but through the bone of his skull. It also connects to nearby devices as well as the internet.<\/p>\n

His partner, Moon Ribas, says in the film: “He is brave, he likes to do things differently”, while he says his antennae “allows me to extend my perception of reality”. <\/p>\n

Harbisson explains in the film that post-surgery, he had five weeks of headaches, and it took him about five months to get used to the antennae. <\/p>\n

Born says after the procedure he got “depression, because like when they did trepanning [a surgical intervention where a hole is drilled into the skull] in the 60s and 70s.<\/p>\n

“People got really big side effects – he had that as well.”<\/p>\n

She admits she was unsure what to expect when they first met, but found “Neil and Moon were very personable… I thought they would make an accessible way into the subject”. <\/p>\n

The film shows how people respond to him, asking about his appearance, and we see him producing artworks based on his perception of colour. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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