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Neil Harbisson is a Catalan-raised, British-born contemporary artist and cyborg activist best known for having an antenna implanted in his skull and for being officially recognised as a cyborg by a government. The antenna allows him to perceive visible and invisible colours via audible vibrations in his skull including infrared and ultraviolet as well as receive colours from space, images, videos, music or phone calls directly into his head via internet connection.
Harbisson identifies himself both as a cyborg; he feels he is technology, and as a transpecies; he no longer feels 100% human. His artwork explores identity, human perception, the connection between sight and sound and the use of artistic expression via new sensory inputs.
In 2010 he co-founded the Cyborg Foundation with Moon Ribas, an international organisation that aims to help humans become cyborgs, defend cyborg rights and promote cyborg art. In 2017 he co-founded the Transpecies Society, an association that gives voice to people with non-human identities, defends the freedom of self-design and offers the creation of new senses and new organs in community.
This is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen and heard
The possibilities presented by cyborgism in the art community are near limitless. As the enhancement of your body through cybernetic implants has not been explored yet outside of a very limited group (possibly not even into the double digits yet) which means that the ideas and work that you can produce from such implants has never been seen before. Cost and social acceptance are the 2 more pressing matters in this field with implants costing thousands. Not to mention the difficulty in getting governments to view your implants as part of you, allowing for visas, passports and citizenship. This stems from people not wanting to accept change and being afraid of things that are different, this poses another problem, which is discrimination. Many people that have become legal cyborgs are heavily discriminated against and pushed out of society. Ethical problems seem to be avoided or brushed under the rug as becoming a cyborg is out of choice and isn’t considered cruel, there are still a lot of doctors that wont perform these procedures because training for them is hard to come by and very rarely used at the moment. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the work that is produced in the near and distant future, especially with the implants that Harbisson talks about.
HouseOfMadness 