I, Cyborg
Ellen Pearlman
Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas, performance and demonstration,
Hyphen Hub at the Red Door, New York City, August 27, 2014.
N
eil Harbisson, a slight, blond,
Catalonian artist and musician,
is co-founder of the Cyborg
Foundation, along with fellow Catalo-
nian choreographer and dancer Moon
Ribas. The Foundation, according to its
website:
helps people become cyborgs
(extend their senses by applying
cybernetics to the organism);
defend cyborg rights and pro-
mote the use of cybernetics in
the arts based on the research,
creation and promotion of proj-
ects related to extending/creat-
ing new senses and perceptions
by applying technology to the
human body.1
Cyborgs can be grouped into three
basic types: those that use mechanical
elements, those that use electronic ele-
ments, and those that just use cybernet-
ics as part of their body. These categories
are not fixed and can easily overlap. For
example, someone with a hand prosthe-
sis could be categorized as mechanical,
but if the prosthesis was equipped with
84  PAJ 110 (2015), pp. 84–90.
doi:10.1162/PAJJ_a_00264
a camera it would become electronic. If
the prosthesis could sense and relay to
the user the difference between feeling
a hot or cold surface, the device would
be defined as cybernetic.
Cyborgism is not just a social movement,
it’s also an art movement. In August
2014, Harbisson and Ribas performed
at Hyphen Hub in New York City, a for-
mer underground rehearsal space with
a fifty-year history, repurposed by co-
directors Asher Remey Toledo and Mark
Bolotin as a place where art, technology,
and business intersect. Ribas performed
a dance whenever she experienced
the vibration of live-time earthquakes
transmitted by the sensor on her arm. If
there were no earthquakes, there was no
dance. Harbisson executed the world’s
first skull-transmitted painting Skyped
from audience members in Times Square
as they painted simple colored stripes
onto a canvas. Their actions, Skyped into
Hyphen Hub, were projected onto the
wall. Haribisson, whose permanently-
implanted Eyeborg antenna juts out
from the middle of his head, was able
to receive the color frequencies of the
© 2015 Performing Arts Journal, Inc.
painted surface via Internet directly into
a chip implanted in his brain. He cor-
rectly identified and painted the same
color onto the canvas that was being
painted in Times Square. He performed
this in front of the Hyphen Hub audi-
ence without ever turning around to
view the actual painting being Skyped
in from Times Square. He did it via the
wireless transmission of transposed
color to sound frequencies delivered
directly into his skull.
EARLY DEVELOPMENT
AND THE FIRST EYEBORG
Harbisson was born with achromotop-
sia, a congenital condition where cone
cells in the eyes are unable to register
color. This meant he sees the world
only in black, white, and grey. As a child
he was unaware of his condition until
he was ten years old. Before that, his
parents thought he just had difficulty
conceptualizing and talking about color.
Once diagnosed, his art class teachers
allowed him to draw and paint in black,
white, and grey.
Harbisson says his non-experience of
color was not just a visual difficulty; it
rendered the concept of color mysteri-
ous, and created social and cultural
problems. Well-known brand names like
Red Cross, Pink Panther, or Greenpeace
left him clueless, and color-coded sub-
way maps were a nightmare to decipher.
He could not tell the difference between
the hot and cold water taps in a sink,
traditionally color-coded red and blue.
He would ask people to describe color,
but they used superlative adjectives that
did not make much sense.
He tried to construct a theory of color
through research and reading, but unfor-
tunately none of the different artists and
scientists he read were in agreement. On
Halloween 2003, he attended a lecture
at Dartington College of Arts in Devon,
UK, where he had enrolled as a music
student, given by cybernetics expert
Adam Montandon. Afterwards, he asked
Montandon if it was possible to extend
senses to perceive color, since color light
and audio sound are essentially both fre-
quencies, a fact he had learned through
his research. Adam said yes, and in 2004
they put together the first prototype of
the Eyeborg. It was a small camera that
sensed the frequency of color. Harbis-
son had to wear a burdensome five-
kilo (about eleven pounds) computer
on his back that transposed six basic
color frequencies into six separate tones.
When he heard specific tones through
a headset, he memorized the name of
the corresponding color. He wore this
device all the time and developed an
intuitive feeling for his favorite notes
and colors. Gradually, he added more
colors, increasing the number from six
to twelve to twenty-four to forty-eight.
In 2007, software developer Peter Kese
helped him expand his range to the 360
colors that exist in a color wheel. Now
all aspects of color were available to
him: hue, saturation, and light. He was
able to distinguish saturation through
volume, and hues through microtones.
He had always had a perception of light.
Color was alive instead of something
he hated and was confused by. Songs,
faces, music — everything and everyone
around him created sound.
But there were problems. Colors trans-
lated into sine waves, pitched electronic
sounds that began causing him head-
aches. His body rejected continuous sine
waves, coupled with walking around
all day, every day with the heavy com-
puter on his back. He kept modifying
PEARLMAN / I, Cyborg  85
the Eyeborg, changing the size of the
headphone and reducing the size of
the computer. In 2010, with the help of
developer Matias Lizana he exchanged
the computer for a chip, and began using
occipital bone conduction to relay sound
instead of wearing headphones. He now
experienced two sources of sound. Bone
or osseointegration transmitted the color
frequency sounds, and normal everyday
sounds were conducted through air. Still,
the first iteration was uncomfortable,
and he felt pressure between the chip,
his bone, and his skin. In 2013, the Eye-
borg antenna was osseointegrated inside
his skull to include a pressure pad and
three holes; one for the antenna, one
for his cheek to relieve the pressure,
and one for the charging jack. His chip
was updated to include a Bluetooth con-
nection so he could receive colors from
other sources, like phone calls. The sonic
frequencies of infrared and ultraviolet
were added to his repertoire. This gave
him the unusual ability to know if there
were infrared sensors in a building, or if
it was a bad UV sunburn day.
The room where he sleeps is black and
white, colors that for him produce no
sound. He painted his floor red because
it produces a low, bass frequency. Vio-
let, at the top of frequencies, sounds
screechy. Harbisson is careful to make
a distinction between the way he uses
color, which he calls sonochromatic, and
synesthesia. He does not experience
synesthesia. Sonochromatism is a new
sense. It links color and sound, but the
relationship between them never varies.
It is fixed.
However, color sounds do saturate his
dreams. The sky, whose blueness he
experiences as a C sharp note, emulates
86  PAJ 110
itself in his dreams when he sees the
sky. He also hears C sharp. The Eyeborg,
which he never removes, even to sleep
and shower, became part of his organ-
ism. It is not an external attachment. It
changed the way he dressed (by sound
and usually in jewel or gem colors),
and how he experienced the nature of
cities (the major and minor chords of a
cityscape). His brain also changed as he
adapted to these new senses. Harbis-
son must recharge himself every few
days through a USB port in the back of
his head, but in the future to recharge
himself he wants to use either his own
motion, the kinetic force of his blood
circulation, or perhaps the energy gen-
erated by his brain at night while he
sleeps.
CYBORG ART
With his newfound capabilities, Har-
bisson initiated a flurry of projects. For
Piano Concerto No. 1 (2004) he painted
a grand piano with different colored
paints, and used the Eyeborg to play
the frequencies. A “prepared” Pianoborg
Concerto followed in which a computer
was attached underneath a piano, and
the Eyeborg sensor stationed above the
piano keys. When a color was displayed
to the sensor, the computer read the
frequency and relayed it to the piano,
which sounded the corresponding note.
He turned color into voice performances.
In 2004, he collaborated with singer and
violinist Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdot-
tir, part of the Icelandic group Amiina.
She sang microtonal frequencies, while
he painted pictures live on stage. In
2010, he built an outdoor installation
Avidram, a large structure with twelve
strings. Each string represented a semi-
tone note in an octave. The structure was
 Top: Moon Ribas,
Earthquake Dance at
Hyphen Hub. Middle:
Neil Harbisson, Moon
Ribas, and Mark
Bolotin of Hyphen Hub
compare painted colors
from Times Square
with painted colors
from Hyphen Hub.
Bottom: Moon Ribas
and Neil Harbisson
discuss the Cyborg
Foundation at the New
York Volumetric Society.
Photos: Ellen Pearlman.

PEARLMAN / I, Cyborg  87
installed atop a farm roof, recording 24
hours a day. A note was composed only
when a bird alighted onto a string.
Harbisson designed sound portraits
of different people’s faces. He listened
to variations of the colors of their
skin tones, including minute varia-
tions between their eye pigmentation.
Writing the notes down he transposed
them, “sketching” Prince Charles, Sir
Tim Berners-Lee, Macy Gray, Steve
Reich, Tracy Emin, Dame Judy Dench,
Moby, James Cameron, Peter Brook,
Leonardo DiCaprio, and Woody Allen,
among others. This exercise also revealed
to him that humans are neither black
nor white, but exist in an array of orange
tones, because we all share the same
pigmentation.
He has produced a number of theatre
and dance collaborations with Moon
Ribas. In 2007 they premiered Opus
No 1 at London’s BAC Theatre, and, in
2011, The Sound of the Orange Tree at
Barcelona’s Antic Theatre, with move-
ment, choreography, and color. That
same year they premiered a sonochro-
matic video-dance, Walking Colours,
that was broadcast on television. He
collaborated with Barcelona’s Palau de
la Musica youth choir and the Catalan
Quartic String Quartet on a concert for
colors in 2014. Instead of using a typical
score with notes, he taught the choir
and the quartet to perform with light
and color. He composed his composi-
tion by listening to the frequencies of
the mosaic tile inlays, stained glass, and
rococo embellishments on the walls of
the theatre. He even created a mobile
app so the youth choir could rehearse
the color tones privately in their room.
He instructed the quartet musicians
about how color frequencies actually
88  PAJ 110
manifested. At the beginning of the
performance, he invited members of
the audience to use his special mobile
app to play music together. The notes of
the colors sounded Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony. During the main part of the
concert, color rained down in different
sections as the quartet and the chorus
performed his compositions. At the con-
clusion he was so overwhelmed he burst
into tears. He had finally communicated
his internal perceptions to a wider audi-
ence, and had been understood.
Moon Ribas, a fellow Catalonian, has
known Harbisson since they were eight
years old. She also studied at Dartington
College, majoring in experimental dance
and choreography. Ribas created the
Speedborg, a glove that later became a
pair of earrings that sensed the velocity
of others around her with a 360-degree
perception. She choreographed The
Speeds of Europe, a performance about
the speed of people’s gaits in different
cities. She made Kaleidoscopic Vision,
where she saw colors, but not shape. In
2013, Ribas developed a special sensor
that connects to a global seismograph. It
allows her to feel different intensities of
earthquakes around the world, starting
with 1.0 on the Richter scale. With this
ability she created the performance piece
Waiting for Earthquakes.
It begins with Ribas facing north. If
there is no earthquake, then there is no
performance. If the earthquake happens
in the southern part of the world, she
moves towards the south. During the
performance the exact place the quake
is taking place is shown, and its intensity
projects on a screen behind her, along
with the current location, date, and time.
The music accompanying the piece is
soft and languorous. If the quake is
small, the movements are small. If the
quake is big, her movements grow large
and exaggerated. She embodies a nature
spirit who feels the pull of the shift-
ing plates of the earth’s surface. When
the quake is over, usually after a few
seconds, she ceases all movement. The
tension of waiting for the next earth-
quake becomes part of the performance.
Another quake happens and she almost
topples over from the force. Then sud-
denly it’s over, and calm returns to the
spinning axis of the earth.
THE CYBORG FOUNDATION
Because of the difficulties he has experi-
enced living as a cyborg, Harbisson and
Ribas founded The Cyborg Foundation
in 2010. Currently, there are no legal
protections for cyborgs. He endured a
long and difficult struggle to convince
the British Government (he was born
in the UK) to allow him to wear the
Eyeborg in his passport photo, a neces-
sary step so he would not be forced to
remove it at airports and other sensitive
locations. He had already been ejected
from stores, casinos, supermarkets, and
movie theatres because of his device,
though he had done nothing wrong.
People thought he was filming them
or stealing trade secrets, or violating
copyright.
He discovered there are no special
clinics where physicians and computer
scientists can collaborate on devices
and develop new ideas together. The
Foundation was inspired by the plethora
of e-mails they received from people
asking for help. People who could not
perceive smell said they could not dis-
tinguish rotten food or the odor of gas.
Other people want to extend physical
parts of their body, but the foundation
focuses on extending the senses, not
the bionic body. Still others wanted to
extend their memory. The foundation
never sells cybernetic extensions, as they
are defined as parts of people’s bodies,
not mere devices. It encourages people
to improvise their own extensions. They
don’t want to “repair” people’s senses,
as they believe there are no real dis-
abilities. All of us need to extend our
senses because in one hundred years
from now it will be quite normal to be
a cyborg. Eventually, humans will trans-
form through genetic modification, and
even use their own bodies as sources of
renewable energy.
The foundation has supported other
projects, like the Speedborg, which
allows one to know the exact speed of an
object through vibrations on the hand or
the earlobe; the Fingerborg, a prosthetic
finger with a tiny camera; and the 360
Sensory Extension, which lets people
feel the motion of others from the back
of their head. Harbisson believes he is
closer to animals, as he has acquired a
new sense — one that works with bone
conduction — similar to how dolphins
perceive sound underwater. Snakes hear
infrared, and birds and insects can see
ultaviolet light. Now, thanks to his Eye-
borg, he can perceive these frequencies
as well. His antenna has become a new
type of musical instrument, and his brain
has adapted accordingly.
Cyborgism changes art and perceptions
of art. Harbisson has said that someone
may be thought of as physically beau-
tiful, but the sound frequencies they
translate into don’t sound that great.
The same is true of visual art. Classical
paintings are quiet, and Andy Warhol
paintings loud and brassy. Even his
taste in fashion has changed. He dresses
PEARLMAN / I, Cyborg  89
according to the sounds the colors of his
clothes make, whereas before he dressed
only in shades of black, white, and grey.
Food also produces sounds, as does the
timbre of voices and speech.
EARLY ADAPTORS
Neil Harbisson is not the first cyborg.
Many people in the world walk around
with implanted devices, from artificial
hearts to artificial hips. The idea of the
cyborg came about during the 1980s
through the transhumanist movement
in California. People believed new tech-
nologies could shape humankind for the
better. In 1998, Kevin Warwick, a pro-
fessor of Cybernetics at the University
of Reading, created Project Cyborg by
implanting a silicon chip transponder
in his upper left arm. It allowed him to
walk through the university opening
locked doors, turning on lights, and reg-
ulating heaters without actually physi-
cally touching them. He adapted quickly
to his newfound abilities so well that
when the chip was removed, he missed
it. These experiments laid the ground-
work for the RFID chip, used to track
dogs and cats. Warwick later created
Braingate, which sent signals between
his nervous system and a computer. His
wife also had a connector implanted into
her arm so that when she moved, War-
wick’s brain received a signal. His work
though was for scientific purposes, and
not for making art.
ELLEN PEARLMAN is a new media artist, writer, critic, and curator, and
a PhD researcher at the School of Creative Media at Hong Kong City
University. She is director of the Volumetric Society of New York and presi-
dent of Art-A-Hack™, bringing artists and technologists together to make
something new.
90  PAJ 110
Another cyborg is Steve Mann of the
University of Toronto, who has been
wearing the EyeTap camera on his head
since 1981. Others take a DIY approach
like Lepht Anonym, a “scrapheap Trans-
humanist” performing self-surgeries, or
Tim Cannon of Grindhouse Wetwares,
who installed a magnet in his finger. The
Australian performance artist Stelarc has
also worked for decades on changing his
body through biological and electronic
means. He pasted electrodes all over
himself, letting remote users control his
muscles’ movements. He also had an ear
implanted into his forearm.
THE FUTURE
Will we become, in the next forty years, as
Harbisson and Ribas believe — cyborgs?
If we do, how will this effect they way
we make art? How will it affect perfor-
mance, gesture, movement, distance,
interpretation, and known referents?
Will we be capable of attending events
by just plugging directly into our brains?
Is the Cyborg Foundation the harbinger
of things to come? And most of all, are
we ready?
NOTES
1. http://Eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg
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