nEIL hARBISSON

“Neil was phenomenal and I would recommend him as a speaker anywhere. He is superb. The crowd were talking about him for two days. What a guy. He will go down in global history for what he is doing.”

- Festival of Media -

Neil Harbisson is a Guinness World Records holder as the world’s first cyborg. Born with a rare form of colour blindness (where the world is only perceived in shades of grey), in 2004 he embedded an ‘antenna’ into his skull that would allow him to re-tune his senses.

• The antenna known as an ‘eyeborg’ is a piece of technology that allows him to extend and transcend his human senses. He can now perceive both visible and invisible colours such as infrareds and ultraviolets via sound waves creating a synaesthetic experience of the world around him. For him - a telephone ring sounds green and a Da Vinci painting sounds like the soundtrack for a horror film.

• The antenna connects to both the internet and external devices enabling him to ‘receive colours’ from information sources ranging from satellite imagery to YouTube videos and mobile phone calls - directly into his head. According to Neil, he isn’t using or wearing technology - he is technology.

• He has dedicated his life and work to exploring the bonded human-technology future species through his contemporary art practice and cyborg activism.

• He remains one of the leading figures in the ‘transhumanist’ movement and 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 cyborgism as a social and artistic movement.

• He is winner Europrix Multimedia Award, winner of the Sundance Film Festival Award and nominee for the Tribeca Film Festival Awards

Selected Press Links: CNN, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian Nowness, Huffington Post, El Pais Vodafone, Al Jazeera, Nowness, Huffington Post, MESA , El Pais , Al Jazeera, Ole Magnus