BBC News – The man who hears colour.

 Neil Harbisson is completely colour-blind. Here, he explains how a camera attached to his head allows him to hear colour.

Until I was 11, I didn’t know I could only see in shades of grey. I thought I could see colours but that I was confusing them.

When I was diagnosed with achromatopsia [a rare vision disorder], it was a bit of a shock but at least we knew what was wrong. Doctors said it was impossible to cure.

When I was 16, I decided to study art. I told my tutor I could only see in black and white, and his first reaction was, “What the hell are you doing here then?” I told him I really wanted to understand what colour was.

I was allowed to do the entire art course in greyscale – only using black and white. I did very figurative art, trying to reproduce what I could see so that people could compare how my vision was to what they saw. I also learnt that through history, there have been many people who have related colour to sound.

At university I went to a cybernetics lecture by Adam Montandon, a student from Plymouth University, and asked if we could create something so I could see colour. He came up with a simple device, made up of a webcam, a computer and a pair of headphones and created software that would translate any colour in front of me into a sound.

If we were all to hear the frequency of red, for example, we would hear a note that is in between F and F sharp. Red is the lowest frequency colour and the highest is violet.

I started using it 24 hours a day, carrying it around in a backpack and feeling that the cybernetic device, the eyeborg, and my organism were completely connected. I haven’t taken it off my head since 2004, except to change the equipment when it breaks.

Continue reading the main story

Shades of grey

• Colour blindness is the reduced ability to distinguish between certain colours
• Most common form is red/green colour blindness, where red and green are confused
• Usually inherited and affects about one in 20 men and one in 200 women
• Achromatopsia is a rare vision disorder which includes colour blindness

• More on colour blindness from BBC Health

It looks like an antenna that comes out from my head and goes up to the front of my face. At the back of my head there’s a chip which transforms the light waves into sound, and I hear the colours, not through my ears but through my bone.

At the beginning I had some strong headaches because of the constant input of sound, but after five weeks my brain adapted to it, and I started to relate music and real sound to colour.

I also started dreaming in colour.

It has changed the way I perceive art. Now I have created a completely new world where colour and sound are exactly the same thing. I like doing sound portraits – I get close to someone’s face, I take down the sound of the hair, the sounds of the skin, eyes and lips, and then I create a specific chord that relates to the face.

I’m starting a sound portrait gallery of famous faces which began with Prince Charles, who came to Dartington College of Art, where I was studying in 2005.

He asked me, “What’s this that you’re wearing?”, so I asked him if I could listen to his face, and he sounded very harmonic.

Some people might be very beautiful but they might not sound very harmonic, although harmony is subjective.

When people see someone with something electronic sticking out of their head, they automatically laugh or they ask you what you are doing. Sometimes they don’t allow me in to places because they think I’m doing something strange.

Last year I was attacked by three policemen at a demonstration who thought I was filming them. I told them I was listening to colours, but they thought I was mocking them and tried to pull the camera off my head.

There is no end to the evolution of this electronic eye.

At the moment, I can see 360 colours and I have extended this to infrared so I can hear colours that human eyes cannot see. I’m currently working on seeing ultraviolet, which is very important because it can damage our skin

Reblogged from Writing for His Glory:

To everyone who is still waiting for God to bring them together with their special someone; this is for you. After waiting patiently he received what was promised. Hebrews 6:15 A huge thank you to everyone who e-mailed me a picture.  You guys made this happen.

My heart is locked tell God brings us together

A Great Valentine’s Day video!

I am exited to hear what you guys have to say or should say SEE. Hope to see some comments soon and as always Stand Strong.

Garret

Image via Wikipedia

College is going great at Lake Washington Institute of Technology (long name I know) I just registered for my second quarter of classes in the Multi-Media Design and Production program and I feel a little spread thin not knowing were to balance art and homework but excited at the same time because of the new things I am learning. I am currently in the process of illustrating a friend’s book that is going to be published on March 15 thought Lulu, the book is called Scribbling it’s a collection of short stories and poems. My room is starting to look more like an art studio now that I have big old filing cabinet , I am going to re-paint it and try some ambushing on it I will post pictures when I get around to it, and I finally hung some pictures to cover an empty wall. My mind is swimming with ideas that are just screaming to get on to paper, but it seem like time is the bane of the artist. I am going to start posting things from my sketch book so you can see what I am learning and see if I am getting any better . Sorry I have not posted any videos in a while, I miss making them, but I am have some program trouble, nothing I can’t fix just haven’t gotten around to it. This was going to be a longer post about my sketch book updates, but it’s a sunny day out side and I am going to do some concrete surfing on my long board. Just have to put a plug-in for the best long board company ever. BC Long boards is small company that does custom graphics and is all around a great company. I bought a board from them last year and was able to design my own graphic

. Work Hard. Be Smooth. Live Free…Ride BC. While that’s all!

time to go carve some concrete. Stand Strong my friends.

Related articles

• Concrete Surfer: Sam Eitel ’10 (umbcalumni.wordpress.com)

A lady in white is a common sign for purity in both Greek and Mediaeval art work. In this piece I was asked to use the White Lady of Rohan dress from “The Lord of the Rings Return of the King”.In the maiden’s hair you can see a net of pearls according to some source the pearl means purity or virtue. Underneath the pearls you will find the celtic knot of the Trinity and three white roses, these also has hundreds of meanings I chose them to show that we can find purity in the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The three white roses show that the Trinity is one like in the knot but is also three separate people.  Woven into the braid are three stones two white and one red. The two white stone symbolize the purity if the body while the red stone represents purity of the mind and emotions.

Sense ancient times Asian cultures have held the Lotus as a symbol of purity. The lotus shows different stages of purity depending on how it is depicted. A white lotus shows the purity of body and red shows the purity of mind and heart. A blooming lotus symbolizes the purity that the person has achieved, while a closed lotus illustrates the potential that the person has and growth that is still in progress. The ripples in the water symbolize that if someone is willing to walk pure and righteous for the Lord they will make a difference in their surroundings. 

In the background we can see that white birch create a path way lining the water edge and show the path the maiden has chosen to take. In Celtic lore white birch symbolize growth, strength, loyalty, purity, and renewal.The white stag is a timeless symbol showing up in cultures all around the world with a hundreds of different meanings. In a mediaeval lore knights and kings are always chasing or hunting a white stag but can never reach it. The white stag is a symbol of divine purity something we can never achieve as humans, but we should alway strive to reach and never give up the chase.

The reason I painted the maiden in water is because water is constantly changing and being renewed by rain or other sources. Water also washes away the dirt from are bodies and has been used Biblical as sign of washing away sins and becoming a new creation when Christ is Lord of are lives.

While that is it! I hope you enjoyed the description of the symbolism and I hope you have taken something away that you did not know before. If you did please comment and let me know what it was and if you have any deeper questions about this piece please don’t hesitate to ask them. Thanks for reading! Stand Strong my friends.

Garret

A warrior of the Living God

   ”I can create with confidence not because of my own human skill, but because I am a reflection of the Creator.”  Garret Maytum