Anna Maria Tremonti's most memorable interviews: Neil Harbisson, the cyborg
Artist was born unable to see colour, but implant allows him to turn it into music
Anna Maria Tremonti has interviewed a lot of people over her 17 seasons as host of The Current — but only one cyborg.
Musician and visual artist Neil Harbisson has a tiny camera that hangs in front of his face, attached to a flexible metal antenna that is wired into the base of his skull.
Harbisson was born with achromatopsia, a condition that leaves him unable to see colour. But his implant, which he calls an "eye-borg," corrects that.
The camera records the colours and translates them into sound. Each colour is a distinct tone, which resonates differently through his skeleton.
The device allows him to hear the colour in the world around him — including in the food he eats — and turn it into music.
"You can compose music with salads especially, because salads have lots of different colours," he told Tremonti, when they met in 2014.
"So you could have salads that sound like Justin Bieber for example, and then maybe children would eat more vegetables."
He's learned how to compose music based on what different colours sound like to him.
In partnership with Vodafone, he staged a concert in Barcelona, where he taught a choir to sign the notes he associates with certain colours. Acting as a conductor and lighting director, he shone different coloured lights on the choir, and they would sign the corresponding note.
The music was inspired by the colours of the venue itself: the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona.
"They were singing the colours that they were seeing and this was very special," he told Tremonti.
"This has been a world that has been closed in my skull, in my head basically for like 10 years," he said.
"So being able to share this, and seeing other people perform colours was very emotional for me."
Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Gord Westmacott.