A man with an antenna permanently attached to his skull and who identifies himself as a "cyborg" has spoken of his life and beliefs on a visit to Curtin University in Perth.

British-born Neil Harbisson is a self-described "cyborg activist" who had the antenna implanted in his skull over a decade ago by an anonymous doctor in a bid to "hear" a wider spectrum of colours.

"I tried to find a doctor and it was difficult, because I had to talk to a bio-ethical committee but the committee said it was not ethical," Mr Harbisson said.

"So then I had to find a doctor willing to do the surgery anonymously, and I found one in Barcelona."

Mr Harbisson said he believed the antenna allowed him to perceive the colour spectrum beyond human vision, including invisible colours such as infrareds and ultraviolets, via sound waves through vibrations.

"The antenna picks up light frequencies and each light frequency goes into a chip that then vibrates," he said.

"Then this vibration in my skull becomes sounds in my inner ear ... so then I can hear the different notes of colour."

Mr Harbisson described the sensation as a new sense.

"For me, colour is this new sense — it's not a visual element, it's not a audio element," he said.

"It's a vibration in my skull, it is an independent sense."

According to Mr Harbisson, the antenna's internet connection allows him to receive colours as well as images directly into his head via external devices such as mobile phones or satellites.

"I can receive colours from other parts of the world. So there are five people that can send colours from 10 in the morning until 10 at night, directly to my head. It feels like having an eye in each continent," he said.

I am technology, Harbisson says

Mr Harbisson said the next stage of the project was to establish a permanent connection to space.

"Now I am just connecting to satellites intermittently, and in couple of years, my brain will be trained to perceive the colours from space, and then I will be able be have to this permanent connection to the sounds of the colours of space," he said.

Neil Harbisson paints old LPs in an effort to play them through colour. ( Supplied: Facebook )

Mr Harbisson identifies himself as a cyborg, not a human.

"I don't use technology and I don't wear technology. I am technology, and it's this feeling of being technology that also makes me feel like a cyborg," he said.

"It's an invisible union between the type of software and my brain ... and the most visible union between the actual antenna and my head."

Mr Harbisson also produces artworks that investigate sensory extensions.

"Through cybernetics you can create art through new senses — like I can paint what I hear, and I can also compose music from what I am looking at," he said.

Mr Harbisson said he believed he was endorsed as a cyborg after his passport photo was approved with his antenna showing.

Prior to 2004, he was told electronic equipment was not allowed in UK passport photos.

"I replied to them, this was not electronic equipment but a new body part, an extension of my senses and that I felt that I was a cyborg," he said.

"I started to send letters to them explaining that they should accept the image and then, after that, some months later they just got fed up and said yes."

Mr Harbisson co-founded the Cyborg Foundation in 2010 with the intent of promoting cyborgism as a social and artistic movement.

He is being hosted by the Alternate Anatomies Lab at Curtin University which interrogates the aesthetics, the ethics and the engineering of prosthetics, robotics and virtual systems.