What's It Like To Hear Color?

More From This Episode

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Extrasensory.

About Neil Harbisson's TEDTalk

Artist Neil Harbisson was born completely color blind. But thanks to a device attached to his head, he can now "hear" color, which allows him to experience an element that was once invisible.

About Neil Harbisson

Neil Harbisson is an artist, cyborgist and colorologist. His unique experience of color informs his artwork, which before his device the "eyeborg" was strictly black and white. By working with cyberneticist Adam Montandon, Harbisson helped design a lightweight eyepiece that he wears on his forehead that transposes the light frequencies of color hues into sound frequencies. Harbisson's artwork blurs the boundaries between sight and sound. In his sound portraits series, he listens to the colors of faces to create a microtonal chord. In the City Colours project, he expresses the capital cities of Europe in two colors.