The Man Who Hears Color

Oh wow.  Just…wow.  This man, Neil Harbisson, is completely colorblind.

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He uses a device that senses color frequency and plays that frequency to him through his skull.  So instead of seeing color, he hears it.  Over time, he learned the language of color and it became second nature to him.  He listens to Picasso.  He makes music by looking at faces.  And he paints voices.  Where, oh where, can I get one of these devices?

“Today I am dressed in C Major.  If I had to go to a funeral though, I would dress in B Minor which would be turquoise, purple and orange.”    -Neil Harbisson

Here are his paintings of Hitler’s voice on the left and Martin Luther King’s voice on the right.  I was glad to have picked the one on the right as my favorite before hearing how they were inspired.

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And for fun, this is Justin Bieber’s “Baby:”

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Eventually, he learned the sound of colors that are not perceptible to the human eye such as infrared and ultraviolet colors.  The possibilities are endless.  Check out the TED talk here.<

 

 

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