WEBVTT 00:00:01.012 --> 00:00:04.191 Well, I was born with a rare visual condition 00:00:04.191 --> 00:00:07.904 called achromatopsia, which is total color blindness, 00:00:07.904 --> 00:00:09.774 so I've never seen color, 00:00:09.774 --> 00:00:12.297 and I don't know what color looks like, 00:00:12.297 --> 00:00:15.272 because I come from a grayscale world. 00:00:15.272 --> 00:00:17.932 To me, the sky is always gray, 00:00:17.932 --> 00:00:19.784 flowers are always gray, 00:00:19.784 --> 00:00:21.986 and television is still in black and white. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:21.986 --> 00:00:24.279 But, since the age of 21, 00:00:24.279 --> 00:00:28.408 instead of seeing color, I can hear color. 00:00:28.408 --> 00:00:31.384 In 2003, I started a project 00:00:31.384 --> 00:00:34.072 with computer scientist Adam Montandon, 00:00:34.072 --> 00:00:37.239 and the result, with further collaborations 00:00:37.239 --> 00:00:40.087 with Peter Kese from Slovenia 00:00:40.087 --> 00:00:42.120 and Matias Lizana from Barcelona, 00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:44.485 is this electronic eye. 00:00:44.485 --> 00:00:46.841 It's a color sensor that detects 00:00:46.841 --> 00:00:50.424 the color frequency in front of me — (Frequency sounds) — 00:00:50.424 --> 00:00:52.776 and sends this frequency to a chip installed 00:00:52.776 --> 00:00:55.767 at the back of my head, and I hear the color in front of me 00:00:55.767 --> 00:00:58.663 through the bone, through bone conduction. 00:00:58.663 --> 00:01:02.171 (Frequency sounds) So, for example, if I have, like — 00:01:05.724 --> 00:01:08.691 This is the sound of purple. (Frequency sounds) 00:01:08.691 --> 00:01:16.109 For example, this is the sound of grass. (Frequency sounds) 00:01:16.109 --> 00:01:18.234 This is red, like TED. (Frequency sounds) 00:01:18.234 --> 00:01:22.603 This is the sound of a dirty sock. (Laughter) 00:01:22.603 --> 00:01:24.480 Which is like yellow, this one. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.537 So I've been hearing color all the time for eight years, 00:01:28.537 --> 00:01:31.172 since 2004, so I find it completely normal now 00:01:31.172 --> 00:01:33.651 to hear color all the time. 00:01:33.651 --> 00:01:38.025 At the start, though, I had to memorize the names you give 00:01:38.025 --> 00:01:40.431 for each color, so I had to memorize the notes, 00:01:40.431 --> 00:01:42.367 but after some time, all this information 00:01:42.367 --> 00:01:44.360 became a perception. 00:01:44.360 --> 00:01:46.119 I didn't have to think about the notes. 00:01:46.119 --> 00:01:48.744 And after some time, this perception became a feeling. 00:01:48.744 --> 00:01:50.750 I started to have favorite colors, 00:01:50.750 --> 00:01:52.524 and I started to dream in colors. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:52.524 --> 00:01:56.799 So, when I started to dream in color is when I felt 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:59.686 that the software and my brain had united, 00:01:59.686 --> 00:02:02.642 because in my dreams, it was my brain creating 00:02:02.642 --> 00:02:05.003 electronic sounds. It wasn't the software, 00:02:05.003 --> 00:02:08.522 so that's when I started to feel like a cyborg. 00:02:08.522 --> 00:02:11.572 It's when I started to feel that the cybernetic device 00:02:11.572 --> 00:02:13.762 was no longer a device. 00:02:13.762 --> 00:02:16.177 It had become a part of my body, 00:02:16.177 --> 00:02:18.642 an extension of my senses, 00:02:18.642 --> 00:02:21.268 and after some time, it even became a part 00:02:21.268 --> 00:02:24.795 of my official image. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:24.795 --> 00:02:27.141 This is my passport from 2004. 00:02:27.141 --> 00:02:30.226 You're not allowed to appear on U.K. passports 00:02:30.226 --> 00:02:33.038 with electronic equipment, but I insisted 00:02:33.038 --> 00:02:35.439 to the passport office that what they were seeing 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:37.943 was actually a new part of my body, 00:02:37.943 --> 00:02:41.463 an extension of my brain, and they finally accepted me 00:02:41.463 --> 00:02:43.974 to appear with the passport photo. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:43.974 --> 00:02:47.431 So, life has changed dramatically since I hear color, 00:02:47.431 --> 00:02:50.025 because color is almost everywhere, 00:02:50.025 --> 00:02:52.902 so the biggest change for example is 00:02:52.902 --> 00:02:57.440 going to an art gallery, I can listen to a Picasso, 00:02:57.440 --> 00:03:00.294 for example. So it's like I'm going to a concert hall, 00:03:00.294 --> 00:03:02.505 because I can listen to the paintings. 00:03:02.505 --> 00:03:04.966 And supermarkets, I find this is very shocking, 00:03:04.966 --> 00:03:07.916 it's very, very attractive to walk along a supermarket. 00:03:07.916 --> 00:03:09.404 It's like going to a nightclub. 00:03:09.404 --> 00:03:12.660 It's full of different melodies. (Laughter) Yeah. 00:03:12.660 --> 00:03:14.735 Especially the aisle with cleaning products. 00:03:14.735 --> 00:03:18.086 It's just fabulous. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:18.086 --> 00:03:20.558 Also, the way I dress has changed. 00:03:20.558 --> 00:03:22.966 Before, I used to dress in a way that it looked good. 00:03:22.966 --> 00:03:27.543 Now I dress in a way that it sounds good. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:27.543 --> 00:03:32.674 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:32.674 --> 00:03:35.183 So today I'm dressed in C major, 00:03:35.183 --> 00:03:38.492 so it's quite a happy chord. (Laughter) 00:03:38.492 --> 00:03:40.366 If I had to go to a funeral, though, 00:03:40.366 --> 00:03:42.933 I would dress in B minor, which would be 00:03:42.933 --> 00:03:51.692 turquoise, purple and orange. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:51.692 --> 00:03:56.037 Also, food, the way I look at food has changed, 00:03:56.037 --> 00:03:59.493 because now I can display the food on a plate, 00:03:59.493 --> 00:04:02.445 so I can eat my favorite song. (Laughter) 00:04:02.445 --> 00:04:03.674 So depending on how I display it, 00:04:03.674 --> 00:04:06.424 I can hear and I can compose music with food. 00:04:06.424 --> 00:04:09.149 So imagine a restaurant where we can have, like, 00:04:09.149 --> 00:04:12.133 Lady Gaga salads as starters. (Laughter) I mean, 00:04:12.133 --> 00:04:15.150 this would get teenagers to eat their vegetables, probably. 00:04:15.150 --> 00:04:18.589 And also, some Rachmaninov piano concertos 00:04:18.589 --> 00:04:21.823 as main dishes, and some Bjork or Madonna desserts, 00:04:21.823 --> 00:04:24.932 that would be a very exciting restaurant 00:04:24.932 --> 00:04:27.692 where you can actually eat songs. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:27.692 --> 00:04:32.142 Also, the way I perceive beauty has changed, 00:04:32.142 --> 00:04:36.822 because when I look at someone, I hear their face, 00:04:36.822 --> 00:04:41.824 so someone might look very beautiful but sound terrible. 00:04:41.824 --> 00:04:43.585 (Laughter) And it might happen the opposite, 00:04:43.585 --> 00:04:45.833 the other way around. So I really enjoy creating, like, 00:04:45.833 --> 00:04:47.562 sound portraits of people. 00:04:47.562 --> 00:04:51.202 Instead of drawing someone's face, like drawing the shape, 00:04:51.202 --> 00:04:53.633 I point at them with the eye and I write down 00:04:53.633 --> 00:04:56.904 the different notes I hear, and then I create sound portraits. 00:04:56.904 --> 00:04:58.641 Here's some faces. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:58.641 --> 00:05:13.168 (Musical chords) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:13.168 --> 00:05:16.601 Yeah, Nicole Kidman sounds good. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:16.601 --> 00:05:19.650 Some people, I would never relate, but they sound similar. 00:05:19.650 --> 00:05:22.448 Prince Charles has some similarities with Nicole Kidman. 00:05:22.448 --> 00:05:24.585 They have similar sound of eyes. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:24.585 --> 00:05:26.633 So you relate people that you wouldn't relate, 00:05:26.633 --> 00:05:30.146 and you can actually also create concerts 00:05:30.146 --> 00:05:32.786 by looking at the audience faces. 00:05:32.786 --> 00:05:35.882 So I connect the eye, and then I play the audience's faces. 00:05:35.882 --> 00:05:37.386 The good thing about this is, 00:05:37.386 --> 00:05:40.353 if the concert doesn't sound good, it's their fault. 00:05:40.353 --> 00:05:42.624 It's not my fault, because — (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:42.624 --> 00:05:46.931 And so another thing that happens is that 00:05:46.931 --> 00:05:49.808 I started having this secondary effect 00:05:49.808 --> 00:05:53.138 that normal sounds started to become color. 00:05:53.138 --> 00:05:56.899 I heard a telephone tone, and it felt green 00:05:56.899 --> 00:05:59.225 because it sounded just like the color green. 00:05:59.225 --> 00:06:02.523 The BBC beeps, they sound turquoise, 00:06:02.523 --> 00:06:05.650 and listening to Mozart became a yellow experience, NOTE Paragraph 00:06:05.650 --> 00:06:10.410 so I started to paint music and paint people's voices, 00:06:10.410 --> 00:06:12.353 because people's voices have frequencies 00:06:12.353 --> 00:06:13.896 that I relate to color. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:13.896 --> 00:06:19.015 And here's some music translated into color. 00:06:19.015 --> 00:06:24.215 For example, Mozart, "Queen of the Night," looks like this. 00:06:24.215 --> 00:06:26.027 (Music) Very yellow and very colorful, 00:06:26.027 --> 00:06:28.217 because there's many different frequencies. 00:06:28.217 --> 00:06:31.127 (Music) 00:06:32.143 --> 00:06:34.457 And this is a completely different song. 00:06:34.457 --> 00:06:38.388 (Music) It's Justin Bieber's "Baby." (Laughter) 00:06:38.388 --> 00:06:40.119 (Music) 00:06:40.119 --> 00:06:43.689 It is very pink and very yellow. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:43.689 --> 00:06:50.856 So, also voices, I can transform speeches into color, 00:06:50.856 --> 00:06:54.400 for example, these are two very well-known speeches. 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:58.137 One of them is Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream," 00:06:58.137 --> 00:06:59.589 and the other one is Hitler. 00:06:59.589 --> 00:07:03.065 And I like to exhibit these paintings in the exhibition halls 00:07:03.065 --> 00:07:05.641 without labels, and then I ask people, 00:07:05.641 --> 00:07:07.488 "Which one do you prefer?" 00:07:07.488 --> 00:07:09.753 And most people change their preference 00:07:09.753 --> 00:07:12.664 when I tell them that the one on the left is Hitler 00:07:12.664 --> 00:07:15.784 and the one on the right is Martin Luther King. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:15.784 --> 00:07:21.523 So I got to a point when I was able to perceive 360 colors, 00:07:21.523 --> 00:07:23.108 just like human vision. 00:07:23.108 --> 00:07:26.703 I was able to differentiate all the degrees of the color wheel. 00:07:26.703 --> 00:07:28.785 But then, I just thought that 00:07:28.785 --> 00:07:32.024 this human vision wasn't good enough. 00:07:32.024 --> 00:07:34.235 There's many, many more colors around us 00:07:34.235 --> 00:07:36.072 that we cannot perceive, 00:07:36.072 --> 00:07:37.828 but that electronic eyes can perceive. 00:07:37.828 --> 00:07:41.557 So I decided to continue extending my color senses, 00:07:41.557 --> 00:07:45.807 and I added infrared and I added ultraviolet 00:07:45.807 --> 00:07:49.165 to the color-to-sound scale, so now I can hear colors 00:07:49.165 --> 00:07:51.389 that the human eye cannot perceive. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:51.389 --> 00:07:54.836 For example, perceiving infrared is good because you can 00:07:54.836 --> 00:07:58.904 actually detect if there's movement detectors in a room. 00:07:58.904 --> 00:08:02.357 I can hear if someone points at me with a remote control. 00:08:02.357 --> 00:08:05.507 And the good thing about perceiving ultraviolet is that 00:08:05.507 --> 00:08:10.472 you can hear if it's a good day or a bad day to sunbathe, 00:08:10.472 --> 00:08:12.629 because ultraviolet is a dangerous color, 00:08:12.629 --> 00:08:16.613 a color that can actually kill us, so I think we should all have this wish 00:08:16.613 --> 00:08:19.574 to perceive things that we cannot perceive. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:19.574 --> 00:08:21.309 That's why, two years ago, 00:08:21.309 --> 00:08:22.990 I created the Cyborg Foundation, 00:08:22.990 --> 00:08:25.432 which is a foundation that tries to help people 00:08:25.432 --> 00:08:28.129 become a cyborg, tries to encourage people 00:08:28.129 --> 00:08:29.506 to extend their senses 00:08:29.506 --> 00:08:32.577 by using technology as part of the body. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:32.577 --> 00:08:36.480 We should all think that knowledge comes from our senses, 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:38.456 so if we extend our senses, 00:08:38.456 --> 00:08:41.544 we will consequently extend our knowledge. 00:08:41.544 --> 00:08:44.337 I think life will be much more exciting 00:08:44.337 --> 00:08:47.561 when we stop creating applications for mobile phones 00:08:47.561 --> 00:08:50.962 and we start creating applications for our own body. 00:08:50.962 --> 00:08:52.778 I think this will be a big, big change 00:08:52.778 --> 00:08:54.856 that we will see during this century. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:54.856 --> 00:08:58.771 So I do encourage you all to think about which senses 00:08:58.771 --> 00:09:00.190 you'd like to extend. 00:09:00.190 --> 00:09:03.363 I would encourage you to become a cyborg. 00:09:03.363 --> 00:09:08.011 You won't be alone. Thank you. (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:08.011 --> 00:09:14.531 (Applause)