It was fascinating to listen Neil Harbisson speak about colours at the Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012. The way he starts his talk is something which completely swept me away. It was kinda like Beethoven and his music, a partly deaf man who created magic through his music while Harbisson outclasses the show by being a man who processes colours than most who can see them bright and vivid.
The way he says – “The problem is not that I can’t see colours, the problem is that you can see them!”. If I were to point a few things I liked in the presentation, it would quite a lot of things, the whole attitude with which he speaks, the elegance, simplicity and above all the view with which he has brought in a whole range of development is fascinating to say the least. The talk, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Sw_-pzYEqV4 is extremely inspiring on all accords.
We have seen people who fret at the smallest difficulties and we have been people who fret at them while here is a man who says he cannot see colour but I don’t think there is anyone in the world who can process more colours than he can! Only a great talker can make you laugh and think at the same time. There are no woes in the story, here we see a man who is strong, who is out there creating a change as opposed to the many who speak and crib!
The whole idea of having a representation of colours through their frequencies is scintillating. It is the first time ever I am seeing a view which offers colour as a music, as a tonality, frequency. I specially loved his reference, ” In humans – there is no white or black – we are never black or white, we range between light and dark shades of orange”. I think that was certainly the show stopper! No one could have probably told it better. There have been wars, there has been an apartheid talking about the white and the black skin while we are all simple plain shades of orange!
And the idea of face as a ringtone, who would not like that? Who would like to have a personalized ringtone and proudly say that’s the song of my face! The way he has used the sound idea to define his fashion sense elevates dressing to a new level. The thought of a fashion show with the models wearing sound frequencies, songs is brillaince at its best. While I listened to him, I could keep myself glued upon one quote – “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand”. Doesn’t it always boil down to that! There are always ifs and buts. A deaf Beethoven can compose the best music in the world. A man who cannot process colours can do magic with his ears and brain. If you tell me there is no magic, then how would you define this? It is brilliance in all accord.
Hats off to Neil Harbisson, it is personality at its best!
muktamanassu 