Carey Born’s film Cyborg: A Documentary, is a curiously intriguing portrait of artist and musician Neil Harbisson, who was born into a world that is only black and white. That is until he received a cybernetic enhancement that allowed him to hear our universe in color. Now…I know what you’re thinking…sounds a little like the plot for an Isaac Asimov novel, right? It’s true. But this is real-world cyborg tech, the work of specialist Adam Montandon – creating an antenna of sorts that protrudes from the rear of Harbisson’s skull – the result of a weekend’s worth of surgery. While that statement may come off a little comical, the fact that this could be the next step in human evolution is even more thought-provoking than this film or its subject.
There will be those out there who will write this off as preposterous. The story progresses, looking at young Neil’s colourless beginnings to the moment he finds his soulmate, Moon Ribas, who we gather is as infatuated with the way Neil experiences the world as she is with the man himself. I suppose the spirit of the Golden Age of science fiction writing was whispering in my ear. Chris Columbus’s Bicentennial Man (1999) kept sparking in my memory. In part because of the scientific advancements suggested extending and enhancing human life, coupled with the fact Harbisson’s journey does give off Asimov vibes, not unlike the notes Neil hears in his head – the sonic equivalent to the spectrum of colour and light the rest of us take for granted.
“…a cybernetic enhancement which allows him to hear in colour…”
The beauty of this film, much like the mission of its protagonist, is that it forces you to change your perception of how other people view existence. Harbisson could indeed be a kind of late-day prophet who speaks in the tongues of art and science, proposing the ultimate union of the two. Plus, if you are familiar with The Matrix film series, the idea of having information directly imported into our brains in case we need to fly a gunship or learn Kung Fu in the blink of an eye is a glance beyond such follies as Cybertrucks and the Vision Pro.
Radical thinking is often met with fierce opposition. Some view Harbisson’s cyborgism as buffoonery and the idea of the extension of sensory perception as preposterous. Yet, there is beneath all of that the story of a man who learned to hear the world in colour, who makes ‘sound portraits’ of celebrities like Nicole Kidman, who travels the globe trying to sell humanity on the idea of redesigning ourselves for a new tomorrow. This is a tale of wonder. Beethoven could not hear the symphonies he composed except in his own head. Neil Harbisson is wired to a new frequency. We can’t hear his music…but this film is an invitation to listen.
So, whether you believe in the continuing evolution of our species or are simply in the mood for a view of life as seen through the eyes of a man who longs to know how we see, and if you lend yourself to the concept that a union of the technological and the biological could be fused into something that could drastically alter the fate of mankind as a result of its existence and implications…then Cyborg: A Documentary is for you.
"…“a curiously-intriguing portrait of artist”"
