Colour-blind artist learns to paint by hearing

A colour-blind artist who could only recognise black and white shades has learnt how to paint with a full palette by “hearing” the hues he cannot see.

Neil Harbisson, 25, has been fitted with a device called an Eyeborg, which converts 360 colours into different sounds.



Now he is to mount his first London exhibition, showing city scenes such as red phone boxes in London and brightly coloured recycling banks in Barcelona. Harbisson, whose exhibition will arrive in London in April, after opening in Barcelona, said: “When I paint it is as if I am composing music on a canvas.”

Eyeborg creator, Adam Montandon, a cybernetics expert, hopes other people suffering from colour blindness or other vision disorders will now use his Eyeborg technology, whether or not they are artists.

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