Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Eliminating Tone Deafness
This week, please watch and listen as artist Neil Harbisson describes how he listens to color.
In responding (which please do for your local end of Sunday), please
consider two questions: to what extent can one sensory way of knowing be
substituted for another? Which of your ways of knowing does this
lecture employ or trigger, and how and why? Consider view points in addition to your own, please.
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This TED Talk featuring Neil Harbisson was very fascinating in my opinion. My favorite quote from Neil Harbisson’s lecture is “if we extend our senses we will consequently, extend our knowledge.” This immediately made me think of the question above that asks “to what extent can one sensory way of knowing be substituted for another?” I believe that extending our senses can mean substituting one for another to gather more knowledge. I think it’s fair to say that by substituting one sensory way of knowing for another, like Harbisson’s substitution of hearing for sight (color blindness), we may gain knowledge that we would not have gained unless the substitution was made. In Harbisson’s case, his color blindness motivated him to find another method to perceiving color which was hearing. He now can perceive colors like ultraviolet that other people can not because he substituted one sensory way of knowing for another. I believe that one sensory way of knowing can be used in place of another to a great extent, though there are limits to the exchange. For example, the other day I was asked to try brussel sprouts. Instead of tasting them I just smelled them and stated there was no way I was trying them because I simply wouldn’t like them. In this case I used my sense of smell as an alternative to my sense of taste to come to the conclusion that I don’t like brussel sprouts. Other people may find themselves in the same situation but view and handle it differently, by using sight as a sensory way of knowing to replace taste and come to the same conclusion. I have also found myself in the situation where I declare I don’t like pasta because of the texture, instead of using taste to determine my liking for it. In all of these instances it appears that there are no limits to replacing one sensory way of knowing with another. However, with the substitution of sensory ways of knowing, there must be limitations to the knowledge a knower gains from an experience.
ReplyDeletePersonally, the lecture triggered my emotion for the most part. I was fascinated by Harbisson’s determination to find new ways to perceive things he was limited to because of his color blindness. In addition, I felt empathetic towards his situation. Though I cannot physically put myself in his shoes, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be in his situation and hear color. I believe this lecture employs sense perception and emotion from my ways of knowing and sense perception and memory from Harbisson’s. Neil Harbisson had to memorize the sounds of every color he wanted to perceive or distinguish. He used his hearing abilities to conquer his disability by substituting his sense of hearing for his lack of sight for color.
In Neil Harbisson's explanation of his experience of sound and color, it became very apparent to me that he experienced the two as interchangeable, inextricably linked concepts. To me, this is utterly unrelatable as I am not a synesthetic; however, the more he explained it, the more I understood. Before watching this, I wouldn't have thought that one sense could be substituted for another beyond the realm of identifying something in different ways (i.e., knowing that something was an orange by smell, taste, and touch independently). Harbisson experiences two of his senses almost as one which is something that the majority of us cannot personally relate to, but I still feel that one sense cannot be substituted for another. Physiologically, Harbisson still cannot see color. He stated himself that he merely memorized pitches and associated them with the names of colors. Over time, of course, this became more and more involuntary until it really felt like he could literally see the colors, but the fact remains that he is hearing them, not seeing them. In that sense, I don't think his senses are truly substituted for one another, he's just found a very interesting and clever way to work around his colorblindness using other senses.
ReplyDeleteThis lecture immediately triggered an emotional response in me - hearing that Harbisson could not see any color at all was incredibly sad for me to think about because I am a very visually oriented person and appreciate color in the world every day. His speech also played into my sense perception - I found myself imagining what it would be like to become a "cyborg", maybe enhancing my sense of smell or touch. However, the way of knowing which I found myself returning to the most was language. He said at one point that he was wearing a C major chord which I found both charming and absurd - he really is like a synesthetic in the sense that color and sound lean on each other. I'd never heard anyone describe someone's face as a sound or a speech as an array of colors, and the juxtaposition of "clothing" and "C major" was startling and very new to me.
From what I have seen in this video and other cases where people have lost a sensory ability, other senses can compensate for the loss but not completely substitute for it. For example, Neil Harbisson can hear what colours are present but not their specific in location. If I’m looking at a painting I can tell which part of the painting is a specific colour. Instead, he knows the colours are there and maybe their quantity but not their specific placement. The precision that comes with sense of sight is not fully compensated for by the machine. It has been observed that blind people develop superior sense of hearing to compensate for sight deprivation. Some use echolocation to help them avoid bumping into objects. Although this can make up in some ways for the loss of sight. I do not think that one sense can completely substitute another.
ReplyDeleteWhile listening to him explain what it was like to be completely colour-blind and to use the device I tried to put myself in his shoes. I used imagination to understand his situation and the way he saw and felt things. For example, when he showed the paintings of the speeches of MLK and Hitler I tried to imagine what different colours would sound like to him and how he would paint them. I guessed which one was MLK’s speech because in his speeches, his voice remains around the same pitch and tone and one painting was less varied in color. In order to understand the points Harbisson made I had to imagine being in his situation. The lecture triggered some memory association with the concept of “neolution,” a concept in a show I watch. Neolutionists try to further their evolution through body modifications. This reminds me of what Harbisson was suggesting with the electronic eye. Ideas like neolution has popped up in literature such as the book Feed, where all humans are implanted with the Feed chip. Similarly, Google glasses sought to enhance our daily lives by making technology more integrated with our daily lives.
Technology is being used in so many ways to enhance our lives. Harbisson has showed that it has the potential to change how we think, interpret things or even dream. He spoke of cyborgs as a thing of future yet they are present even now. Technically speaking people with pacemakers and enhanced prosthetics are already cyborgs. In the future, technological modifications to humans can become enhanced, maybe even to the point where it changes the way we understand and think.
Before watching this video, I would not have thought that it was possible to hear color. This really blew my mind. I have heard that if someone does not have one of the senses, many times the other senses are sharper to help compensate for it. For example, if someone cannot see, their hearing may be sharper. However, I had not heard of a case before this in which a sensory way of knowing could be experienced in a completely different manner with another sensory way of knowing. What I found especially interesting is that with his method, he could perceive colors that humans are unable to see. Instead of compensating for his color blindness, I see this as a completely new way to experience life that is really interesting. I don't think that it necessarily substituted for his color blindness since it doesn't have the same effect as color but I can imagine that it is as fascinating as seeing color. One of the coolest things is how the feeling of each color is different between seeing it and hearing it. For example, the color turquoise is known as a more happy, calm color but Neil Harbisson stated that it was a color he would wear to a funeral because it had a sad sound. I can only imagine what going into the ocean would sound like and how much of a different experience it would be hearing the turquoise.
ReplyDeleteThe first way of knowing that I used was emotion. I felt excited when I heard this concept and the explanation of hearing colors and wondered how my perception of colors would change if I was able to both see and hear them. The Ted talk also triggered my sense perception as I heard the sounds associated to different colors and faces and the colors associated to different speeches. Finally, my imagination was also sparked in order to get a clearer grasp of the concept and what it would feel like to live life hearing a sound whenever I looked at anything.
To what extent can one sensory way of knowing be substituted for another? Which of your ways of knowing does this lecture employ or trigger, and how and why?
ReplyDeleteBesides the fact that such a device as what Neil Harbisson has exists and is really really cool, I really found the video to be enlightening. I honestly knew would have expected sound to be a replacement for sight in this way… Although it makes sense. It’s common knowledge that our hearing is bettered when we can’t see, so it isn’t so far of a stretch to say that specific things that we see could be replaced by specific sounds. What’s even more interesting is that for Harbisson, it’s gone beyond just having a way to perceive color. He’s been able to use it in amazing ways, beyond what the device was probably ever originally meant for. I honestly had no idea that sight could be replaced to this extent.
The lecture really sparked my emotion, for a lot of reasons. First of all, never once did he show any regret at not being able to physically see color. He seems to be completely at peace with his situation, and that’s very encouraging and heartwarming. Another reason it made me emotional was because of the passion Harbisson exhibited for his device and the things that make him special. He does feel self conscious, nor does he want to keep the technology for himself. Even though he cannot see the world the way most people can, he wants everyone to be able to see the world the way he does.
Disclaimer: before I begin, I must inform you that I am operating under the definition of "substitute" to mean "can function/serve in place of"
ReplyDeleteEven before watching this TED talk, I knew that one sense could be substituted for another because it happens all the time in people who are born deaf or blind; in order to compensate for the lack of one sense, the other senses will develop to become much more keen and in essence can function at heightened level in place of another. Braille is a classic example of substituting touch for sight; people who are blind can learn to read and have a concept of the letters in the alphabet by learning to interpret the raised bumps on a page. Neil Harbisson is fortunate in that he can still see, only everything is in grayscale so he relies on the extension of his sense through an electronic eye that emits sound. His eyes are still not the physical part of his body responsible for hearing; rather, his brain has been retrained and rewired to associate the sound waves heard through his eardrums to the concepts of color that his irises would normally pick up on. Neil can understand all the nuances of color, such as their hues or vibrancy or softness or richness, but he is only able to do so because of his access to advanced technology, which poses a huge cost limitation to some. If others had the same color-blindness as Neil but not the same technology, they might not have been able to create a new concept of color for themselves by employing another of their five senses. So to amend my answer this question, I say, if given proper technology it is possible for one sensory way of knowing to be substituted for another.
This lecture first and foremost triggered my sense-perception, since as a member of the audience I heard the noises emitted from Neil's electronic eye, and noticed the neon tones of his in-my-opinion very eclectic outfit. I was challenged throughout the presentation to re-evaluate my notions of what it means to see and to hear, as I tried to wrap my head around the concept of eating songs and creating sound scores as self-portraits. To further cover my basis, one of the other more obvious ways of knowing employed here was language, since Neil was giving a speech. I noticed that in describing colors, Neil used different words than I might have, for example, he called the color green "grass" ( which is still easily understandable) and he said that he had dressed in " C major". This lecture also triggered my emotions, since I was fascinated and a little scared by the way Neil had added infrared and ultraviolet to his electronic eye, extending his senses and vision beyond human capacity. Also many of jokes and references Neil made to pop culture stimulated my laughter, and subsequently, delight.
To a certain extent, one sensory way of knowing can be substituted for another, particularly in the condition that one sensory ability is completely lost. According to Harbisson, his ability to distinguish different colors is totally absent. He was thus only left with the situation of either not having that sense forever or switching it to other sensory way. Technology firstly helps him a lot: it enables all the colors he sees to be heard. There is also a gradual process of the substitution: he gets used to the way he perceives colors over time, and that electric sound became his feeling and another sense of perception. In this case, Harbisson’s vision is substituted with both the help of outside source and his own adaptation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in cases other than Harbisson’s, a complete substitution of a sensory way of knowing is not quite possible. I think that this whole process begins with the loss of one sense, which is relatively rare among people. The help of technology is also a special occasion that most people do not have the oppotunity to achieve. Although the later adaptation is common, the two prerequisites are relatively hard to accomplish.
This lecture triggers my reasoning as one way of knowing. Throughout the whole lecture, I have been thinking about the effects of technology both currently and in the future. When Harbisson talks about how the colors are precisely translated into auditory language, for instance, to depict a painting using sound, I was thinking about the advancement in technology nowadays. Logics then came in: since such a use in technology is presented as an impressive case currently, if the technology gets more and more advanced as what it had been in the past decades, there will definitely be multiple uses of such technologies similar to Harbisson’s case in the next few years. Furthermore, I was wondering, will people be able to use such technology to freely switch their different senses of perceptions according to their desires or needs in the future?
I found Neil Harbisson’s Ted talk very uplifting and interesting. I think it is amazing that someone like Neil could use his disability to create new ways of understanding the world. Although I had a hard time understanding how he could ‘hear color’ at first, I eventually understood his invention as the talk went on however hearing color is something that I will never be able to truly understand, since I have never experienced color acting as a sound. With using hearing as a substitution for recognizing color, Harbisson was able to heighten his sense of hearing to compensate for a lack within his eyesight. However, I believe that this substitution is limited. Although Harbisson can ‘hear’ color, his world still offers only different shades of grey. Since Harbisson hears every color he sees, he most likely lives his life hearing constant chatter, for our world is very colorful. This means that quiet is probably very rare for Harbisson (unless he is in a room of black and/or white), whereas if he could recognize color there would be no extra sounds for him to hear. Also, by hearing color, Harbisson is using more of his imagination to recognize, rather than actually see color. Harbisson stated that he was born color blind which means that when Harbisson ‘sees’ a color and hears it, his imagination helps him create that color. This means that Harbisson’s version of red could actually be blue and his version of purple- our yellow. By substituting seeing with hearing, Harbisson’s imagination is doing more of the work to create a colorful picture before him, rather than his hearing.
ReplyDeleteUpon hearing this lecture, the first way of knowing that came to me was emotion. I was both intrigued by the idea of hearing color, curious to understand as to how that idea would work, and confused, once the idea was presented to me originally. The second way of knowing that I used was language. The more Harbisson explained his invention and different examples of how he used his invention, the more I was able to understand the information that he had presented to me. The last way of knowing that I used was imagination. After finally understanding what Harbisson was experiencing, I tried to picture myself in his situation both by imagining how many hundreds of sounds he must hear at once, and living in a world where he associates a color, like red, to a color that most humans would identify differently-like purple. I imagine that someone with synesthesia would use sense perception to understand Harbisson’s talk. By experiencing something similar they would be able to relate their situation to Harbisson’s through whatever sense they substitute for another.
In the 21 century, technology is developing in a extremely fast speed, and it makes me feel like there will be ways to make human “perfect”. Therefore, in my opinion, one sensory way of knowing and fully be substituted for another, and even surpass the function of the original way of sensory. In the lecture, the scientist uses a detector to distinguish color and convert in into different notes in order for him to understand the different appearance of things exist in the world. Consequently, the speaker and not only distinguish all colors compared to what the ordinary human eyes can, but also goes beyond that. For instance, he can detect color of ultraviolet and therefore determine whether is a good day for sun bathing; he can reversely alter the sound into color, which is a wonderful way of artistic expression; he can also compose music by perceiving a famous artwork and human faces. Therefore, sensory is just tools for use to understand the world better, as long as we can distinguish the world well enough, it does not matter how we perceive it.
ReplyDeleteThis lecture evokes my memory about a girl who has autism, and so she uses paint as a way to express how she perceives the world and expresses her feeling. Because both of these two people use art as a way to fill up their defects, it looks like human can not be detached from art. The man uses sensory to create music and painting, and girl express her emotion into painting. There is a subtle connection between them.
First, let me start off by saying that I think it is to a very low extent that one sense can be substituted for another. While artist Neil Harbisson was able to use hearing to make up for his inability to see color, I strongly doubt that he would ever be able to perceive receive colors the way another person would. For one sense to truly be able to do his job it would have to be functioning. Each of the five senses has his own unique job that is completely different from another and therefore, based on these differences, I do not think it is possible for one sense to be a comparable substitute for another.
ReplyDeleteThe ways of knowing that this lecture triggered for me were memory, reasoning and sense perception. Nail Harbisson was using is hearing to hear the different sounds for color and using reasoning and memory to determine which color each sound was. He would have to use reasoning to gather which sound which color matched. Memory would come in because in the past he would have learned the reasoning and now he would have to recall it.
Harbisson’s Ted Talk brings up some interesting points on the instability of our concrete knowledge. If a man who can’t see color can visualize and differentiate it with the help of technology, how far has technology come? By allowing us to hear what he sees, Harbisson is allowing us to understand the unexplainable. By giving us two “sound portraits” of two of the strongest public speakers in our history and allowing us to choose one without the knowledge of the subject, we are allowed a completely unbiased choice. This new way of looking at the world is not only revolutionary but also conception altering.
ReplyDeleteSensory knowledge is often misunderstood. The Sixth Sense wasn’t totally fictional – there are abilities we all have without recognition. How else do you explain gut feeling? In terms of the five concrete senses most of employ and all of us know to be real, there is constant substitution occurring between them. I can smell the brownies Brett is making right now and know exactly what they will taste like. My sister sees my snapchat of our old house and remembers perfectly how the gate to the house sounds as it closes behind her. Even with my eyes closed, I can be brought back to my entire childhood just by sitting on my warm tar roof in the summer. The B52’s “Love Shack” brings me back to the smell of chlorine at six o’clock swim meets. The taste of Ben & Jerry’s peach cobbler ice cream reminds me solely of the wonderfully terrible experience that was my first kiss. Even just seeing the entrance to my childhood neighborhood floods me with hundreds of memories, and with it the inexplicable nostalgia.
However, these triggers are completely situational. If a person has never been able to here “Love Shack” they simply cannot have any emotional connection to it. Not to mention that because the human experience is so unique, every person’s reaction to sensory stimulation is complex and different. When I smell the bittersweet smell of the murky Potomac River, I am overwhelmed by happy memories of summer adventures. However, my sister dislikes the smell and is repulsed by it, mostly because the only times she ventured down there was to stop and yell at my friends and me for swimming in the polluted water. Due to the fact that this was a weekly summer occurrence, she developed a less than pleasant reacti
This week, please watch and listen as artist Neil Harbisson describes how he listens to color. In responding (which please do for your local end of Sunday), please consider two questions: to what extent can one sensory way of knowing be substituted for another? Which of your ways of knowing does this lecture employ or trigger, and how and why? Consider view points in addition to your own, please.
ReplyDeleteNeil Harbisson's TED Talk reminded me of my own condition-- synesthesia. Harbisson's colorblindness is mechanically assisted, so that he can listen to colors instead of seeing them. My hard-of-hearing brain processes sounds as patterns and shapes, so that when I hear anything, I visualize an associated pattern which never changes for each individual sound. However, my condition requires that I still be able to hear at least somewhat; seeing patterns of speech in mid air would not particularly be possible if I couldn't hear people talking at all. As I type this, right now, I can hear the sounds of the keys and visualize small white pulses around my head which correspond to the sounds of my typing; the pulse for the spacebar is slightly larger than the pulses of the other keys. My sense of sight, in a way, makes up for part of my bad hearing. This requires two sense to coexist, so that each plays a role in allowing me to process sounds. Listening to music can be exhausting, and I get distracted from lectures by watching the person speaking's speech pattern waver around. I conclude that senses cannot completely replace one another. Seeing sounds is only possible for me because I hear sounds. Harbisson can "hear" colors, but not see them the way that most people would. Other senses can partially make up for a loss of ability in a sense, but not replace it completely.
What ways of knowing does this lecture employ or trigger?
This lecture employs sense perception as its primary way of knowing. Language was also used, as this was a lecture. Sense perception played a role for me in that I immediately visualized Harbisson's speech pattern, but as Claire Lane mentioned above, I couldn't help but notice the neon colors of his outfit! Harbisson, being completely colorblind, dressed in what he would call "C Major" and what I think I would refer to as "bright colors". This lecture employs my sense of sight because I see that he dresses differently because he can't see colors -- essentially, it employs my sense perception by showing his lack of it.