Cyborg: A Documentary (12A)
Director: Carey Born, UK, 2023, 87 mins
Cast: Neil Harbisson, Manel De Aguas Muñoz, Moon Ribas
Director: Carey Born, UK, 2023, 87 mins
Cast: Neil Harbisson, Manel De Aguas Muñoz, Moon Ribas
Neil Harbisson, the world’s first formally-recognised cyborg, is on a mission to convince the world to adopt his credo: Design Yourself
Harbisson wants to convince the world that the technological enhancement of our senses is a force for good. Since birth, he has been only able to see in black and white. Yearning to experience how others feel the emotive power of colour, at the age of 21 he had an ‘eyeborg’ antenna permanently implanted in his skull that translates colour waves into sound frequencies, enabling him to ‘hear’ colour.
Neil’s childhood friend Moon Ribas, a dancer and choreographer, has had implants in her arm and foot which allow her to perceive earthquakes from all over the planet as vibrations in her body.
Together they have established the Cyborg Foundation, promoting the creation of new technological senses, and the Transpecies Society, which gives voice to non-human identities and defends the freedom of self-design. The pair are prominent figures in a movement of humans becoming ‘cyborgs’, which is growing year on year.
“The film hinges on a very familiar struggle: those who prefer to define the world by way of fixed static categories, and instinctively fear change; and those who see natural boundaries as innately fuzzy, with change and exploration themselves part of the natural order.”
- Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
The screening will be introduced by Professor Andy Wills, from the School of Psychology, who works on learning and object classification, and more recently AI. Andy will discuss how AI can enhance cognition and the possibilities of a future where our interaction with AI is through brain implants rather than a phone or laptop.
Part of our
Celluloid Psychology
series, devised by
Dr Alastair Smith
as an antidote to the usual depictions of psychology on our screens.
Date: Monday 17 March 2025
Time: 19:00 – 21:10
Venue: Jill Craigie Cinema, Roland Levinsky Building
Ticket information: £6, £4 concessions, Free to University of Plymouth students
Age Restriction: Certificate 12A
Time: 19:00 – 21:10
Venue: Jill Craigie Cinema, Roland Levinsky Building
Ticket information: £6, £4 concessions, Free to University of Plymouth students
Age Restriction: Certificate 12A
