What's in those...ears?
There is an implant that is touching the bone and another plate that is touching the chip that makes the fin vibrate.
Implanted in the skull?
The fins are not implanted, but installed: in contact with implants that are indeed transcutaneous...
Fan mal?
They don't hurt. They increase my connection with the environment. They are a transdermal implant and simply act as a bridge to direct the vibration of the fin in the skull to the skin layer.
What are these fins made of?
On the outside they are made of silicone and inside they have 3D printed electronics, which includes atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity sensors.
How do they convey this information to you?
They work by continuously reading the temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure around me and it translates into a vibration that is actually a sound…
end? Pot sentir-ho?
This vibration goes to the implant, which touches the bone and becomes sound in my mind. It allows me to hear the weather and in the end it is like a soundscape that is transformed with the changes in the atmospheric conditions of my environment.
How does this perception sound?
It's like a bubble noise. If the humidity rises, the bubbles grow I feel. If the temperature increases, the bubbles sound louder and if the pressure increases, the volume increases.
Night and day?
Well, my battery is dying and I need to recharge it.
Can you take a flipper vacation every now and then?
If I have to sleep for 8 hours I uninstall them, because they are not yet designed for sleeping or for doing everyday things comfortably.
Can they be improved?
Obviously, that's why I still continue to design them. The idea is to make them smaller: the technology will be more compact and the implant will be closer to the bone, because it is a nuisance to have to insert and remove an organ. It is much more convenient and practical to integrate it.
With?
When you load the fins at the end it's like feeding your artificial body; I feed my organic body with food and drink and the artificial one with electricity. And there will be a time when you can possibly recharge your artificial organs through locomotive energy, but we're not at that point.
Who installed this prosthesis?
Eizo Mamiya in his Noon studio in Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood.
Wasn't it scary to have surgery there?
I was joined in Japan by Neil Harbisson…
Pioneering Cyborg: Came out in La Contra.
I tried to get the implants in Barcelona, but nobody dared.
Because?
The body modification community here is very small and they were afraid that the vibrating technology would get infected, because it is an always open implant.
Was it painful?
It's not a big incision - it was quick, just half an hour, and I wasn't put to sleep.
More or less like a tattoo?
Yes: but for me it is a practical prosthesis, not an aesthetic one, and when designing it I discovered that it had to be metal to better conduct the vibration.
Do you want to make art, technology, reporting...?
I want to explore the limits of what we call human by adding organs inspired by non-human species, which is why Neal and I define it as the transspecies cyborg movement. And... yes, it's rebellion.
Against whom?
Against anthropocentrism and to get closer to other species, the non-human ones; because we are closing ourselves in our own bubble and belittling other animals while disconnecting from the planet.
How do they connect it to the planet, the fins?
They connect me to the rain and to the bottom of the sea by their bubbling sounds that respond to atmospheric changes.
Does it change your perception of the sea?
It is like being in a sea of invisible air, but dense with matter. It is art, but not invention, but ultra-perception. And revelation...
Where is the revelation?
The prosthesis I've designed reveals what's going on around you that you couldn't perceive with your biological organs alone.
What inspired you?
This is what cyborg art is all about: designing your perception of reality - without being augmented or virtual - through new senses that reveal it to your cyborg body.
