Cape Town - Cyborgs who claim they have the ability to communicate with outer space and feel the seismic activity on Earth and the moon through antennas and sensors embedded in their bodies are on their way to Cape Town.
Spain-based Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas, cyborg artists and activists, will address the Design Indaba Conference this week.
Harbisson has an antenna permanently implanted in his brain he says can pick up Nasa’s space feed. He is the first cyborg to be officially recognised by a government after the British government allowed his antenna to appear in his passport photo.
His antenna can also read the colours of your eyes and translate that into sound. Harbisson identifies himself as a “transpecies and no longer feels 100% human” as he feels he is technology.
In a 2012 TED talk, he said: “Before I used to dress in a way that looked good. Now I dress in a way that sounds good.”
Ribas has sensors embedded in her feet that read seismic activity on earth and the moon.
Ribas said: “By extending our senses to perceive outside the planet we can all become senstronauts.”
The added sense apparently allows her to be physically on Earth while her feet feel the moon, which theoretically allows her to be on Earth and in space at the same time.
In 2010, the Catalan-based cyborgs founded the Cyborg Foundation, an international organisation that aims to help humans become cyborgs, defend cyborg rights and promote cyborg art.
The annual design conference is celebrating its 24th anniversary and this year’s three-day event is packed with local and international speakers.
Cape Town is the first city in Africa to be named a Unesco City of Design. It joined 180 cities in 72 countries around the world that are committed to promoting innovation and creativity.
Managing director Ravi Naidoo said the Design Indaba has been held in Cape Town since 1995 because of the city’s “natural beauty and here are challenges where we could look to design for potential solutions”.
“One example that comes to mind is a young South African designer, Shaakira Jassat, who was a speaker at last year’s conference. In thinking about the Cape Town water crisis, she’s developed two products, Tea Drop and Aquatecture, which harvest water from the atmosphere,” said Naidoo.
Comedian and filmmaker Kagiso Lediga is slated to speak at the conference on his new film, Matwetwe.
Other speakers include Sindiso Khumalo and Renee Rossouw, Nigerian fashion designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal and Kenyan film-maker Wanuri Kahiu.
Other international speakers are the most awarded man in advertising David Droga, architects Mariam Kamara, Annabelle Selldorf, John Pawson and Dong-Ping Wong, poet Lemn Sissay and Keenan Wyrobek from Zipline - the world’s only drone delivery service that transports medical supplies and blood to remote areas in places like Rwanda.
The Design Indaba Conference opens on Wednesday and runs until Friday.