Neil Harbisson (born 1982) is a Catalan-raised British-Irish-American[17] cyborg artist and activist for transpecies rights.

[18] Since 2004, international media have hailed him as the world's first legally recognized cyborg, following the UK government's passport office's acceptance of his antenna as a body part.

This includes measurements of electromagnetic radiation, phone calls, and music, as well as videos or images which are translated into audible vibrations.

[28][29] At 16, he studied fine art at the Institut Alexandre Satorras, where he was given special permission to use no colour in his work.

[19] Harbisson began developing the antenna at college in 2003 with Adam Montandon[44] and it was upgraded by Peter Kese and Matias Lizana, among others.

[42] The antenna implant surgery was repeatedly rejected by bioethical committees but went underway regardless by anonymous doctors.

Harbisson has given permission to five friends, one in each continent, to send colours, images, videos or sounds directly into his head.

[46] The first public demonstration of a skull-transmitted image was broadcast live on Al Jazeera's chat show The Stream.

[50] He correctly identified and painted the same color stripes onto a canvas in front of an audience at The Red Door, 10 blocks away from Times Square.

[60] Harbisson's artwork has been ranked together with the works of Yoko Ono and Marina Abramović as one of the 10 most shocking art performances ever.

[62] His main works have been exhibited during the 54th Venice Biennale[63] at Palazzo Foscari (Venice, Italy),[64] Savina Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul, South Korea),[65] Museumsquartier (Vienna, Austria), CCCB,[66] Pioneer Works (New York, USA),[67]ArtScience Museum (Singapore)[68] Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona, Spain),[69] Pollock Gallery,[70] Fake Me Hard (Niet Normaal INT),[71] and at the American Visionary Art Museum,[72] among others.

He has created live portraits of Philip Glass,[75] Robert De Niro, Al Pacino,[76] Iris Apfel, Oliver Stone, Steve Reich, Bono, Buzz Aldrin, Solange, Bill Viola, Prince Charles, Woody Allen,[77] Antoni Tàpies, Leonardo DiCaprio, Judi Dench,[78] Moby, James Cameron,[79] Peter Brook, Al Gore, Tim Berners-Lee, Macy Gray, Gael García Bernal,[80] Alfonso Cuarón, Ryoji Ikeda, Gabriel Byrne,[81] Prince Albert II of Monaco,[82] Steve Wozniak,[83] Oliver Sacks, and Giorgio Moroder, among others.

Harbisson wrote back explaining that he identified as a cyborg and that his antenna should be treated as an organ, not a device.

[129][130] Harbisson filed a complaint of physical aggression, not as damage to personal property, as he considers the antenna to be a body part.

[131][failed verification] Harbisson has collaborated extensively with his childhood friend and cyborg artist Moon Ribas in performances[132][133] and art projects.