MARsPhotos

In relations to readings for April 3/April 8:

1. Paul, 165-174
2. Wardrip-Fruin, #35, Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”
3. On Stelarc: CTheory articles by Stelarc and Julie Clarke at: http://www.ctheory.net/home.aspx

This video shows an artist, Rokeby, in London as a Cyborg. He walks around with all these computers on his body, taking pictures, video, and even sends his brain waves to the internet from an EEG machine at his hip. His waves then made a sort of music on the internet. If I were to come across him in the street, I don’t know what I would think. Before this class, I probably would have thought he was crazy! It must be tiring to carry all that equipment on your body. If any of us hope to be Cyborgs in the future, haha, I hope that they come up with lighter materials! Or, maybe we can build it all in our clothing…if we wear “clothing” in the future.

He talked about leaving an imprint of himself; his experiences through all of his images, video, and data he’s collected doing this art. I think the idea is nice, but also seems kind of sad. I mean, the idea of a Cyborg seems so emotionless to me, but he still has that human desire to want to be remembered; to record everything; to leave a legacy.

Artist Stelarc interested me quite a bit. He really takes “the body” and “the machine” to the next level in his performance art. He says:

“Bodies are both Zombies and Cyborgs. We have never had a mind of our own and we often perform involuntarily conditioned and externally prompted. Ever since we evolved as hominids and developed bipedal locomotion, two limbs became manipulators and we constructed artifacts, instruments and machines. In other words, we have always been coupled with technology. We have always been prosthetic bodies. We fear the involuntary and we are becoming increasingly automated and extended. But we fear what we have always been and what we have already become-Zombies and Cyborgs.” -Stelarc

The basis to many of his works is that the body is obsolete. He has hung himself from many hooks inserted into his flesh, he has performed with a six legged machine that walks, he has hooked himself up to a machine and allowed people from the internet to be able to control his body, he has performed with a third prosthetic arm. All very interesting stuff that really opened my mind…I didn’t know there were people out there like that! Very fascinating. One of the articles was about a virtual Prosthetic head. The head is a virtual animated avatar, somewhat resembling Stelarc, that one can converse with. The head is programmed to “think” and have creative responses.

The article continued on to talk about his quarter scale replica of his ear and how he hopes to make a live tissue model of his head. Wow! This project has brought up debates about what life is. The ear is treated as a “partially-living” thing. I think it is amazing what science and technology has allowed us to do. To grow living tissue clones and then attach them to our bodies?? Amazing stuff.

I included a short video of him with his walking machine, as well as one of his earlier performances with his prosthetic arm.

Another artist that peaked my interest was Stahl Stenslie with Inter-skin (1994). Stenslie is known as the father of cybersex. His projects are very erotic. This particular work is about tactile touch. The suit has many sensors and when one touches themselves, someone who is wearing the suit at another location is able to feel this. Since he considers himself the father of cybersex, I’m sure the use of this suit can be imagined. Some of his other works, such as CyberSM, are even more risque and explore different gender identites. I think the concept of being able to feel touch through the internet is very interesting! I guess his works can really cross a line for some people about whether it is art or not. Either way, it definitely allows for a new experience in cyber-space!