Stelarc: The Cadaver, the Comatose & the Chimera - seminar (melbourne)

We are living in an age of excess and indifference, of prosthetic augmentation and extended operational systems. The dead, the near dead, the undead and the yet to be born are existing simultaneously. This is the age of the cadaver, the comatose and the chimera. The cadaver can now be preserved indefinitely with plastination. The comatose body can be sustained on a life-support system. Cryogenically suspended bodies await possible reanimation. Chimera is the body that performs with mixed realities. A biological body, augmented with technology and telematically performing with virtual systems. The chimera is an alternate embodiment.

This is an age of organs without bodies, of organs awaiting bodies. There is now a proliferation of organs. A proliferation of biocompatible components in both substance and scale that allows technology to be attached and implanted into the body. Organs are extracted and exchanged. Organs are engineered and inserted. Blood flowing in my body might tomorrow be circulating in your body. Ova are fertilized in-vitro with sperm that has been unfrozen. The face of the donor becomes a third face on the recipient. The body acts with indifference. Indifference as opposed to expectation. An indifference that allows something to occur, that allows an unfolding - in its own time and with its own rhythm. An indifference that allows suspending a body with hooks, inserting a sculpture inside the body and surgically constructing an ear on an arm. This presentation examines alternate anatomical architectures using mechanical, virtual, biotech and surgical augmentation and exploration of the body. It exposes the obsolescence, the absence and the emptiness of the body.

Stelarc is a performance artist who has performed with a third hand, a virtual arm, a 6-legged walking robot and is presently surgically constructing and stem cell growing an ear on his arm.

This seminar will be held at at the Law Building, Lecture Theatre G08, University Square, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton 3053.

08 May 2009
Friday 3.00 - 4.00 pm Stelarc
The Cadaver, the Comatose & the Chimera

http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/research/groups/interactiondesign/seminars...