Stelarc

After looking into what a 'cyborg' means, I decided to do some artist research. So I came across Stelarc from doing some internet research and found this photograph.

The Man with the Ear-Arm

This photograph made me feel really uncomfortable when I first seen it. I didn't understand why there was an ear on his arm, so I researched in to this to find out more.

"I replied that it has to do with ideas about how the body is not located where it's located anymore; that in this wild world of instantaneous reproduction and projection and distribution, we are located in several places at once."
Jen Graves. (2009). Stelarc: The Man with the Ear-Arm. In/Visible. 11 (1), p2

Basicly Stelarc focuses on extending the capabilities of the human body with both technical and physical manners. His ideas came from the notion that the human body is obsolete.

Third Arm

Here is Stelarc himself with his robotic arm that he made. His theory is that our bodies are already just extensions of our mind, so adding technology to our bodies is a logical next step.
To me this makes sense, he is showing the fact that technology is moving forward. There is no stopping it so we might as well follow it and join the path with everyone else.


“Bodies are both Zombies and Cyborgs. We have never had a mind of our own and we often perform involuntary 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 our technology. We have always been prosthetic bodies. We fear the involuntary and we are becoming increasingly involuntary and extended. But we fear what we have always been and what we have already become - Zombies and Cyborgs.”
Stelarc. (2008). Stelarc Third Arm Helps Improve Your Ski-Boxing. Available: http://www.electronicsinfoline.com/News_Gadgets/Robotics/stelarc-third-arm-helps-improve-your-ski-boxing.html. Last accessed 18th Feb 2012.


Here is a quote I found from Stelarc himself. This quote to me means that the zombie is our past, and cyborgs is our future, in which creates us as we are now. We are becoming more and more like cyborgs however we will still have our zombie human side to us.