Stelarc
Stelarc (AU) is a performance artist exploring human-machine interfaces.
Stelarc [foto © Jan Sprij]
“Bodies are both Zombies and Cyborgs. We have never had a mind of own and we often perform involuntarily- conditioned and extremely 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 prothetic 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 is a performance artist who is interested in alternate, intimate and involuntary aesthetic experiences. For this, he has used medical, robot and virtual reality systems to explore, extend and enhance the body's performance parameters. Stelarc started by acoustically and visually probing the body, amplifying his brainwaves, heartbeat, bloodflow and muscle signals and filming the inside of his lungs, stomach and colon.
Having experimented with the limitations of the body, he developed strategies to augment its capabilities, interfacing the body with prosthetics, robotics, medical imagining or computer technologies - such as the internet or virtual reality. Stelarc has performed extensively in art events all over the world, including new music, dance festivals and experimental theater.
Stelarc is Chair in Performance Art, School of Arts, Brunel University West London, UK and Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Artist in the MARCS Labs at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.
With V2_, he participated in the publications Book for the Electronic Arts (2000) and in TechnoMorphica (1997) with his essay Parasite Visions.
A selection of videos:
Ping body (DEAF96) / Psycho Cyber (1996) / Ping Body (Full Performance) / The Techno Body (1993)
