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from the new-one-for-the-internet-of-things dept.
In a combination of artistic expression and cutting edge medical technology, Curtin University professor and artist Stelarc is working on a project to grow a human ear on his forearm and connect it, via microphone, to the Internet.
"People's reactions range from bemusement to bewilderment to curiosity, but you don't really expect people to understand the art component of all of this," Stelarc said.
A medical team built a scaffold of the ear under the skin, within six months blood vessels and tissue began to grow around it.
The next step is to make the ear more three-dimensional — lifting it up off the arm and growing an ear lobe from Stelarc's stem cells.
Selarc's plan is to embed a microphone into the ear and connect it to the Internet, so anyone, anywhere, anytime can listen in. He's not planning to wire in an off-line option.
"Increasingly now, people are becoming internet portals of experience ... imagine if I could hear with the ears of someone in New York, imagine if I at the same time could see with the eyes of someone in London."
Original story from the ABC.
An interview with Stelarc.
Stelarc's web page for the project.
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Wednesday August 12 2015, @04:21PM
There's a surprising amount of vitriol about this.
Not really what I expected here, considering most soylentils take time to consider before they post.
Stelarc has quite a history in pushing the boundaries of the intersection between body and technology. You may or may not like his art but it's difficult to deny his impact upon popular culture and emerging concepts and discourse about the body.
Yes artists do attract attention to their work and from the early days of his work, Stelarc has used his body as a canvas;
I'd expect commenters here to be a little more astute than to recoil and consider it a cheap trick or "attention whore[ing]"
Though, ironically, I wonder whether that may in some way be quite a correct artistic description...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 12 2015, @05:13PM
Don't take it personally. Most "performance art" pieces like throwing raw meat on a bed get the same reaction from me.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"