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Name: a billboard
Comment: In the realms of reality the self is a composition of determined ingredients, I am confined, captive, not wanting to remain in this intrinsic vessel but belonging there only, rendered in my reality a linear cognitive mass, drifting beyond the interdiction of restricted self belief, stabilised with the elusion of sanity, illusions clearly focused on the invisible, the essence is undefined, unattained purity, between the cover of a hegemonic entity, the self is lost in the dualistic periphery of the indefinate article, all sheep on drugs, manifest in prosthetics, placing belief in ...
Comment: I was very impressed and totally entertained by your work.Your concepts and approach to your art seem cofident and sound, unlike many who would exploit the "shock" nature of such ideas. Since my early teens Ive been interested and intrigued by the human vessel,its function and form,its versitility as a "space ship" (Re:rational Vs its physical environment) and the extension of the body through the development of new (and old) technologies,Be that a stick to support a broken limb or this very computer Im sitting infront of. My work in sculpture to date deals with ideas about the human vessel in a pretty static way,I guess more as 3d observations than functional explorations.I am only now developing on ideas toward more instalational works that may offer the viewer a more interactive vantage than a sculpture on a wall or a book on a shelf, sculptures that need more than just one sence to percieve them, perhaps even demand all of the sences to percieve them, or just let themselves be known by smell, sound, or vibration etc.(Perhaps a mild electric shock............... ...I wonder if "Tesler's" electro-performances could be utalised there.) One challange that I often enjoy is to present my ideas (in sculpture) in an aestheticly pleasing manner, the point being that it is far too easy to shock or disgust some with flesh, meat and bone or medical implimentation.To utalise that shock value often undermines the the integrity and intentions behind the work. I enjoyed the way you supported your ideas so well. Anyone could elecrocute themselves but few could justfy it so well. Stelarc....You have a new fan. Ill look forward to seeing your performance in full some time.
Comment: I remember seeing you talk at Melb. Uni. At the time you tried explain that you wanted to distance yourself from phallocentric, Utopian ideals about technology. By advocating such a complete and unconditional modification of the body, a modification that allows for the possibility of vacating the planet, your current ideas appear to have fallen into such a form. A significant danger in advocating space-travel is that it leads many to ignore the problems of our world as a spatial escape is on offer. This applies equally to environmental and social problems. Of more concern, however, is the way your discourse appears to be formulated in an ideological vacumn. Though the interface of body and machine creates a tremendous and hypnotic scope of new experiences and forms of life, but such advances are inescapably limitted by class, both within society and between societies. Even in my case, coming from a comparatively secure background, I was lucky to have access to a 10-year-old XT-personal computer which could ony run Word for DOS, and I still cannot afford an up-grade 8 years later. As for your average Australian citizen, alone an Indian untouchable, ever being involved in cybernetics or the Net, such an eventually is highly unlikely. While your writings make interesting reading, and your performances are amazing (as well as intellectually challenging) your theoretical ideas dating from your book and onwards need to be socially situated and their politiical, as well as aesthetic implications evaluted. Nevertheless, I congratulate you on your latest opus.
Comment: I would like more information on STIMBOD. How can I participate?
Comment: The figure eternal.. our facination for the figure. The technological invasion of the body is SELF evident -- we are facinated by us// this begs the question, WHY?
Comment: in the mad rush to embrace the technological offerings now possible , Stelarc seems to be asking the questions thatno-one has time (or mind) for. will he be performing in Toronto this year ?
Comment: It would be very interesting to get on the internet with other users who share interest in this web page. I am new to this system, perhaps it would be of great insight to learn more about the system through other users who use this system. This page is great! Write soon!
Comment: the hills are alive...
Comment: Stelarc You are a hero!
Comment: Stelarc, Have you stopped leaking at the bar, yet?
Comment: What a url !!! very interesting information
Comment: What the fuck is all this bullshit about. We tried to study for our studio art 100 level class and we end up reading all of this nonsense.
Comment:I don't even know where to begin. I am searching for people that will not only understand my obsessions, but can also offer their advice and opinions. I am fascinated with manipulating the human body for reasons of experimentation and for that of art of several forms. My latest endeavors have been with implanting different shapes of titanium, under my skin, in the low fat areas of the body. I have been forming designs by placing the pieces of metal in the subcutaneous layers between the dermis and the fascia of the underlying muscle. Not only am I creating visual patterns, I am also creating new tactile sensations. Implants, however, are just one of my many organic disciplines. Body suspensions such as the visions presented in the book 3Obsolete Body2 have also been my pursuit since 1992. Stelarc1s works and writings have not only been inspirational but have also been extremely helpful and informative. To date I have suspended my body is several different fashions including a one hook suspension while hold another person, total weight 240 pounds. We plan to do another in mid-April, in which I will suspend face down by 18 to 24 hooks while another person will hang from my body by another 12 to 16. My weight 135lb, his 100lb. We have several different designs for frame work and for the actual lifting of the bodies. It is my hopes that I will be able to correspond with Stelarc and discuss suspensions as well as many other ideas.
Comment: The club that I have been involved with ie The Torture Garden would really like to get in touch with you for a performance next time you are over here. I have currently started my PhD in cybersex/fetishism and would love to hear from you. I gather you may be over to the Uk very shortly. Please get in touch. The Torture garden would love to arrange a performance...probably at the Ministry of Sound in London.
Comment: Im learning from stelarc´s notions of the body and expanding by these my architectonical practice.
Comment: Stelarc - not sure what compelled me to surf into your stomach sculpture just after my German breakfast, but I assure you I won't try that trick again in a hurry! May we see you here in May...
Comment: more power to you
Comment: Your work is visionary and the only possible future that our species has is with your technology
Comment: I've seen a program on TV about your performance and its fantastic ! Its a new and exciting conception of out physical envelope. Body integration in a new mind paradigm Are you planning performance in Spain ?
Comment: I saw stelarc at the ICA in London last Saturday. I don't suppose I have experienced something I had so little understanding of for a long time. I find it interesting to imagine this is what it was like to be a child. That is, making sense of the incomprhensible and enjoying it (not being scared or threatened, or outraged). The next day I wrote 3 pages of ideas, all extremely meaningful to me, but probably incomprhensible to somebody else !! but so what.
Comment: I'm curious as to weither you are looking for intelligent test subjects for nuronic synapsis with a CPU
Comment: I LIKED YOUR TALK AT THE ICA LONDON .I was particulary interested in the domestic electrode controler as you called it , which was wired up to three volunteers to show there arms moving involuntary. I was wondering where you could get one of those in England.
Comment: keep up the future !
Comment: Dear Stelarc, if you went way back to your Yokohama days you may remember a 2nd grade class. We had art with you three times a week. You used to pull my ears for talking too much, but a learned a great deal about beauty and it's interpreta- tion. I just wanted to send a brief note saying 'thanks for the time' you spent opening our eyes to the world. Great to now 'The Ping...' on the Net.
Comment: Hey are those TENS units you attached to yourself for the PING performance? I used to play around with those when I was working in a hospital. Heh. Crank up those pulses. Heh heh. Sometimes I would get some involuntary twitches about an hour after I had removed them. I guess those things are restricted devices, but they didn't look too difficult to make. Where did you get yours? I have been working on a little project too. I will send you some info and pictures when it is completed. Isn't electricity fun?
Comment: This man is really wierd. He should not hurt himself without a woman to watch.
Comment: hi stelarc, this is Susanne. I'm currently staying at another office. The day before yesterday I was kidnapped while searching the net for you. How are you? Any news?
Comment: Beautiful posturing with objective archs from one to another
Comment: Leaking?
Comment: I am fascinated by your projects! I think you are the most radical artist in this moment. Art in 3 rd yearthousand will not be just exhibiting objects in galleries-it will be the religion of it's time, something what is happening everywhere in every time and you are beginner of it! I am also fascinated by your courage-you are a hero of art, you are ready to give everything for art: your health, your life. What a enthusiast! I only wish, I would speak english better, so I could write all I wish to say show them the way, you prophet of art!
Comment: I knew you when you were Mr. Stelarc... I was a student of yours at Yokohama International School 1970-72. Wit- nessed your collaboration with Frank Becker entitled "Blink", performed at the Anglican Church on the Bluff, after which Stanley French asked for his money back (I don't believe he paid in the first place). Well, I liked it even if everybody else thought it was pretty weird shit. I was not one of your more promising students, but that is not to say that I was not wholly uninfluenced, because I am weird now too. I just happened to see a very small piece about you in Esquire, about your desire to bring your extended body into space. After 25 years of being totally out of touch it was a delight to see your name in print, and it was even more gratifying to find your Web page with only a cursory search. I'm glad that you are busy and still obsessed with cyberbiomech- anics.
Comment: This is some really wierd shit, A creation from within the inermind an abortion reality, like climbing out of the bucket smeared with vegemite.
Comment: Oh..my God..........from an ex-student
Comment: Its enteresting to see my former teacher's homepage. I found this page linking from Y.I.S, Japan so I came here. It is unique!
Comment: i was very impressed by the fact that you're able to combine elements of technology with art as well as with a biological aspect as pertaining to the body. a very interesting experience!
Comment: hello stelarc, i met you in 1995 at swinburne secondary school in melbourne. i found you to be very interesting and you opened my eyes to a form of art i had never considered. i found the meeting very insightful and intresting and i thought you where a very smart interesting and strangly comical man. never stop reinventing your art.
Comment: The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein coined the term "Waldo" to refer to powered extensions to the human hand and arm. OS/2 operating system from IBM supports Screen Reader, a tool for sight-impaired computer users. It also supports voice recognition and voice control.
Comment: I'm wondering if in Stelarc's view there's any place at all for the inevitability of death. It seems that if death is gotten rid of as a necessary end, all of philosophy, all of religion, all of art, etc. will have to be revamped, since so much of these are based on dealing with its inevitability. He's already tied the end of philosophy with the end of the body (and of necessary death), and pointed to telepresence as what will replace being, but, I guess what I'm asking is how exactly does he understand telepresence, and, for example, telepresent joy, ecstasy, grief, rage, serenity, etc. Or are these "human" qualities, in his opinion, as obsolete as the body? If they are, what exactly will replace them? And how can "one" get a sense of these at this point? Or if this entire comment is based on a faulty notion of "individuality," how is it possible for an outdated "individual" to move toward multiplicity (other than than spending the rest of "one's" life studying d&g)? Or merely hoping that one's electronic traces will someday be telepresent (which to me seems like nothing at all but the inevitability of death again, with the same desire toward immortality that every artist in history has ever had--through media.)
Comment: like way cool, by the way wat aim i suposed to rite about anyhow that's like weird Hey!! how do yu make this thing go down a line??? My parents are like really psycho about these political things.
Comment: what the hell is that about?
Comment: what do you think of the word 'autobotics'? how far in the future will machines advance? i appreciate your interest.
Comment: i fell asleep at the ica
Comment: Picasso and the other, wants to diconstruc the human body simply for a visual pleasure. You redefine the structure of life form. You are doing wath someone, somewhere in time done a long time ago: creating life. As a young artist of Quebec, that live in a world of commercial art, you are a prouffond inspiration for me. Long life for you.
Comment: Stelarc, the cyber "visionnaire" is opening our eyes and let us feel the new body sphere. I support you at 1Mo %. P.S:Why don't you come in Europe see how tiny is our appproach of technology? Please do! A simple fan.
Comment: still learning your setup very French to me..but will learn.. Hope to see more on your site.. Good luck..
Comment: I am a photography student. As part of my degree dissertation I would like to interview you, via e-mail. The subject is advertising and the resulting diminishing importance of the body.
Comment: hi stelarc, will your subjective human essence be transposed into the virtual or will it exist in the physical cartesian space? ie where does your essence exist now... in the near future. your reply would be beneficial to my studies in cyber architectural systems.
Comment: it's great, but i feel like something is missing, like more body
Comment: I attended your lecture at the SF Art Institute last night, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. You have a wonderful presence and are a captivating speaker. I wish I had seen some of your performances, specifically the rock suspension, in the flesh. Thoughts & images of things you discussed have been flitting around me all day. I wand to check out the rest of your page, now. I hope to see you tomorrow at the SRL thing.
Comment: Stelarc says, " If we could engineer a SYNTHETIC SKIN which could absorb oxygen directly through its pores..." this has in fact already been done, in the form of an 'artificial blood' developed for deep-sea diving. Immersed in this medium, the or(i)gi/anal skin serves no purpose.
Comment: I would be willing to participate in experiments\
Comment: I am studying for a masters in Art History. As part of our course we having been looking at your work in relation to Kant and his Critique of Judgement. Your work has caused many very interesting discussions and debates, as to whether you are an artist or a showman. We have watched your show from the ICA, where you used a third arm and were strung up by flesh hooks! It seems that you will stop at nothing in order to gain the ultimate experience in a strange artistic fashion. Anyway our discussions left us very much divided and I think it is a debate which many of the group are not going to alter their views about! Thank you anyway for this opportunity to discuss your work, and we look forward to maybe hearing from you.
Comment: The finest example of art incorporated with science that I have ever seen.
Comment: Pretty fucking wild site dude.
Comment: ia ia sakaath ia sakaath ia shakxul!!!!!!
Comment: I saw the show at PICA, though I thought Stelarc was responding to the headset and not the muscle stimulation...
Comment: Can you just tell me a little the similarities of your work and that of orlan? It would be wonderful to get a direct quote for my essay.
Comment: I'm an 19 year old Belgian student and I think your work is revolutionary. Digital art is the subject of my school yearwork and I intend to spent a large part of it on your work. If you have any more info or advice you would like to give me, please mail it. Once again your work is truely genius.
Comment: you should tell how to build it
Comment: Finally have my machine up and running. It has been an incredible hassel to slowly acquire all the parts. I have been looking forward to hitting you web site since you were here in Seattle all those many months ago. It was a wonderful breath of air to have you here. tpp bad it was only for so short of time. Still, your impact was great, even on an old dog like myself. Your site is wonderfully rich, and engaging. I have book marked it so that I can watch your development. Since you were here, I have built a cannon to spray molten cast iron. Great show!, particularly at nite. The thing throws (ejaculates) iron out to about 75'. When running it truely sounds like a rocket. Indeed I had a rocket scientist in my summer course. He suggested that I might go to work for them. Always interesting to see how these cross fertilizations proceed. Where in the WORLD are you currently?
Comment: Stelarc, your concepts have intrigued me since (1992?) when people call ME a spinout, I think to myself "you have obviously not encountered Stelarc".
Comment: Cybermind and technoflesh rule the universe.Hope that our future additional technological body components will reach the highest standards of efficiency(it's a long way Stelarc...) Automatic hug from Rome
Comment: can't wait to see you again in the data flesh...could you show me the way to the next galaxy in my new long-lasting specially designed hyperspace 11 human lifetimes antigrav ufo bod?
Comment: Hi there. I'm studying for my BA Honours degree in 20th century music. I have recently begun researching material for my final dissertation in which I hope be asking questions about your work; it's relavence and affect on the "majority" music/s of the future, and whether biocybernetic interaction between performer and "instrument" will become a socially/ethically acceptable media for musical presentation. I am relatively new to your art, but I am becoming increasingly fascinated by your revolutionary concepts and breakthroughs. My initial research on this project is still very much in its embrionic form, but I would be extremely grateful if it were possible to gain some first-hand information from yourself at a later date. I was very interested in your piece "Amplified Body". I have previously experimented with the amplification and manipulation of body sounds, murmurs and arythmias (one such piece involved attatching several contact sensors to my eyelids, and during sleep, used the Random Eye Movement of my eyelids to trigger music and light patterns which I then used as a valid means of compositon). I am anxious to find out as much as I can about your art, and will continue to call on these pages for any updates. I hope to contact you again soon.....
Comment: control the image, control the mind, stellarc?
Comment: Stelarc's work is hughely thought provoking. His performances almost make you forget that all he is showing us is the absolute inevitable.
Comment: The difference between "having a body" and "being a body". I found your site by an accident. And it was a great surprise! I work with human body and here the body really lives in the machine. Art and science. This is the way... an expressive body (with an artificial soul)
Comment: Never say yes to the never land until theres nothing left
Comment: I am currently in the middle of a Fine Art degree, with my second year thesis based on cybernetics in society. Stelarc is the principal centre of attention but my research is lacking when finding any mention of his theories in a broader social context. For example the possible outlook of an advanced cyborg as merely a freak who would then be subjected to a minority treatment. I have many questions and any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Comment: Do you believe cosmetic surgery a kind of "Body Sculpture"-- in fact, what does the phrase "body sculpture" evoke in you?
Comment: Quite interesting for a human.
Comment: I remember Stelarc ( though I was only about age 9 at the time ) as certainly the most original and interest- ing art teacher I've had, and the one about whom the most bizarre rumours were circulated.
Comment: You are a lunatic
Comment: - Are questions of intuition, spirits, and the realms of the unknown
left out of your thinking?
Comment: Hi, I am coordinating The Jim Rose Circus tour of Australia. I am just making an inquiry as to whether Stelarc will be in Melbourne during April and, if so, to ask him if he's interested in a possible performance.
Comment: Do your company produce artificial body programs ,which also can be produced for private entertainemnt for a private party? It is only necessary to send confirmation on e-mail.I do not want to see your programe catalogue of how you produce your products.Thank you.
Comment: freak key!, branching into some novel ideas, i will be recommending this to my sci-fi loving friends.
Comment: I see a lot of good work here at the macroscopic level, but I'd like to see more at the microscopic level too. If we had a better picture at that level, we could do more--chemically, psychically, physically, and so forth.
Comment: STELARC is a genius.
Comment: I find the discussion of the adequacy of the body for human evolution quite interesting. I have often asked a question which I think is implicit in this discussion, that is, "How much longer can we depend upon natural selection?". Natural selection appears to operate with reproductive capacity as a primary parameter, thus encouraging a limited time frame in the individual. This seems to lead to negative outcomes in the short term, and also discourages consideration of where the human idea, rather than just the human body, can go. The human idea, in fact, may be far too big for our bodies, or in fact for any single physical instantiation.
Comment: wondering how your post-evolutionary human fits into Haraways cyborg idea, in terms of a non-essentialised mobile subject
Comment: why can't you be more interesting and get right to the point? you see i'm mad because i can't find out info about the human arm. if you can suggest a place where i can find this stuff out i won't be so mad.
Comment: Your football team won last Saturday
Comment: You sick bastard. if you scored this wouldn't be such a fucking problem!
Comment: In a time where artisits are continually searching for something "different" and exciting just to keep thier passion for the arts alive, i think that this is the most impressive form of expression i have ever seen. We as aculture dependant upon technology have forgotten how something can slip through our controlling fingers and mutate into the unimaginable. Stelarc offers an alternative way to utilize and enjoy today's technology while allowing it to enrich his life rather than controll it, (just think how many of us get home and check our messages or email like Pavlov's dog). As an artist i feel as if i can gain some sort of motivation through stelarc's work as well as some insight into how technology plays a part in my life. for that i thank you stelarc please keep me informed of upcoming perfromances and newer works.
Comment: the post-modern society has dropped a lot of it's myths. the sacred notion of th human body is one of them. i haven't explored your site yet, but this is what occurs to me. will the redefinition of the human body become a redefinition of human concepts? the future is now.
Comment: I am experiencing severe abdominal cramps in my pelvic area and haven't had a perioed in 6 months plus I have taken pregnancy tests over and over. Any ideas or suggestions as to what the problem(s) may bw will be greatly appreciated.
Comment: You help to shatter the illusion of the body as inviolate temple and reveal it for what it is: the final delimiter of the wildest aspirations of the human mind.
Comment: dear mr. stelarc, please answer one question for me: if you could choose, would you like to live forever?
Comment: I saw a movie where a woman was suspended by hooks through her breasts. Any scenes like that in real life?
Comment: you aRe fuCKeD in THe head b Ut stRanGely CoMPE LlinG
Comment: Hello, we are a group from an university filmprojekt. Our group
deals with art in the net. We are looking for statements to the following
questions:
Comment: You have reaffirmed my deeply held belief that mankind will one day be able to transcend from the confinds of the flesh. I find that there is very little that the body does that cannot be replicated by more durable machinery. May your work prove successful.
Comment: This site, in a word, "rocks"
Name: Elizabeth D.Y.N.
Comment: This is really, really freaky. And I can't help but wonder how you can take yourself so seriously. Whatever.
Comment: It's late night (or early morning), I am sitting at my computer translating into Polish an interview with Paul Virilio, where Stelarc's works are mentioned (and considered). Your site was just what I needed. It's great (my needs of the moment aside), it's important and clever.
Comment: I for one am happy to see alof this happening.You (and others like you are removing th "mystery of life". There is a man who fortold this years ago when he was told by extraterrestrials that THEY had created all life on earth through genetic engineering and that the provebial "soul" is only the genetic code
Comment: when you visted new zealand i was fortunate enough to meet you...you invited back the next day while you packed down and offered to allow me to explore your implements.... you placed the electrodes on my arm and i experienced fully for the first time a predetermined pain.... deleuze says that the birthplace of masochism is phantasy, a neutralization of the sadistic impulse...you substituted my phantasy for action....the primary importance for phantasy.... this contract which i didnt sign and was not aware of until a few months later became the action for all my theoretical groundwork. like masoch, foucalt and stelarc theory beomes of prime importance... as mere gatherers of knowledge, the academics never truly understand that which they do not experience.... stelarc has, at least, given an impetus to the action of our theory...
Comment: this is very sick and disturbing
Comment: i am quite fascinated with your perfaormance i myself am a fire eater and i occasionally do swordswallowing and the human pincushion would love to find out more about suspensions.
Comment: It occurs to me that much of the comment that appears here is, I'm sure, very flattering for you. Why is so little of it negative? Even that which is is then largely inane expletives. I wonder where the insightful negative critique is. I've always found your work exciting and provocative, and enjoy good showmanship.
Comment: Dear Sirs: Please send me info on your units.
Comment: I agree the body is obsolete but why go for another physical exhistence? Why not evolve spiritualy to a dimension where there is no need for a physicalness at all? There are ways to do thid but it will take time. A global shift in conciuosness is what is required.
Comment: what is these.
Comment: Stelarc needs to invest in some clay, probbing the body is not natural therefore not humanistic.
Comment: can you image(and it appears the imagination is second rate in this solipsism of technotic ambidadical corporeality) the materialisation of the suprasurreality strata~phonoeuphoria. its brought me here to the possibility of immortality. i would like to recieve infotion on the next performance(location and vitals)
Comment: In an interview Orlan said she found you macho, would you agree?
Comment: you are the first true cyborg
Comment: I knew nothing about you until about three hours ago when my sister, who's writing her dissertation on your concept of the Obsolete Body, started telling me about her work. I thought I'd be bored to tears but in fact your ideas...although basically a great deal of bullshit....do make a girl think. Interesting how many sado-masochists you attract to your website as well..considering you think the physical is something we should move away from. But there you go, humans will be humans! Do you really think suspending yourself from hooks is a better sensation than loving sex? I think there may be some basic contradictions here. Much thinking to be done.
Comment: dear stelarc, what do you mean 'standerdising human sexuality' and what of your notion of not needing the womb? Although I admire your work, I cannot get with your ideas, that just seem to me to be lacking alot of enjoyment from your body. This is not a utopia that you talk of achieving but a kind of sci-fi facism.
Comment: interesting show of multiple personalities.I am a photographer , just finished a book called Adventures in cross-casting and for the first time on the web. congratulations
Comment: Is it not possible to see the body as a site for experimentation without the interface or invasion of electrical or ohter devices? Can it not still be pushed, manipulated or upgraded by experimenting with its own chemicals.limbs inorder to upgrade it to be a relevant form in 20th century society?
Comment: One of the most fabulous refreshing sites i've ever "feeled". Not only the it's content, but also the "body" was pretty fun, just the thing you would expect from stelarc. THX!. a believer.
Comment: Love you're work! perhaps you'd be interested in a character "the electric underpants" a cartoon superhero(?) who enters this reality in a bodysuit covered with electric guitar strings and amplified electric toys! a joint production of flugle (a.k.a. me) and phresh philly of the philharmonic orchestra (p cubed)
Comment: That robot arm and other staff is wonderful. I was born with the syndrome called meningomielocele In my cranium was inplanted a valve to control the water because my bone marrow couldn't do it. I feel that technology will improve my endeavors as better trans-human. I felt like that when I was born and suffer a surgery.
Comment: I think this what you're doing is o.k. but maybe could tell me what is organic character of internet as art medium? how could I use it to make it interactive, not only passive resources? A time ago i pierced 4 nails through my hand & 4 needles through my mouth [ U can see it if U want but U are the boss.
Comment: As fascinating as ever. Third hand, third ear - the obvious third conspicuous by its absence is the third eye. Is this deliberate? perhaps too cliched now? Reading that initial paragragh about the third ear made me laugh out loud - what a perfect idea! But to actually construct it? To live with it? Reminds me of St Orlan, someone else with great ideas. She also acts upon these ideas, and has to live with the consequences. Weigh up the costs in taking these ideas beyond thought-experiments into reality, into every-day-no-matter-how- ordinary-and-banal-for-the-rest-of-your-life reality. "Measure twice, cut once", and all that. But good luck all the same.
Comment: Stelarc, we are studying u in art. We have several things to say: 1. you're one twisted fellow. 2. Thats why we enjoy studying you 3. What do you do in you're time off?????? What does the future hold? Can you touch type with your third hand? What is your favorite sculpture (outside your body)
Comment: Stellarc, I would be very interested in any work you have done or know of involving sub cutical implants preferably with systems that power using internal electrical impulses. I have always been interested in manipulating the human body with electronics and since there may be projects you consider beneath your vision of machine/man interface anything you may have cast off as not worthy of effort may still interest me. Congratulations on being the closest to true man/machine interface I have ever seen and your other work using the body as a medium irrespective of the effort and "pain" you must go through is quite refreshing, thank you.
Comment: this site is one hell of a sick puppy
Comment: IMHO you missed the point to some extent , Self-Similarity and theory of chaos hint at the ability of humans to be interconnected and shift presence from one to the other or to common conciousness WITHOUT the use of technology because it proves the the existance of the common pattern of all things -- "universality". The ability very similar to what you describe by "fractal flesh" and other of your WONDERFULL (I really think they are wonderfull because your predicion of end results of the chaos science is very keen ) ideas are inhereted in the human body as it is right now (no rewiring required) the trick is to know how to use them and that knowlege is what Chaos science will ultimatly bring erasing once again the destinction between science and magik.
Comment: learn from a plant today.
Comment: An interesting and brave site. Perhaps some links to your sources of inspiration might prove useful. Also further consideration needs to be given to the social and ethical implications of this new technology. With regards to your desire for an extra ear. You state: The Extra Ear would retain feeling, but of course it would not be able to hear. It is intended that this ear will speak. A implanted sound chip will be actuated by a proximity sensor whenever anyone gets close enough. Ultimately the aim would be for one ear to whisper sweet nothings into the other ear.... My point is so what?! What are you expressing? I understand that you are redefining the human body, but surely this mutation of post-evolution would die out very quickly as it would serve no useful purpose. If you are going to do something bold, do something that is at least useful. Have you considered Dr. Bert Brent's notion of surgically enhancing a human with wings? He outlines the procedure quite well and although I think he wasn't quite serious about it, his explanation was perfectly feasible. I would suggest this as a more functional model for you idea of altering your anatomy. Good luck. I will keep an eye on your site.
Comment: Many people in art colleges fear the new trends mixing technology and art. Are they just too dependent on the old medias (canvas, paper, inks and pencils...) or feeling like the romans must have felt when theyr civilization was overrun by the so-called barbarians? Congratulations on a fine post-modern work.
Comment: I was wondering if you had the time, could you please answer some questions that I have after seeing a recent video of your suspension by hooks through your skin and "flying" or so it seemed anyway, around the Copenhagen Cathedral. Firstly, I'm extremely curious as to what inspires your work, especially the pieces such as this which seem to involve serious personal pain? Is there a way you can free yourself of this pain? Secondly, suspended over the crashing waves is one thing, but why did you feel you had to suspend yourself over the Cathedral, it seems, if you will pardon me for asking as there is no malice nor mocking involved in my questioning as I respect your work immensely, a little gratuitous and almost flamboyant, did you have any special reason for this piece? Lastly I was especially curious about your views on how this would be considered art, I was debating with my fellow students and we aggreed to disaggree. If you could please reply I would be most appreciative.
Comment: Another idea for altering the body might be to incorporate penile implants into your anatomy (as they do in impotent men). It would enhance your sexual performance. Indeed as sex-reassignment surgery allows females to become males throught he construction of penis (from a clitoris, although there are probably ways around this limitation), you could perhaps have more than one penis constructed?! It all really depends on your focus... perhaps you might consider this idea an implausible one because it focuses on 'meat'. I'm not sure, but this would surely be an interesting endeavor. I feel it is quite relative though. One only need look at the prevelence of porn on the Net... like it or not 'sex' is an inherent drive for humans, even posthumans. Why not take it to a new level?
Comment: Why does such a nice guy want to commit such offensive acts in the name of "art"? I am referring specifically, in this case, to the "Extra Ear". To read about this in the same magazine which announces a festival in honor of Amnesty International makes for a gruesome, chance comparison. Are those who mutilate others as torturers also artists? What is the difference when the final result is nearly identical? Self-infliction vs. infliction? Politics vs. concept? The body which is the being Stelarc takes its wholeness and autonomy for granted in a world where it ain't necessarily so. It's a bit sensationalist, don't you think?
Comment: MY BRAIN HURTS!!
Comment: what the hell was all that about ?
Comment: I learned of Stelarc's work through A. and M. Kroker's cultural studies journal _CTheory_, where he is listed, I believe, as a contributing editor. This artwork seems quite interesting. What strikes me is that, like most "conceptual art", the IDEA is as important as the EXECUTION, if not more so. Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to see Stelarc perform, but I suspect that my appreciation would be greatly diminished in viewing the performance alone, without explanation of the technology and theory involved. This is art which needs to be accompanied by text, synopsis, comment, annotation -- unlike most traditional painting and sculpture. It occurs to me that this may be because we are so familiar with the more conventional artistic technologies that we have already available to us a complex but seemingly self- evident array of theory, ideology, and technical knowledge with which to interpret it, to hypothesize about how it was made and why. For its interpretation, then, Stelarc's art requires an equally sophisticated (but, sadly, much more rare) contextual background of robotics, human anatomy and physiology, and computer theory. Imagine a person (perhaps a future human or a space alien) for whom cybernetics is second-nature but the idea of applying pigment to a canvas completely foreign. Perhaps that hypothetical patron is Stelarc's proper audience? Or not: since to that person the art would be wholly normal, conventional, expected, would lose the shock-value and iconoclasm which binds it to its contemporary cultural context. Obviously, we need a new vocabulary for talking about art, an extended lexicon which includes elements of modern technology and science. It seems cliche to say it, but I am reminded of the great artists of the European Renaissance, who were not only artists but scientists, engineers, artisans, and philosophers, and who did not distinguish between the art and the science. At some point, though I cannot say exactly when, the "art world" seems to have lost interest in technological innovation. I am happy to see it being brought back. Perhaps when we are all familiar with high-tech, when technical knowledge of new media becomes no longer a scarce commodity, we might better appreciate the aesthetics of art like this, and look at it as art rather than as a spectacle of technical virtuosity. (Though, of course, admiration for technique will always find a place in viewing art.) At the same time, while I approve of the art itself, the theory behind it strikes me as naive. Technological utopianism, new-age promises of transforming human potential -- this could have been culled right from the pages of _Wired_ magazine! Didn't the Italian Futurists play these idea out long ago? For a change, let's talk about technology without invoking "the Future". Or is that the very point: that PRESENT-DAY "high-tech" is inextricably enveloped in a discourse which inevitably entails reference to an imagined future, be it dystopian cyberpunk, nostalgic Jules Verne, or merely Bill Gates Disneyworld. Another point: Like another sigle-named artist- engineer, Christo, Stelarc gives us a temporary art on a grand scale. As unique, labor-intensive, collaborative feats of engineering, this art refuses to be commoditized. (Christo finances each of his big projects through the sale of the previous installation's projections, sketches, and studies. Does Stelarc do something similar?) Finally: I wonder why so much of the more innovative thought about technology and culture comes from marginal, (post-)colonized places, like, well, Australia? (My apologies to anyone I have just offended!) Perhaps someone out there, or Stelarc if he is reading this, would like to comment on this.
Comment: Here's a quote for you..."What we have to be leery of with all these technologial fantasies is an incomplete psyhology" "There are a lot of unanswered questions about human consciousness and consciousness generally, and I suspect that what hasn't been realized is that the body image is a kind of governor on the imagination. If you could actually download consciousness into a computer, it would probably evolve itself into unrecognizablity within minutes, because the human body and the constraints of three dimensional space and time are what hold us in the human mode. The truth may be that consciousness arises out of the mass of matter or you won't have the thing you were looking for."
Comment: Thanks for the great performance in "Heaven for everyone"
Comment: are you catholique? i don't think so
Comment: Is there an element of ritual in your work? By ridding ourselves of the body will our conciousness be elevated or damaged?
Comment: Your work turns me on enormously. My brain turns directly to thoughts of sex when i look at the photos on your site.
Comment: I fear what you have become. your cd is still at the top of my collection
Comment: You are realy sick (read on please), never had a hobby or sport I think ?, never felt in love with the feeling of rain on our skin, tatching a flower and feel the softines from it. Taste the flavour of wine on your tongue and never loved the waters of the see surrounding you when you go out for a swim ?? I feel seriously pitty for your awefull ideas and hope for a reversal in your thoughts and become Human again. Noway whatever mechanical or robotical hybrid form you are suggesting can replace the feeling and emotions of real live, even the suffering is at last a real experience. Live is not virtual, real life is reality and beautiful even when there are hard times.
Comment: Your body will remember
Comment: "Stelarc" you have probably heard this but you are one sick fuck! i don't mean it in a good way. If anyone doubted the credibility of what was forseen in The Terminator, you can at least rest assured that you're living proof that humanity will die at its own hands... irony intended
Comment: stelarc. An aussie if ever i've seen one. Completely in love with whatever he is doing, completely original. Yet he pushes the boundaries of art with frightening animosity. funny thing is so many just do as they do. stelarc is on a bridge as are plently of others. be wary of what you wan't to be or have or experience. stelarc has his own aesthetic. if only I could get my own!
Comment: I am A doctor from India,i want to learn this and help my people in my country.what are the pre requesites for this?
Comment: I would love to leave a comment...but can't think of anything to write other than; suppose there was no such thing as a hyperthetical question? Would you be reading this?
Name: Slade Turing
Comment: I heard of your work through attendees at HUC2000. I hope that when the time comes for us to leave "the meat", we can find a more "free" medium than the electron. Photons might be nice. It also strikes me that we'll never know what the "next level" is until we get there. ie we couldn't speculate about what self-awareness was like before it happened. Beyond transcending the body, what would it mean to transcend the mind? Brian Aldiss has some interesting thoughts in his short story "The Failed Men". "Time impresses itself upon man as evolution"
Comment: as our world is continually changing, and i feel that the creative world may fall victim to certain tyrants as globilasation and the excitment of it's flame may or could burn out, i feel a wave of unease will soon hit this culture. that is why i want to rejuvinate that essesence of individuality and inspiration. i would like to form a group of protest, consisting of all forms of creative means to come together to create a new era in our worls.. we are now entering a time where we are cultivated in the masses.. where is that freedom? feel free to spread this idea , but please if you have any input, i'm very interested.....
Comment: how do i buy one??
Comment: I feel like something is going on with the concept of human being. What we are, anyway? What's our definition, when everything is developing and changing and subjective?
Comment: Radical developments may demand radical questions. Can artistic intention and the theatermakers' desire to design a presentation find their continuation on the Internet stage? What does a stage set look like on the Net? The radical developments may demand radical questions. Can artistic intention and the theatermakers' desire to design a presentation find their continuation on the Internet stage? What does a stage set look like on the Net?
Comment: although i question the limits of formal aesthetism by which you seem bound, i appreciate your ability to push towards a necessary philosophical crossroads: how to conceive this moment in our evolutionary process, in which technology is the new breed (the new material of our Self).
Comment: I just saw the presentation of his work here in Lima, Peru and I found it deeply interesting. Mostly, it made me reflect upon the inexistence of 'fault' as a concept since we are not more than a complex biological system (full of falts) responding to stimuli depending upon our past experiences (responses to stimuli).
Comment: My faith in the body has long been challenged. It's the potential loss of the soul that scares me.
Comment: I'd like to see technical details of how the Stimbox works. How do you make it reliable and consistent? How does Stelarc keep his heart from being "stimulated"? It seems to be MIDI-compatible, does he have his body set up as an instrument then? Very interesting! I think it would be interesting to set several people up with detectors / stims and see if they could control each other's missing functions to accomplish tasks. Maybe, in the future an ambulanceman can have a surgeon "possess" his body, so he could do emergency surgery at a site he isn't qualified to. Or unfit men could possess mountain climbers. Well anyway, it's just a step further than what's being proposed by computer people today. I've loved Stelarc's work for years, have to get to go see him some time.
Comment: I agree with you: the body is obsolete, and it needs many
technological prosthesis. I'll have an interview with you about the cyborg
concept. Can I do it?
Comment: Our mutual "mates" have encouraged me to write directly to you to make an inquiry into your current views on the cultural economic conditions of corporeal futurism. I heard you speak in San Francisco this past February. Since that talk, I have thought a lot about your practice as a pioneering commentary on futurist profiles of the post-human body. At this moment, I'm particularly curious about the ramifications of your work as a statement on the changing "cultural economy" of the body. In other words, I'm curious to know if you have any specific thoughts about the "meat and metal body" as an economic proposition. In other words, like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, will we need constant oiling or do you imagine that we can be charged by a central battery located in our living space (one that is said to power our future transport system as well!)
Comment: your a sick sick man and should be shot. This crap that you do is disturbing and sick. How can you call it art. And why change your body the way that god made it. Technology is a great thing but you abuse it. I went along to one of you proformances becuase i was made to along with about 40 other art students and we all hated it. one person has been emotinally disturbed. Have you ever been to a phyciatrist?? If not i think you should go. And all the people that like you are sick to.!!!
Comment: great for art assignments thanks
Comment: you are SICK PERVERTAD people. you all make me sick, why would you want to fuck with the human DNA. it NOT right
Name: Ian Haig
Comment: Mr. Stelarc, We all, more or less unconsciously, represent social roles. The way we dress is an example of that. Clothes are a second skin, as a "camouflage of the soul". It is not an innocent action. It is the representation of the image we intend to pass to the others, always filtered by social stereotypes, by the economical situation and by several social factors. Thus are the social images, as social stereotypes.
The body reveals itself and communicates through its experiences and particular possibilities. We can thus imagine a multiplicity of bodies that bring with them marks of an individual subject and the memories of each one. I, therefore, would like, above all, to reflect widely upon the woman's body, this covering the possible concepts of beauty, its autonomy, its "perfection" / "imperfection", the act of seeing and being seen, the beauty that shows itself, the one that hides itself, the standard beauty, the obsession for an ideal beauty, the commercial beauty, the patterns of beauty, etc. After all that has been said, I finally put to you three issues. You may answer, synthetically, them one by one or, if you prefer, you may give a single answer that includes all three issues: - Taking in consideration your cultural patterns and the importance of image
to a contemporary individual, how do you define a "beautiful woman"?
Comment: I am currently studying art in Bath. my latest research has led me to quetion the nature of humanity and its relationship with technology, particularly the incresing competition for power between the two, suggesting that as humankind creates more and more sophisticated machines which are not only physically more able but (as in the case of the search for 'artificial intelligence') mentally more able as well, there will inevitable come a point where techno-scientists will eventually combine the two. Thus creating a breed of 'cyborg' that is far superior than the human race in every way (so long as, of course, these new super-beings find a way to reproduce). Should this nightmare scenario actually be realised, I cannot help but forsee the extinction of the human race, the sick irony being that we would have caused it with our insatiable desire to improve ourselves. Your work has been an inspiration and should you wish to enter into any correspondence, it would be an honour to discuss these thoughts with you.
Comment: HI!I have been on presentation of yours talking head in Ljubljana, and somebody ask you why don't you put your talking head on internet.And I am interesting:if you do it there is possibility to head get the virus and get (human caracteristics) ill. What is than with human obsolete body and virtual obsolete?! head???It is hipotetic qestion!thank you...
Comment: as an australian born greek artist myself, now living in Greece, I have known of and seen Stelarc's work from the early 80's. His passion and dedication to his Art has been an inspiration to me. As contemporary artists we have the responsibility to explore the boundaries of thought and endurance, and to create, through our work, a social commentary with the intent of provoking an awareness of our social conditioning. Stelarc is for me a perfect example of the artist/anarchist.
Comment: I can't begin to say anything new about how wonderful this all is artistically, though I have to say even from a purely engineering perspective your works are an amazing use of the existing technologies as well as invention of a whole host of new ones. Keep up the excellent work.
Comment: A real eye opener...but do you really think your work is art? I have long seen the future in the inevitable union of humans and machines and you are a precursor to this...but to call it art? I don't think so. Similarly, someone like Pamela Anderson (among others) helped to create a generation of women who wanted big, boosted tits to augment their physical allure and appease their lack of self-worth. You are doing the same Stelarc. In the name of art you are inspiring a whole lot of people with beautiful human souls to hope in having an extra-corporal existence convinced that it's fascinating and within their grasp. Humans are capable of many things, both good and bad. You are promoting decadent useless escape and encouraging others to follow. Yes, as I watch in fascination, I am overwhelmed with a feeling of pathos. You are pathetic Stelarc. Disguising your work as art is an insult to artists and for that matter all of humanity. The world is quickly becoming a global society of escapists. In denial of the truly real and beautiful and fascinated by the unreal and ugly. I pity you and those who follow your path.
Comment: Great site. Love the way it retains some of the anarchism of the original web and flouts the timid obedience to "business as usual" that so many apparently art web sites are now increasingly conforming to
Comment: As an extremely interested university undergrad, I've been following Stelarc's work for a while. The latest thought I had (and I may be on the wrong foot, but...) is the relevancy of Stelarc's work and its relationship to the theories of media theorist Marshall Mcluhan. Mcluhan states that 'extension of man is the total technological simulation of consciousness outside of our bodies, a virtual reality...achieved by the complete extension of the nervous system,,,the basis of sense perception beyond the body' How relevant is this statement to Stelarc's work? How fair is it to apply such external theory to it? How else does Stelarc and Mcluhan relate in terms of ideology?
Comment: + _ ) ( * & ^ % $ # @ ! ~ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + + _ ) ( * & ^ % $ # @ ! ~ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + + _ ) ( * & ^ % $ # @ ! ~ + _ ) ( * & ^ % $ # @ ! ~ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + see episode one of the most important thing ever made,
Comment: I am sorry, but I cannot agree with some of this almost cult-like artwork and Stelarc's following. I admire the way that Stelarc has been able to find a perspective that stems from outside the realms of human experience, 'thinkinking outside the square' if you like, but I cannot agree with the notion that the body is becoming obsolete. Certainly as technolgy becomes more advanced, our body's physical capabilities become less and less needed, but technology will never outdo humans because it stems from humans itself; from the intricate and fascinating interconnection of our neurons that is actually a system itself and owns an incomprehensible level of complexity that technology can never hope to surpass.
Comment: fascinating, poetic, inspirational
Comment: Of all of the art that I have studied, from all time periods, all cultures, from everywhere: Yours, I suppose, I like the least. I see no art in what you do, the early work, yes, but once that third arm shows up, your sense of art disappears. Be a scientist, be a robotics specialist, be something other than an artist, because that is definatly what you are not.
Name: Stephanie
Name: Alistair Grace
Comment: its science! not art you freak. i think you need some therapy
Comment: First of all i find your ideas unquestionably clear, and im not an interlect. I do like your art but there are two quiestions that plague me. 1. What has inspired these ideas that the body is obsolete, how did you think of these post evolutional ideas. 2.If we are a product of the natural world, organisms of the larger picture, do you think that the preservation of the natural world would lower the chances of extinction, or have you come to the realization that the human species is doomed and all there is to do is let technology take over. Have you seen the movie Terminator, and Terminator2. Its just that i have had insights in flashes of 7-8 hours at a time with the assistance of the natural worlds medicine in fungus and plant form. the tree is life, provider of oxygen, bearer of food.do you take LSD or mushrooms?
Comment: Where can I buy one of these arms? Please reply as soon as possible. I would like to use this at an event I have in a couple of weeks. Thanks
Comment: i want whatever you were smoking when you were makin this shit!!!
Comment: You are a high-fidelity illusion inside a phantom body. Pain is obviousley not an object for you
Comment: clearly this was written by someone whose life is simply computers, who had to use their brain to survive as their body was so rejected by those around it, obviously sports were not your thing, and you never got a gurl in your life, so you clung to the one thing left...computers and your mind. Look around though the possilities with your own natural human form are incredible, we are the most incredible things in ourselves, we are alive, we breath, we think, we have choice, our bodies are beautiful in their vast differences and imperfections, what machine is perfect in its imperfections? leave your room with your computer, and run not because you want to go fast but because your body allows you the incredibel feeling and exhilaration to do so, go find someone to love and when you touch their incredible skin and wonder how someone so incredible is alive you will be glad that no part of them is a machine. The is not obsolete, its just you havnet used yours yet. free yourself, use what God has given you
Comment: My main interest in becoming a cyborg is to escape the limitations and appearance of the Human body - I simply don't feel that I should look like other Humans because I don't think I have anything in common with them - If it were possible I would probably alter myself into some kind of space-faring cyber-organism and say goodbye to this planet and its sick, depraved dominant organisms before you could say "sayonara scumbags".
Comment: I find the comments of the fearful, right-wing fundementalists present in some sections of this page quite telling about the depth and innovation of Stelarc's work. You know you are presenting great new work when the mindless, conservative populace fear it.
Name: Dr. Jekyll
Comment: I saw your presentation at SFAI a few weeks ago. I am an art student and really enjoyed the end of the presentation when you answered a question about the obsoletion of the body. Your response revealed what seems to be the deep undercurrent motivating your life's work - your philosophical perspective that the human as another form of animal system is simply a series of responses. After that explanation, your work became much clearer - as an example of this philosophical perspective. The conclusion that we are only a series of responses, and that in itself supercedes the most sought after question, 'what is the meaning of life?' If I am interpreting correctly, I would like to tell you, I am so glad to have gone to this lecture and heard what I think is the most logical response to the nature of life. If this is your point of view, and even if not, perhaps you can answer a question for me? I am new to the art education system and am feeling the need/expectation to participate in thought/writings as well as visually. I would really like to begin to participate, but I find the questions to be completely superflous. If we are a series of responses, how can anyone expect someone to have the "answer". I am not afraid of the answers I have, but rather the reaction and treatment from the community itself. Do you have any advice?
Comment: hey, are you real?
Comment: So this is where you get sent when you enroll in a philosophy subject. I don't agree with the conceptualisation of this being an embodiment of the cyborg. The point of becoming a cyborg is to overcome the limitations of the body, however this work (particuarly the third arm) seems to be enforcing more limitations on the body. The third arm is not useful, provides no aditional functions and on top of that it looks damn heavy to carry around (thus enforcing more limitations on the body). But then to read Harraway the era of the cyborg began with the industrial age and steam machines. I feel that to be a cyborg, the cybernetic part would need to become perminent because life is worse without it and the individual would desire this perminence. To be a cybernetic organism the cybernetic components need to have perminece to the individuals perception, in the same way the body has this perminence. Once we reach the point where the body is not only obsolete but also unecessary then hey we can ditch the whole shebang and then the cyborg will be obsolete. Here's a thought...what if the reason we have failed to contact off-world intelligence is because they have overcome the limitations and are no more than consciounesses? Now that can put a whole interesting spin on what happens when you die and the concept of various heveans. Would these intelligences be considered alive or dead? See this is the kinda stuff you come up with when you're supposed to be writing philosophy assignments :D I'll get back to writing WHY the body is obsolete now ;)
Comment: comment: You scare me. I don't want art to venture in this direction. Why do you think this is an important road to travel? Just because the human can do this may not make it meaningful or relevant to humanity.
Comment: Dear mr. Stelarc! We think that your homepage is disgusting!! Next time.. Wear more clothes!! ;) PLEASE!
Comment: Hello sales, My name is JOHN THOMAS i will like to have your products as a gifts from your gallery for my parent who are celebrating their 30th Wedding Annivasary, the shipping will be through FEDEX, TO NIGERIA so i will be gald to have your reply asap. I will be glad if you can send me your website address to choose. Payment will be make by my credit card info for you to charge, Visa or Master Card. So get back to me as soon as possible.
Comment: The performances showed on this site are really disgusting and abhorrent. Don't know why automutiliation should be considered as art, though. No, I'm not shocked, not even impressed. My body is not obsolete at all, I love it and won't mix it with unhealthy computer shit. Some people do drugs to learn something about their true nature, others do art or s.th. similar. I wish all those seekers that they can find their inner balance before they destroy themselves completely.
Comment: Hey mate you artworks are heaps weird...your really messed up in the head..what goes through your head to create these obscene artworks..
Comment: You are a visionary that will break us free from the confines of this limited and vain postmodern era of art. Big yourself up
Comment: I am currently taking a digital media class at Ball State University in the architecture department. I am doing a case study on the Stelarc experiments for perception of space and time. I appreciate the art of movement and form throughout all the examples. It is quite the ingeneous design and concept behind each focal union he creates and displays to the common man.
Comment: I thought I had already gone through the most provocative and dillusional website, but yours must be on the top ten list. It is interesting though. I never really thought of us as being prosthetic bodies. I will recommend this website to all medical curriculum students for anatomy and phisiology courses.
Name: Lady covered in Peanut Butter..just for you.
Comment: cloning strata . body atavism The contrasting binarism between ultimate disembodiment on the one hand and the return to the fleshy body on the other coincides with the dichotomous boundary between technology and biology accelerating the emergence of unprecedented entities
Comment: Complement of the season to you over there. I will liek to place an order for PROSTHETIC HEAD units. And i will like to kow if you do ship to my local store here in Nigeria and i will like you to quote me the price list and also, kindly let me know the acceptable creditcard fro the units.
Comment: Hi! I had the honour of being at ARTos, Cyprus the other night. Primarily its actually an honour for Cyprus to have such ambassadors like you. One question that came to mind listening to you was the following. As Cypriots we have grown up in a country where the Church, and ultimately religion, tends to (I believe) warp everything here and the men in black are sometimes exceptionally mean. Having managed to move away from this social construct how is religion or what role does it play (if any) in your work? In addition to this, as a patient with Multiple Sclerosis a disease (us I understand it) whereby the mind decides to attack the body (through its 'tenticles' - nerve system) technology then becomes an ultimate savior. I do not know whether anyone has ever managed in the way u do to actually visualize it.
Comment: I think that applicable uses for the new paradym for the human body are needed. Rather than ergonomics we need to replace the whole relationship between extemities and mechanical levers and switches. Great ideas and extrapolations of these ideas. The hollowing out of the body to make room for electronics and a whole new relationship between man and environment
Comment: Don't u think u getting a little... mad?I'm concerned,really.
Comment: I have many issues with your deranged ramblings. I will target one. "Shedding of the skin" - it is impossible to absorb oxygen through skin (and also impossible to extract nutrients from light other than energy). Moreover, skin is a vital organ that is imperitive in our survival, it is not merely a shield and covering. I don't know what has happened to you in life that has caused you to pursue this path, but for God's sake seek help, you need it.
Comment: didn't hav a clue wat happened. It's a great watever u call it.
Comment: woah, how on earth did u get ur body suspended in mid air? didn't it hurt? im doing research on a contemporary artist, and you were on my list. i'm off to have a look around at your sight!... impressed so far!
Comment: Many of the things you discuss are self-evident to any logical thinkers whose minds aren't clouded by pre-rationalism. What's really astounding is that anyone is surprised by what you have to say. A basic grounding in neuroscience and biology reveals that consciousness is a fiction and the body is merely a complicated machine. Along these lines, a captivating likelihood is that what we call 'human life' is merely the by-product of bacterial machinations; a moving away from the 'left wall' of evolution, ala Stephen J. Gould. Fascinating work, but the comments people have left are even more so.
Comment: Im a student, im studying this work to gain insight into art and technology. I realise that these works are effective in exploring the limits or lack of limits in the imput that technology has on our lives, and our body's, this is an effective site for that purpose..but as a 17yr old art lover i have to say i find this site, unnerving and disheartening and well diappointing in some weird way. Im sorry but after collecting a little information i wont be back im off to continue my naive pleasure in the vibrant and aesthetically pleasing art of the world...
Comment: As a zyborg, i would like to report how truly admirable your website is to our zyborgion colony. As a zyborg i can change my mehanical features at the press of a button and if you would like to witness my transformation then i will meet you at the edge of Galaxy 49, next to the ring of saturn.
Comment: hello jeff koons how are u
Comment: Stelarc is the type of artist in which isnt afraid to challenge the modern conceptions of art. To me, his art demonstrates a view towards contemporary society today, and where our future is headed. His works have proven to me and many viewers that art isnt just depicted on canvas, but can have this wild connection with the body and human form. The beautifully and technologically structured forms of art Stelarc has created, bring forward the imagination of the viewer to make realisations of the world, which is becoming more dependant on technology than the realiabilty of human minds. Although Modern technology is created by humans, its the idea that society has placed so much interest and influence towards the idea of having work done by machine not man. The ideas of replacement by machine is fluent in the works of Stelarc, which binds the viewers interest even more. Stelarc has definantly opened my eyes in the very much judged world of contemporary art.
Comment: My name is Hansel, I run an alternative talent agency that represents human oddities, side show acts, and alternative models. We pay for all performances plus hotel and airfare if you have to travel. I wanted to know if you would be interested in us putting your profile up on our agency's website?
Comment: i think that hanging yourself from things in your skin over the city for everyolne to see is sick NOT art if i vomit on a sit then sit in it for everyone to see is that art?
Comment: im doing an assignment for visual arts for my Higher School Certificate and Stelarc is my base artist that i have to use. i find him extaordinary and so interesting that my head felt like it was going to explode. i loved that it was new interesting inventive fun and different as i myself try to do this. i find this form of artistic science amazing.
Comment: This website should be an artwork
Comment: thankyou for an exciting and eye-opening presentation in stockholm yesterday (060622).
during your talk a number of things came to mind, namely:
Comment: You sicko who suspends themselves from hooks naked over a building!?
Comment: [O .o] pls2notdo, Stelarc. As much as I can respect you for your concepts, your views and your obvious forethought, the mantle of heroism you, inadverdently or deliberately, assume sticks in the gullet a touch [:/]. It doesn't help that you don't do well on radio, where you have a tendency to laugh too loudly while other people are making points you disagree with[- .-']. I disagree that this is the way of the future. I feel that these ideas while no doubt revolutionary and effective, are "the symptom of a society that has failed," and should only be considered as a last resort, when we have exhausted all other evolutionary avenues. Hopefully people-kind's next actualization will be not quite so violent[:S] and null-gendered (read:masculinized, thx society etc) as the "hollow body." I think, in the face of the alternative, found wanting in courage and vision, I am perfectly content to be a Zombie and shuffle around in what little grass is left, until my kind's time comes.
Comment: you say there should be no fear in tempering with the body? do you believe that you know enough to destroy the form you hold? do you pursue happiness? or do you explore these possibilities simpy because they are possibilities? what is your motif in exploring this loss of your human form, and are there any limits to how much you can remove before you remove you humanity?, do you value humanity or do you find it hinders you? what is the point in not dying? as you say, we could stop its occurence.
Comment: Hello. I am a Live Arts student at Kingston University, Kingston Upon Thames, England. I am blown away by the work i have found over several weeks investigating Stelarc. Both as a performance artist and as someone who holds a great interest for technology advances, space, time, etc. I have no idea whether this will reach Stelarc or not but i feel i should send my appreciation, thanks, and awe for what he has created, completed and continues to produce. I am sure that i will find him to be a huge influence in my work, and if at any time he returns to England i would appreciate being notified and perhaps being able to spend some time to talk with him. That would be golden. Cheers.
Comment: Goodmorning. I think the same way. The body is obsolete but I think also that the body has the days it counts to you. The universe is dissolving. Human DNA is degenerating. If only we could repair our DNA with nanomachines ... Best of 2 worlds. Thanks.
Comment: Performance art? The World has officialy gone mad! Complete and utter bollocks.
Comment: I am just astonished that tax-payers money is being wasted on this. Where is the value in this, how many people will find accomplishment from learning how to suspend yourself via hooks. If you really believe all this 'technology replacing human body parts' bulls*** how about you throw yourself under a bus in the rush hour traffic and see if somebody can rebuild you from a couple of old washing machines and a tumble-dryer.
Comment: "freakishness masquerading as originality is a clear sign of the downfall of society"
Comment: My sister died of ear cancer, her death was very hard to except. She suffered so much. And YOU choose to have such a terrible thing done all in the form of ART. absolutly discusting.
Comment: Get a proper job you insensitive prick. By sending this comment it inflates your hyper-ego.It pisses people off,therefore I'm right sort of thing.Wrong. Your just a prick.Get a job cockhead!!!
Comment: I am puzzled and astounded by your latest work: the implantation of an (ear) in your left forearm. I understand it took many committed years to accomplish this goal, and that there is more work yet to be done. Yours is a level of commitment that is quite rare, and the work itself is extraordinarily daring. I am a lover of art and expression, and I am confounded by this work of yours. I don't pretend to understand it, and I can only imagine what sort of reaction you may receive (now and in the future). Whatever the results over the long term, you have given me pause and forced me to reexamine the human body and it purpose, as well as the boundaries of artistic expression.
Name: Angel-Line (raelian) www.rael.org
Comment: I just read your news about the ear implant and would just like to say thank you for inspiring me when i heard your lecture back at the bartlett school of architecture at ucl. I look forward to seeing your talk again when the microphone is implanted into the ear !!!
Comment: Wow. Well, I don't quite see the purpose of putting an ear on your arm, and it doesn't look as if your robots are completely functional. The human body alone is what has carried man-kind to the apex of the evolutionary dog-pile. So why try to improve on a natural perfection? There are lines separating constructive ingenuity and art. I have no objection to the experimentation, but do not attempt to claim that your efforts are towards making a "better human." Call it what it is. Art. You have created nothing that will change evolutions path, and nothing that has real advantages to the human race.
Comment: I was at you talk in Dublin last month and was blown away by your commitment to your work. I am writing about your work in my thesis and I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me. The first is about the extra ear. I was wondering how you felt about how this will intrude on your private space? From your talk I got the impression that your wife was very supportive of your work and I also wanted to ask you how she felt about the extra ear and how it will equally invade her private space, when you are with her? Or are there circumstances where you will have to disconnect the ear from the Internet?
Comment: Has the cyberneic subdefuge has begun? Or was that just a concept on an old video i saw in the 90's. Why hy haven't i seen that arm again? was it fake? was it bought by others? where is the real story of this man?
Comment: the most inspiring artist ive ever wittnessed THANX!
Comment: i do suppose you are avant-garde & respect you for that one more thing.... when you hang yourself up - why don't you hang your dick up as well.
Comment: I am an insured aerial performance artist who is meeting much resistance from my college regarding aerial performances, again despite being fully insured. Out of curiosity, I was wondering what type or insurance, if any, Stelarc had to obtain to perform his personal suspension work in the 80's? Or what stipulations the galleries may have put upon that particular body of work.
Comment: wanna hookup?
Comment: I find your website quite extraordinarily comprehensive.
Comment: hi i gonna do some robots for help to children, and others things, and your web is great...bye
Comment: The body is not obsolete as long as it can evolve into something more appropriate to an ever changing environment, you push the boundaries of evolution, you are nature's best creation.
Comment: I find your work extremely intreiguing. I am studing art and psychcology and have found within your work so many connections between the two! I think that perhaps you are right about the human body not being perfect, durable, but can so much more not go wrong with these machines than the human body? How do you no that these experiments will not effect the human body more negatively that positively? Do you think you will be able to change the social norms of our society to make it more normal to have thes sort of syborg qualities. Its like something out of x-men! Do you think it is possibe that these ideas may help with the genome lag that humans seems to be experiencing??? So many questions sorry i just find your work so interesting. I visited your exhibit in liverpool. It was Slightly disturbing but so interesting! Would have been ace if you didnt have to get the microphone taken out!!!
Comment: Another pioneer breaking down the social barriers to the electro mechanical augmentation of the human species. To be applauded for addressing these moral dilemmas but clearly so far beyond his era to be misunderstood and offensive.
Comment: First of all, I am NOT a conjoined twin. I have not willed my body to science, and I truly believe that process only begins AFTER death. I am writing to inform you of the extensive research that I am conducting. I have targeted your institution because of identity theft concerns associated with individuals who may have conducted business with you or have been accepted to this particular program bearing my credentials. I have been pronounced dead using alias credentials and am now considered a "Human-Computer Interface Research Project" to prevent those individuals who successfully obtained restitution from being prosecuted. I am not a robot, I am a human being who has been alive since January 15, 1965, yet I am physically disabled.
Comment: hi i was wondering whether stelarc created three of everything for a reason for example three arms and three ears ect.
Comment: awesome site but weird artworks and artist
Comment: Please, what this site is really all about? I need your feedback.
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