HOLLOW BODY / HOLLOW SPACE

The intention has been to design a sculpture for a distended stomach. The idea was to insert an art work into the body - to situate the sculpture in an internal space. The body becomes hollow, with no meaningful distinctions between public, private and physiological spaces.The technology invades and functions within the body not as a prosthetic replacement, but as an aesthetic adornment. One no longer looks at art, nor performs as art, but contains art. The hollow body becomes a host, not for a self or a soul, but simply for a sculpture.

Description
a) Structure - a domed capsule shell containing a worm screw and link mechanism
b) Size - capsule closed : 15mm x 5cm / capsule open : 5cm x 7cm
flexible cable : 8mm x 150cm
control box : 7cm x 19cm x 21cm
c) Materials - implant-quality metals such as titanium, stainless steel, silver and gold
d) Functions - self-illuminating and sound-emitting
e) Motions - capsule opens/extends and retracts/closes in three sections
f) Operation - the capsule mechanism is actuated by a flexible drive 150cm in length, connected to a servomotor and controlled by a logic circuit

Physical Procedure
a) The stomach is emptied by being denied food for about 8 hours prior to insertion
b) The closed capsule, with beeping sound and flashing light activated, is swallowed and guided down, tethered on its flexidrive cable to the control box outside the body
c) Once inserted into the stomach an endoscope is used to suck out excess stomach fluid and the stomach is then inflated with air
d) The capsule is opened and extended with switches on the control box. LEDs indicate the forward, set and homing operations to the controller

Medical Imaging
Documentation was done using video endoscopy equipment, the video probe reaching approximately 0cm into the body. Imaging was begun after the sculpture was inserted into the stomach and the video endoscope was also able to track the extraction. Even with a stomach pump, excess saliva was still a problem, necessitating hasty removal of all the probes on several occasions. Although documentation was attempted on three separate occasions, for medical reasons it was not possible to completely image the opened and extended sculpture inside the stomach.

STOMACH SCULPTURE video clip (1.3 Mb)