Please note that some of the information in this post was submitted for Contemporary art theory assessment.
Figure 2. Stelarc Fractal flesh 1995, performance art.
Source: Medienkunstnetz 2015. Accessed 15 September. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/fractal-flesh/
The New Media art forms have been understood as an art practice that utilises electronic technologies. This essay discusses the connections and exchanges between biological, electronic and digital forms that are the focus of cybernetics, cyborgs, transhumanism and posthumanism.
Stelarc explores Katherine Hayle's issues of bodily boundaries, the obsolence of the body and the resulting identity issues through his performance Fractal Flesh (figure 2)
Stelarcs Fractal Flesh was a 1995 performance for the “Telepolis” event, where participants in Paris (the Pompidou Centre), Amsterdam (for the Doors of Perception Conference) and Helsinki (The Media Lab) were invited to manipulate Stelarc's body which was located at the performance site in Luxembourg. This was achieved though electronically linking, via a website, the remote access and view control panels to a computer interfaced muscle-stimulation system (Luxembourg)(Stelarc 2015). Stelarc wore a heads-up display which allowed him to view the person who was manipulating him, as well as previous prosthetics art pieces, Third Hand andInvoluntary body .
The remote access and view control panels enabled remote participants to activate the muscle-stimulation points on Stelarc's body producing movements that were involuntary, and view the results. Due to the technology of the time there was a one second delay between the participant input and Stelarc's physical response. Two desktop computers streamed images live to the internet which according to web statistics taken at the time indicated that the event was viewed in South East Asia, north America and Europe (Curtin University 2014) indicating interest in cyborg culture, transhumanism and post humanism.
Stelarcs Fractal Flesh performances uses prosthetics. The involuntary body and third arm components Fractal Flesh of are not intended to extend his senses, he uses technology as a tool, but the tool becomes apart of him and in turn his body becomes a tool to be manipulated. This nature of the prosthetics and muscle-stimulation used in Fractal Flesh converts Stelarc into an avatar. Which in turn allows the artist to become the hybrid creature described by Haraway, particularly when controlled remotely by a female agent. His body simply becomes hardware and pushing closer to the posthumanism ideals.
The concepts of posthumanism continually co-evolve with technological advancements and attempt to redefine social structures devoid of biological limitations. Where conciousness and communication can exist as disembodied entities (Wolfe 2009).
Ihab Hassan stated: “Humanism may be coming to an end as humanism transforms itself into something one must helplessly call posthumanism” ( Hassan 1977).
Transhumanists, Mathew Eppinette (Vicini, Andrea and Brazal Agnes 2015) writes, intend to transform the human body and human nature through the use of technology. The belief is that technology is inherently good, and will help humanity transition towards new humanism. Allowing humanity to transcend the limitiations of our biological forms and transitioning to a post-human civilization. Posthumanist belief is that the next stange of human evolution, which is the post human, is achieved through human technical ability and human will. But Katherine Hayles suggests that the boundaries of our embodied reality have been compromised by narrow definitions of humanness and to achieve posthumanism there must be a loss of subjectivity based on bodily boundaries.
For Stelarc his conceptual exploration through Fractal Flesh focuses on posthumanist ideals of disembodiment and transhumanism through remote conciousness. The obsolesence and inadeqecies of the human body, motivated Stelarc to construct the additional technological augmentations used in Fractal Flesh turning him vessel for the conciousness of a remote entity. (“Alternate Anatomical Architectures | Stelarc | TEDxVienna“ 2014). Stelarc states that the:
body is neither a very efficient nor very durable structure. It malfunctions often and fatigues quickly; its performance is determined by its age .... It might be the height of technological folly to consider the body obsolete inform and function, yet it might be the height of human realizations. For it is only when the body becomes aware of its present position that it can map its post evolutionary strategies (Baraibar 1999).
In fractal flesh the body is no longer bound and limited by its skin and is not limited to the local space that it occupies. The body is made up of multiple agents performing beyond its skin and beyond the local space that it inhabits (“Alternate Anatomical Architectures | Stelarc | TEDxVienna“ 2014). The body is now fractal flesh, bits of bodies which are electronically connected, generating reoccuring patterns of connectivity at varying scales. The remote agent is now transhuman as they manipulate Stelarcs body.
Stelarc's Fractal Flesh also discusses issues with identity. Through the remote muscle-stimulation of his own body he raises issues with the authenticity of unique individuality, the individual is rather the multiplicity of the remote participants that it hosts. As a result the body becomes a chimera of metal, code and meat. The body can now project its physical presence through other bodies and machies. Fractal Flesh is the idea that spactially separated bodies and body parts are electronically connected. In Fractal Flesh, the body, currently know as Stelarc, has become an avatar for the multitude of manipulators (Stelarc 2012).
List of References
Akst, Jef. 2012. “The Sound of Color” The Scientist 26(5): 14-15. url:http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/1017540722?pq-origsite=summon.
Baraibar, Aitor. 1999. “Stelarc's post-evolutionary performance art: Exposing collisions between the body and technology” Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory 11(1): 157-168. doi: 10.1080/07407709908571320.
Curtin University, Zombies, Cyborgs & Chimeras: A Talk by Performance Artist, Prof Stelarc (Youtube: Curtin University, 2014), video.
Gomes, Juan. 2014. “See ColOr: and extended sensory substitution device for the visually impared”Journal of Assistive Technologies 8(2): 77-94. doi :10.1108/JAT-08-2013-0025.
Harbisson, Neil. 2014. “The world's first cyborg”. By Al Jazeera. The Stream (video), 15 September. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s6RAqrgECM.
Hassan, Ihab. 1977. “Prometheus as Performer: Toward a Postmodern Culture?” The Georgia Review31(4): 830 -850. url: http://www.jstor.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/stable/4139753.
Herox. 2014. The World's First Posthuman? - Neil Harbisson and the "Eyeborg" Accessed 15 September. https://herox.com/news/147-the-worlds-first-posthuman-neil-harbisson-and-the.
SBS2Australia, Neil Harbisson:Eyeborg | The feed (Youtube: SBS2Australia, 2014), video.
Stelarc. 2012. "Fractal Flesh — Alternate Anatomical Architectures Interview with Stelarc”. By Marco Donnarumma. Econtact , 15 September. http://econtact.ca/14_2/donnarumma_stelarc.html.
Stelarc. 2015. “Fractal Flesh” Accessed 15 September. http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/projects/fractal/ffvid.html
TEDx Talks, Alternate Anatomical Architectures | Stelarc | TEDxVienna (Youtube: TEDx Talks, 2014) video.
Viada, Mariana. 2010. Neil Harbisson A cyborg artist. Barcelona: Cyborg foundation.
Vicini, Andrea and Brazal Agnes. 2015. “Longing for Transcendence: Cyborgs and Trans- and Posthumans” Theological Studies 76(1): 148 – 165. doi: 10.1177/0040563914565308.
Wolfe, Cary. 2009. What is Posthumanism?. Minneapolis: Univeristy of Minnesota Press.
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