STELARC TISSUE CULTURE AND ART
Clemenger Contemporary Art Award



SIAL Team:
    Jono Podborsek
    Foo Chi Sung


Artist in Collabaration : Stelarc
SIAL Team : Mark Burry, Pia Ednie-Brown, Jono Podborsek, Foo Chi Sung




In relation to the Intimate Distance: Liveness and Affect Visiting Fellows Program, SIAL collaborated with the artist Stelarc to assist him in the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award | 2003, held in the The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (National Art Gallery Australia) at Federation Square.

SIAL researchers worked with the Stelarc to develop the 3D model of his arm fused with his ear. 3D scans were taken of Stelarc's ear and arm using the facilities within SIAL (3D Portable Scanner + 3D Laser Scanner). The 3D models scanned were then fused together, mapped with textures and rendered. A wax printout of the final output was also produced. (Using the SIAL 3D Wax Printer)

The final output for this collabaration is a digital filmclip showcasing the rendered model and a life size accurate 3D wax model.


Stelarc | Bio

Stelarc is an Australian artist who has performed extensively in Japan, Europe and the USA. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems and the Internet to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He has performed with a THIRD HAND, a VIRTUAL ARM, a VIRTUAL BODY and a STOMACH SCULPTURE. He has done twenty-five body SUSPENSIONS with insertions into the skin.

For FRACTAL FLESH, as part of Telepolis, he developed a touch-screen interfaced Muscle Stimulation System, enabling remote choreography of the body. Performances such as PING BODY and PARASITE use Internet information and images to actuate the body.

In 1998 for Kampnagel, he completed EXOSKELETON - a pneumatically powered 6-legged walking machine. In 2000, he completed an EXTENDED ARM - a manipulator with eleven degrees-of-freedom and a MOTION PROSTHESIS - an intelligent, compliant servo-mechanism that enables the performance of precise and repetitive prompting of the arms.

Recent projects include a PROSTHETIC HEAD - an embodied conversational agent which responds to the person who interrogates it and a 1/4 scale replica of the artist’s ear was grown with human cells as a step towards constructing an EXTRA EAR on his arm.

In 1995 Stelarc received a three year Fellowship from The Visual Arts/ Craft Board, The Australia Council. In 1997 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. He was Artist-In-Residence for Hamburg City in 1998. In 2000 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Laws by Monash University. For the past three years he has been Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at The Nottingham Trent University, UK.

In 2003 he was artist-in-residence at the Faculty of Art and Design at Ohio State University in Columbus. His art is represented by the Sherman Galleries in Sydney.

Email address: stelarc@va.com.au
Website: http://www.stelarc.va.com.au





Stelarc in collaboration with Tissue Culture & Art
Taken from Stelarc's Page from the Ian Potter : NGV website.

What characterises all my recent projects and performances is the concern with the prosthetic. The prosthesis is seen not as a sign of lack, but as a symptom of excess. Rather than replacing a missing or malfunctioning part of the body, these artefacts and interfaces are alternate additions to the body’s form and functions. Third hand (technology attached), Stomach sculpture (technology inserted) and Exoskeleton (technology extending) are different approaches to prosthetic augmentation....

Stelarc | Excerpts from exhibition catalogue


Stelarc | Extra Ear

The EXTRA EAR is a soft prosthesis, constructed not out of hard materials and technologies, but out of soft tissue and flexible cartilage. This would not be simply a wearable prosthesis, but one constructed on the body using its skin and cartilage as a permanent addition. The surgical techniques for ear reconstruction have been developed, so this is a plausible project.

The difficulty is finding the appropriate medical assistance to realise it. Since 1997, there were several instances where doctors initially expressed interest in assisting, but then changed their minds. The problem is that it goes beyond mere Cosmetic Surgery. It is not simply about the modifying or the adjusting of existing anatomical features (now sanctioned in our society), but rather what’s perceived as the more monstrous pursuit of constructing an additional feature that conjures up either some congenital defect, an extreme body modification or even perhaps a radical genetic intervention...

Stelarc | Excerpts from www.stelarc.va.com.au/extra_ear/





For more information on all of Stelarc's projects, visit his website at http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/