Australian performance artist Stelarc has decided to undergo a bizarre experiment. He’s implanted an arm in his ear, which he hopes will allow everyone to hear everything he does every day of his life.
Stelarc thinks that this is a work of art and he’s going to install a Wi-fi microphone into the extra ear on his left arm so we can hear what he hears.
“It's when art is surprising that it becomes interesting,” he told CNN. “Because it's generating that anxiety, that uncertainty and that ambivalence and reaction that makes the body re-examine the world.”
The ear was built with a biocompatible frame with material that is used during plastic surgery procedures. It is already a living part of his body, but doesn’t do anything just yet.
Australia’s ABC News reports that the Perth artist, who is also the head of Curtin University’s Alternate Anatomies Laboratory, first came up with the idea in 1996, but only recently found a team of doctors willing to do it.
“This ear is not for me, I've got two good ears to hear with. This ear is a remote listening device for people in other places,” Stelcar told ABC News. “They'll be able to follow a conversation or hear the sounds of a concert, wherever I am, wherever you are. People will be able to track, through a GPS as well, where the ear is.”
Stelarc is an award winning performance artist and yes, that is his legal name. He was born Stelios Arcadiou, but shortened his name 45 years ago. He’s made films inside his body and one of his other projects is a realistic 3D Prosthetic Head system. Another is an Exoskeleton he built.
“What it means to be human will not be determined any longer merely by your biological structure but perhaps also determined largely by all of the technology that's plugged or inserted into you,” Stelcar told CNN.
screenshot via YouTube video