When Stelarc says he has “something up my sleeve,” he really means it.<\/p>\n
The Perth-based university professor and well-known performance artist has grown an ear on his arm as part of an art project, he told Channel Nine’s morning show, the Today Show, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A medical team inserted a bio-polymer scaffold in the shape of an ear under his skin, he said, and over six months, tissue and blood vessels grew around it.<\/p>\n
“It is partly surgically constructed, and partially cell-grown,” he said.<\/p>\n
The experiment has taken almost a decade to get to this point, and Stelarc’s not done yet.<\/p>\n
Growing an ear lobe on the ear cultivated from his own stem cells is the next step, and then Stelarc intends to have a microphone with a wireless transmitter inserted so the ear can be connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n
This will allow people listening online to hear what the ear is hearing.<\/p>\n
Eventually, it might even be GPS-enabled, so Stelarc and his ear can be tracked online.<\/p>\n
“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,” he told ABC News. “They’ll be able to follow a conversation or hear the sounds of a concert, wherever I am, wherever you are … imagine if I could hear with the ears of someone in New York.”<\/p>\n
A microphone had been previously added, but an infection meant it had to be removed.<\/p>\n
The artist has been working on blurring the body and machine for many years.<\/p>\n
In a 2013 interview about his career and work, Stelarc told Motherboard that reactions to his arm-ear range from fascination to horror.<\/p>\n
“I hope people will become curious about what in actuality is a body and how a body performs in the world,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Is it really necessary to operate as if we are a self or a soul or a mind under these rather medieval entities that we could really do without?”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Mashable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Stelarc says he has “something up my sleeve,” he really means it. The Perth-based university professor and well-known performance artist has grown an ear on his arm as part of an art project, he told Channel Nine’s morning show, the Today Show, on Wednesday. A medical team inserted a bio-polymer scaffold in the shape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":142747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[7],"yoast_head":"\n