[chisigmail] IDG Seminar: The Cadaver, the Comatose & the Chimera

[Daryl Ku]

(Apologies for cross posting)

You are cordially invited to an IDG Seminar.


PRESENTER:      Stelarc

TITLE:          The Cadaver, the Comatose & the Chimera

VENUE:          University of Melbourne, Law Building, Lecture Theatre  
G08, University Square, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton 3053

DATE and TIME:  Friday 08 May 2009, 3-4 pm


ABSTRACT:
We are living in an age of excess and indifference, of prosthetic  
augmentation and extended operational systems. The dead, the near dead,  
the undead and the yet to be born are existing simultaneously. This is the  
age of the cadaver, the comatose and the chimera. The cadaver can now be  
preserved indefinitely with plastination. The comatose body can be  
sustained on a life-support system. Cryogenically suspended bodies await  
possible reanimation. Chimera is the body that performs with mixed  
realities. A biological body, augmented with technology and telematically  
performing with virtual systems. The chimera is an alternate embodiment.

This is an age of organs without bodies, of organs awaiting bodies. There  
is now a proliferation of organs. A proliferation of biocompatible  
components in both substance and scale that allows technology to be  
attached and implanted into the body. Organs are extracted and exchanged.  
Organs are engineered and inserted. Blood flowing in my body might  
tomorrow be circulating in your body. Ova are fertilized in-vitro with  
sperm that has been unfrozen. The face of the donor becomes a third face  
on the recipient. The body acts with indifference. Indifference as opposed  
to expectation. An indifference that allows something to occur, that  
allows an unfolding - in its own time and with its own rhythm. An  
indifference that allows suspending a body with hooks, inserting a  
sculpture inside the body and surgically constructing an ear on an arm.  
This presentation examines alternate anatomical architectures using  
mechanical, virtual, biotech and surgical augmentation and exploration of  
the body. It exposes the obsolescence, the absence and the emptiness of  
the body.

BIO:
Stelarc is a performance artist who has performed with a third hand, a  
virtual arm, a 6-legged walking robot and is presently surgically  
constructing and stem cell growing an ear on his arm.

EXTRAORDINARY VENUE:
Note that this seminar will not be held at the IDEA LAB. Instead, it will  
be held at the University of Melbourne, Law Building, Lecture Theatre G08.


Please forward to others if interested. All are Welcome.
http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/research/groups/interactiondesign/seminars.html

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Daryl Ku
PhD Candidate; Interaction Design Group Coordinator

Interaction Design Group
Department of Information Systems
The University of Melbourne
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