The stage-name Stelarc is a hybrid of Stelios Arcadiou, and so too is this show a retrospective of Stelarc's ever transforming, performative self. And yet it is not the usual type of retrospective that is often associated with the visual arts. Rather than an overview of a very successful, internationally renowned career, Cadaver... Comatose... Chimera... is characterised by an anxiety and self-doubt that imbues much human interaction with its residual technocratic landscape.
The show is an examination of a performance practice that I believe began in the 70's; one characterised by a body in crisis and exemplified by the suspension of Stelarc's naked self above a busy New York intersection. (Among other risky and provocative acts). Indirectly alluding to a transient, decomposite flesh, and often underscored by a ritualistic, sadomasochistic impulse, Stelarc's Third Arm was a much more explicit representation of the relationship between human being and machine. With this robotic monstrosity attached to his actual arm, Stelarc called into question the assumed integrity of the natural world. That is, why place an undeniable value upon human life when robotic augmentation of the body can result in a hitherto unprecedented evolution of the species ?
Whichever side of the fence you sit on, Cadaver... Comatose... Chimera... is a reassessment of the relationship between human beings and technology. In doing so, Stelarc has responded to unpredictable developments in the techno-landscape. The so-called technological revolution may just be a composite of fascinating fetishes and armageddon type fusions of man and machine. The actual revolution could very well be a less melodramatic event. Human intelligence distributed on-line in the form of intelligent and interactive images. Hybridised mutations of global grey matter augmented by machines to the point where these intelligent images develop their own unique trajectory. Bodies can no longer be claimed as those belonging to individuals. The self is now an ephemeral and contingent entity, one that has a peculiar and disturbing beauty simply because of its very unreliability. In Cadaver... Comatose... Chimera... Stelarc questions all his previous assumptions about the body. When he asks "Who am I ?", the answer is that we are virtual compositions of multiple streams of global thought that gather and mutate in on-line environments such as Second Life. In effect, we have become intelligent images distributed on-line.
For those of you still prone to pinching the fleshy underside of your forearm and decrying the existence of data-bodies, please consider... Yesterday, or the day before, or even last week, what amount of time did you spend sitting before a computer staring at the algorithmic calculations that now construct simulations of your data-self ? (And the triumph of capitalism has ensured that those who disbelieve or resist the technological advance, are either dragged along by the scruff of the neck, or simply left behind). In Stelarc's world, it is the estranged space between what we believed we were, and who it is we have become, that is perhaps the monumental disjunctive experience of our time. Searching for solace in this contemporary technocracy, I sit down at my apple mac and turn on-line...
The Cadaver, the Comatose & the Chimera:
Avatars have no Organs
By Stelarc
SL site construction: Daniel Mounsey
SL assistance: John Derrick
Sound design: Tim Cole
Lighting: Emily Adinolfi
Video: John Dogget-Williams
Documentation: Nina Sellars
Animated micro-robot: Steve Middleton
Global mind project: Karen Casey & Harry Sokol
EEG headset: Emotive Systems
La Mama Courthouse, Dec. 15 - 16, Melb.
No comments:
Post a Comment