Question 4

Q4 .) Some digital art works use digital technology as a tool to do work that has previously
been done in another media (e.g. digital photography) while other artworks use digital
technology as their primary medium, and the work simple could not exist without digital
technology. Discuss one or two works in detail, commenting on the role played
by digital technology in the production of the work.


Nowadays, the technology not only provides us a new platform to show the art work around the world, it is also a popular primary medium or tools for artist to present their idea. In this essay I will use Stelarc’s work, the Third Hand, to illustrate the importance of the role of technology as a primary medium in the art world.

First of all, it is different to use technology as a tool and as a primary medium in art. At the beginning stage of the digital art history, the technology was mainly treated as a tool to serve or to add value and creativity upon the “traditional” form of art. Christian Paul gave an example that appropriation and collage techniques was originated in the new art movement at the early twentieth century; with the digital technology, these techniques are explored in a broader sense and being improved.[1]

This suggests that the digital technology could be unnecessary in the process of creating collage images. Although it improves the images with using computer software and a broader image data base form the internet, it could also be produced in traditional way. The digital technology is rather important in printing, the output process, in order to improve the quality and quantity of the images.[2] In this case, the digital technology only works as a tool to add value in some parts of an already exist art form.

However, for an art which employ digital technology as a primary medium, the technology would become very crucial. This kind of art work has to use technology from the production to the presentation in order to explore and exhibit the possibility of the technology. [3] Also, according to Christiane Paul “The digital medium’s distinguishing features certainly constitute a distinct form of aesthetics: it is interactive, participatory, dynamic, and customizable . . . “(Paul, 2003, 67)

In this case, I believe the Third Hand can be classified as an art work which employ digital technology as medium. It is because from the development of the concept to the execution or production, and the performance, digital technology is crucial for the Third Hand.

First of all, let’s start by Stelarc’s idea and thoughts. Stelarc’s works explore and extend the concept of the body and its capacity. Amelia Jones mentioned that “The implicit, ultimate goal of Stelarc’s multifarious project is to refigure our understanding or comprehension of the technologized world around us by manipulating the body-by embracing the extension and violations perpetrated on human subjects by technology rather than resisting them.” (Jones 2005, 94)

The Third Hand is one of the works being created under this concept. Stelarc believes that "Body is obsolete". [4] Although the body was designed to adapt the environment, it fails because the operation of mind is limited by the body’s capability and its imperfection, which means our body is obsolete for the environment. Therefore, Stelarc raised the point in his official website that the body could be treated as an object and could be improved by redesigning with technology.[5] He stated that “As an object, the body can be amplified and accelerated, attaining planetary escape velocity. It becomes a post-evolutionary projectile, departing and diversifying in form and function.” (Stelarc, “Redesigning the body”, accessed Oct 2008) (For Stelarc’s concept and idea, you could refer to the brief explanation in this blog) It is clear that the digital technology play a very important role in the development of Steplarc’s concept upon “body” and the creation of the Third Hand was also being inspired under this concept.

Despite the concept behind the creation, the execution of the Third Hand was highly depending on digital technology. It is a complicated “body extention” in terms of it mechanism and the way it links to our body. It can pinch, grasp and release; besides, the wrist can rotate under Stelarc’s control. It also has a tactile feedback system which generates a “sense of touch” for the artist. Without using control panel or buttons, the Third Hand is controlled by the artist’s muscles. While he moves the particular muscles, this would be detected and transmitted to the third hand as a motion. Without the use of digital technology, the Third Hand could not be created and could not be controlled by Stelarc as if a “real hand”. [6]

It is obvious that the idea and reason of producing, and the production process of this artwork are highly related to the digital technology. Without digital technology, this work would not exist.

Besides, the evidence of the high involvement of technology could also be found in the performance. The Third Hand could be performed as an individual work or it could be combined in other performances.

As an individual work, Stelarc would only perform with the Third Hand. For Example, Stelarc used the Third Hand and his real hand to write a word “EVOLUTION” at the same time. It is about using the Third Hand as an extended body part. It is relatively simple in terms of the involvement of technology compare to the other performances.

For the more complicated performance such as Fractal Flesh and Ping Body, they both employed Third Hand in the performances; the digital technology not only plays the role in demonstrating, but also in an interacting.

Fractal Flesh allows the audience to interact with the artist. It enables audience to access, view and actuate Stelarc's body and the Third Hand through the internet and the performance website. Although this method created a physical distance between the artist and the audience, it enabled the audience to participate in the performance by “controlling” Stelarc’s action during the performance. The Ping Body, an internet actuated and uploaded performance, further explored the capability between digital technology and human body that the artist’s body movement is no longer affected by other person, but by the “external ebb and flow of data” on the internet. [7] “The Internet becomes not merely a mode of information transmission, but also a transducer, effecting physical action.” (Stelarc, “Ping Body”, accessed Oct 2008) was what Stelarc comment on this work in his website.

These performances show that the digital technology is an important and fundamental element in the Third Hand which can hardly be replaced. From the concept of creating the Third Hand, to its execution and performance, digital technology is highly involved. Besides, the Third Hand is not an extra value being added on an already exist art forms. It is a main character itself. And, the digital technology is highly employed through the production process and the performance. And, it is a dynamic work that it did explore and exhibit the level of which the technology and the body could be merged in the production and his performance.

Furthermore, in some performances which the Third Hand involved, it did create chance for audience to interact and participate. Although the Third Hand, for example in the Fractal Flesh case, could not be customized as a single product or image which some net art could do, I would rather interpret the performance as a collaboration of those customized single motion. It is because at a moment, the customized motion did exist, and the artist just combines all those single motion together to form a performance. It is obvious that the Third Hand fulfill the restriction set by Christiane Paul as using digital technology as a primary medium of art. Besides, Stelarc himself do believe in technology and he put this believes in his work including the Third Hand. Therefore, I believe digital technology is a primary medium in the Third Hand.

[1] Christiane Paul. Digital Art. (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2003), 27-28.
[2] Christiane Paul. Digital Art. (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2003), 28,33.
[3] Christiane Paul. Digital Art. (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2003), 67.
[4] Stelarc, “Obsolete Body,” Stelarc’s official webstie
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/obsolete/obsolete.html
[5]Stelarc, “Redesigning the Body,” Stelarc’s official website
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/redesign/redesign.html
[6] Stelarc, “Third Hand,” Stelarc’s official website,
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/third/third.html
[7] Stelarc, “Ping Body,” Stelarc’s official website,
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/pingbody/index.html


Bibliography

Jones, Amelia. “’Stelarc’s Technological “Transcendence”/Stelarc’s Wet Body” In Stelarc – The Monograph, edited by Marquard Smith, 87-124. London: The MIT Press, 2005.

Paul, Christiane. Digital Art. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2003.

Stelarc. Stelarc’s offical website, “Redesigning the body,”
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/redesign/redesign.html (accessed October,2008)

Stelarc. Stelarc’s official website, http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/ (accessed October, 2008).

About the performance

For me, Stelarc’s performance could be classified briefly in 3 types.

The first type is “Suspension” which he hang himself with hooks. This type of performance has been shown in many different locations in different surrounding environment. It has been shown on the public area, e.g. street, museum, the seaside etc.

The second type is “Suspension + Technology”. For example, The “Stretched Skin/Third Hand”, which was showed in Japan in 1988, was a performance which combined the elements of “Suspension” and “Technology – Third Hand".

The third type is that the “technology” which the whole performance mainly focus on the interaction between the products of technology and Stelarc, such as the Stomach Sculpture, which was shown in Melbourne in 1993, the Amplified Body and the Ping Body.

Amplified Body

Ping Body - an Internet actuated and uploaded performance which the movement of the artist’s body is "controlled" by “external ebb and flow of data” on the Internet. (for further information, you may visit : http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/pingbody/index.html)

In my opinion, the performance of the Third Hand could be classified in both the second type and third type.

For the second type, an example has already been raised. For the third type, there were independent performances which were about “technology “ in specific of the Third Hand and Stelarc only. For example, the famous performance “ Handwriting - Evolution” is about Stelarc used both his biological hands and the Third hand to write a word “Evolution” at the same time.




Reference :

Inverse Motion Capture and Motion Prosthesis in Contemporary Media Art: Stelarc's Movatar and Other Works

http://www.conceptlab.com/uci/2003-fall-277b-mocap-stelarc.html

About The Third Hand

What is the THIRD HAND and how it works :

The Third Hand is an artificial hand. Although it is attached to the right arm, it is independent from his biological hands. It is an additional one rather than a replacement.

To control the Third Hand is a very technical process. In the most simple way to explain, this is how it works :
1.) there are electrodes placed on Stelarc’s abdominal and leg muscles.
2.) when Stelarc contract these muscles, the electrodes will detect the EMG signals which release from the movement of those muscles.
3.) the EMG signals act as connector between Stelarc and the Third Hand which stelarc can activate the motion of the Third Hand by controlling his abdominal and leg muscles.

Here is the layout of the setting of the Third Hand.

In this case, Stelarc is able to control the third hand independently from his real hands. The THIRD HAND is able to pinch, grasp and release; and the wrist can rotate as well. It also has a tactile feedback system which Stelarc can even have a “sense of touch” through the Third Hand.

Maybe you will think it would be difficult to control the Third Hand as you have to control consciously. However, Stelarc has already get used to control it which he can now operate the Third Hand as his biological hands – without effort and do not need conscious focus.

Reference :
Stelarc official website : http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/third/third.html

About the Body

According to Stelarc’s official website, he states clearly about his thoughts upon the body and these thoughts linked deeply to his performance.

The idea of "Body is obsolete"

He describe that we usually operate or control our body without having a real sense or awareness of controlling it. For example, when I want to grab an apple, I do not need to think that “let’s move my hand from left to right then grab that apple”, my hand would do these series of actions automatically by thinking about “let’s grab that apple”. We merely operate as mind and that’s what Stelarc called “Absent Bodies”. [1]

However, the operation of mind is limited by our body’s capability and its imperfection. Which means our body is obsolete for the environment. [2]

In order to cope with the problems, our bodies should not be seen as a subject abut an object for design [3] The redesign could be adding new parts on our body, or, replacing the old parts through the advance technology.

Maybe you would think that his statements do not fit with our norms or social convention, but is that ture?

For Stelarc, it seems that it is not something new to human being. Since the industrialization, human is used to live or survive with technology. We even put artificial medical tools into human body in order to cure the patient.

Stelarc stated on his web site that bodies are both Zombies and cyborgs. “We have never had a mind of our own and we often perform involuntarily conditioned and externally prompted. Even since we evolvedas hominidsand developed bipedal locomotion, two limbs became manipulatorsand we constructed artifacts, instruments and machines. ......" (Stelarc, Official website)

What he suggested is that we are already used to the way which we have technology to help us solving problems. Although we do not have a physical attachment with technology, like having a fake arm or eye or whatever on our body, our relationship with technology is just like we already have it "grow" or "combine" with our body. We claim that we do not want this situation and we are scared of it, however, we are actually being like this and the direction of our future is going towards this way which we do not want.

[1]Stelarc. "Absent Body", Stelarc offical website, http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/absent/absent.html
[2] Goodall, Jane. "The Will to Evolve" In Stelarc – The Monograph, edited by Marquard Smith, 1-31. (London: The MIT Press, 2005), 7.
[3]Stelarc. " Redesigning the Body", Stelarc offical website, http://www/stalarc.va.com.au/redesign/redesign/html

Reference :
Stelarc. Stelarc official website : http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/arcx.html

Brief introduction of Stelarc

(image from Stelarc offical website)

Stelarc is an Australia-based performance artist. Although he was born in born in Limassol, island of Cyprus, he studied and develop his career in Australia.

His works explore and extend the concept of the body and its capacity.
According to his web site, his idea is that our body is imperfect. It has its limits which out body get tired easily, our brain cannot manage to work on accurate calculations, and it is not durable as it’s easily affected by diseases and our body would obsolete as times goes by.

As a performing artist, he use his body in different ways to express his idea since the 80s. His works/ performance include “Suspension”, "Third Hand”, “Amplified Body”, Stomach Sculpture” etc.

Suspension

Third Hand


Amplified Body













Stomach Sculpture





Reference
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/arcx.html