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The idea of "Body is obsolete"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 Which means our body is obsolete for the environment.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