Digital Art: Stelarc: Third Ear

“Extra ear” and human body as a material

Ear is not a functional part of human body is part of the whole architecture of body. The third ear didn’t perform functions of hearing because it was not connected with the body system.
Firstly, the ear was supposed to be situated on Stelarc’s head, however, doctors were not able to put it in this place. The idea was to make the visible only when Stelarc would move his head and it would not be visible when standing in front of another person. Finally, the was removed and situated on the arm of the author. The main concept was to replicate human body’s feature, remove it and situate it in the way that it gives new opportunities. This can support the idea of new architecture of body’s architecture. The process of creating the ear was very complicated and it was possible to breed ear which was smaller than human ear from animal’s cells. It had symbolic meaning, it was partly organic part which was waiting to be assembled to Stelarc’s body.

Human body as a material was analyzed by Stelarc very often. The author made three movies from inside from his body: lungs, stomach and intestine. In his opinion a human body is not only obsolete but also empty. It is a perfect material for putting technology inside and confirms the theory about strengthening body or evolution of human being.
The development of the technology gives opportunity to combine human body’s feature with implants or high-tech solutions inserted inside and creating genetic chimers.