0:15 We're in an age now where bodies are
0:19 blurring. We can indefinitely preserve a
0:22 corpse. We can sustain a comeomaosse
0:25 body on a technological life support
0:28 system. Cryogenically preserved bodies
0:32 are awaiting reanimation.
0:35 Blood that's circulating in my body now
0:38 might be circulating in your body
0:40 tomorrow. We can [music]
0:43 engineer new kinds of chimeic
0:46 architectures in [music] vitro, grow
0:52 tissue and insert stem cells in vivo. So
0:56 we're really at a time of the catava,
0:58 the comeomaos
1:21 Uh well I'm a performance artist and
1:24 I've um
1:28 performed for well yeah this this what
1:30 am I sort of thing it's it's I find it
1:32 very difficult to answer that. I mean
1:33 it's sort of
1:35 an interesting question.
1:38 Uh well not really. Um
1:44 let's just talk about the art. [laughter]
1:51 It's not that I' I've sort of mastered a
1:54 particular skill or a work with only one
1:57 particular medium. I'm not a painter or
2:00 a sculptor in that traditional sense.
2:04 I'm a performance artist. So the works
2:07 are conceptually driven and and they're
2:10 realized and manifested in a
2:12 multiplicity of different media like
2:15 medical imaging or uh or robotics or
2:19 computer programming or surgical modification.
2:24 The stomach sculpture was a project I
2:27 did in 1993.
2:30 I designed this uh object that opens and
2:33 closes, extends and retracts, has a
2:36 flashing light and a beeping sound. So
2:39 you have to imagine this kind of uh
2:42 simple machine choreography occurring
2:45 inside the stomach which is normally wet
2:48 and dark and somewhat vulnerable. At the
2:50 same time, we also had a had to have an
2:54 endoscopic tube that tracked the
2:57 insertion uh into into the stomach uh uh cavity.
3:09 So the body here is performing as a
3:12 split body. Uh voltage in producing the
3:16 involuntary movements, voltage out uh
3:18 enabling it to control a mechanical manipulator.
3:26 This is a a six-legged walking robot.
3:30 And it's not only a a walking machine,
3:38 This was a project that was done in
3:41 Hamburg when I was doing a residency
3:44 there with the assistance of F18, a
3:46 group of artists and engineers. Uh it
3:51 took um all in all six months to
3:55 design, engineer and finally to perform
4:02 The more and more performances I do, the
4:03 less and less I think I have a mind of
4:06 my own, nor any mind at all in the
4:10 traditional metaphysical sense. So what
4:13 you see is what you get. uh a physical
4:17 body that's obsolete, empty, augmented
4:20 with technology and that performs
4:43 1 hour is
4:46 it's too little time. I mean 1 hour
4:49 should be enough but we need if there is
4:52 no problem if there is a problem we need
4:53 more than 1 hour.
4:57 Yeah. But what we need to do is to make
4:59 a fixed support
5:03 so that the robot can correctly use its
5:06 tilt sensor. Otherwise, it'll walk off
5:09 the off the edge of the plinth. you.
5:22 No.
5:25 Yeah, I can. Okay. It's okay for you.
5:27 This shadow is very nice, but we can't
5:30 [music] see it. You know, it's uh directly.
5:32 directly.
6:19 I was always interested in uh [screaming]
6:19 [screaming]
6:21 uh the evolutionary ary sort of
6:29 Always envious of athletes, singers,
6:33 dancers who use their own body as their
6:35 sort of medium of expression and experience.
6:36 experience. [applause and cheering]
6:37 [applause and cheering]
6:50 Hello. Nice to see you. moment for us.
6:53 Oh, a big moment for me, too. Excellent.
6:55 Excellent. [laughter]
6:55 [laughter]
6:57 Oh, that's even that's even a bigger moment.
7:13 The spectrum of opinion ranges from um
7:17 fascination to be amusement and to occasional
7:18 occasional
7:22 expressions of horror in that um you
7:26 know I might be slipping towards
7:41 Can I see your ear? Oh, yeah.
7:43 Oh, yes.
7:47 Oh, yeah. Is it an erotic area?
7:51 Oh, no. No, not really. No, no. The idea
7:53 with the extra ear was to construct a
7:56 soft prosthesis. I had already been
7:59 performing with a third hand, but I
8:02 wanted to have something uh engineered
8:05 on my body using my own skin. So, this
8:07 is only a relief of a near at the
8:10 moment. We still have to sort of lift
8:12 the helix to construct a conch that'll
8:16 involve a skin graft. And then using
8:18 adipo derived stem cells extracted from
8:21 my body, we're going to be growing a
8:24 soft earlobe. Uh so this will be a much
8:27 more convincing 3D structure uh of an
8:30 ear on an arm. Um and then we'll be able
8:34 to insert the uh electronics.
8:38 We would implant a small microphone that
8:42 connected to a wireless transmitter
8:45 uh would enable the ear to be internet
8:50 enabled within any Wi-Fi hotspot. So,
8:52 uh, you know, if you're in London and
8:55 I'm in Melbourne, Australia, you would
8:58 be able to hear what my ear is listening
9:02 to wherever you are and wherever I am.
9:05 If you call me on your cell phone,
9:07 I will be able to speak to you through
9:08 my ear.
9:12 But I will hear your voice in my head
9:15 because the receiver and speaker will be
9:19 inside my mouth. If I keep my mouth
9:22 closed, only I will hear your voice. If
9:26 I open my mouth, he will hear your voice
9:33 So, how how you would have
9:37 Well, the um ear project has always been
9:40 uh problematic not only with my friends
9:45 but also uh with my partners. Uh, I I
9:48 have to say that um I probably lost a
9:51 partner because of the um ear project
9:56 and joking that I was going to um insert
9:58 a fluorescent gene so it would glow in
10:01 the dark. [laughter]
10:05 But uh Nenah is much more understanding.
10:09 Uh we met actually in a morg. I saw her
10:12 carrying a human arm and I guess uh
10:15 that's why she first u attracted my
10:17 attention. Uh you know I'm kind of kind
10:21 of shy with um relationships but I guess
10:24 I didn't have much competition down
10:25 there. [laughter]
10:28 All the other bodies were somewhat stiff
10:31 and cold. [laughter] Yes.
10:32 Yes.
10:42 Well, certainly there have been no
10:47 regrets. I've um taken over 12 years to
10:50 try to realize this project. Certainly
10:52 undergoing two surgical procedures and
10:54 there'll be another one coming up with
10:58 stem cell work. It's going to involve um
11:01 more discomfort. I mean, you don't
11:04 recover in a few weeks. It takes months
11:07 to recover from the surgery and months
11:09 more before you're ready to do something
11:13 in addition. So, uh there'll be more
11:16 risks when we reinsert the microphone
11:20 and the electronics, which means that uh
11:23 there's no guarantee the project will be
11:34 [music]
11:38 critique about art and I we exchange
11:40 some email. I'd hope people [music]
11:44 become curious about what in actuality
11:47 is a body and how a body performs in the
11:50 world and what it means to be human and
11:53 is it really necessary to to operate as
11:57 if we are a self or a soul or a mind.
12:01 Aren't these rather medieval entities
12:03 [music] that we should just really do
12:06 without? These are outmoded metaphysical
12:09 assumptions from [music] Platonic to
12:11 cartisian to Freudian constructs of
12:16 internal essences. These really are not
12:20 necessary in terms of uh functioning in
12:40 Oh, it's a different It's a
13:03 I will remember. You said that when
13:06 robots take over the world. [laughter]
13:17 So I think if people kind of go away
13:19 asking more questions than having
13:23 received answers, then I'd be happy with
13:30 Yeah. [music]
13:37 Heat. [music]
