psychoceramics: http://www.merlin.com.au/stelarc/

["Michael T. Richter" <mtr @ igs.net>]

Stelarc (http://www.merlin.com.au/stelarc/) is probably the most
avant-garde (read: lunatic) artist in the world.  A quote from his
biographical information:

"Stelarc is a performance artist who is interested in alternate aesthetic
strategies. He has used medical, robot and virtual reality systems to
explore, extend and enhance the body's performance parameters. In the past
he has acoustically and visually probed the body - amplifying his
brainwaves, heartbeat, bloodflow and muscle signals and filming the inside
of his lungs, stomach and colon."

Mmm...  Colon as art...

>From a section on the web page entitled "Obsolete Body", we get:

"It is time to question whether a bipedal, breathing body with binocular
vision and a 1400cc brain is an adequate biological form. It cannot cope
with the quantity, complexity and quality of information it has
accumulated; it is intimidated by the precision, speed and power of
technology and it is biologically ill-equipped to cope with its new
extraterrestrial environment. 

"The body is neither a very efficient nor very durable structure. It
malfunctions often and fatigues quickly; its performance is determined by
its age. It is susceptible to disease and is doomed to a certain and early
death. Its survival parameters are very slim - it can survive only weeks
without food, days without water and minutes without oxygen. 

"The body's LACK OF MODULAR DESIGN and its overactive immunological system
make it difficult to replace malfunctioning organs. It might be the height
of technological folly to consider the body obsolete in form and function ,
yet it might be the height of human realisations. For it is only when the
body becomes aware of its present position that it can map its
post-evolutionary strategies.

"It is no longer a matter of perpetuating the human species by
REPRODUCTION, but of enhancing male-female intercourse by human-machine
interface. THE BODY IS OBSOLETE. We are at the end of philosophy and human
physiology. Human thought recedes into the human past."

This guy is truly worthy of addition to any kooks or psychoceramics
archive.

--
Michael T. Richter
m--@i--.net
http://www.igs.net/~mtr/