Event: Stelarc – Contingent & Contestable Futures

STELARC – CONTINGENT AND CONTESTABLE FUTURES: DIGITAL NOISE, GLITCHES & CONTAMINATIONS

Synopsis: In the age of the chimera, uncertainty and ambivalence generate unexpected anxieties. The dead, the near-dead, the brain dead, the yet to be born, the partially living and synthetic life all now share a material and proximal existence, with other living bodies, microbial life, operational machines and executable and viral code. Digital objects proliferate, contaminating the human biome. Bodies become end effectors for other bodies in other places and for machines elsewhere, generating interactive loops and recursive choreographies. There was always a ghost in the machine, but not as a vital force that animates but rather as a fading attestation of the human.

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Agenda

5.45 – Meet, great, and eat.. pub food – it’s actually not bad! Feel free to come early to take advantage of the $8.50 pints from 4.00-6.00.
6.40 – Adam Ford – Introduction
6.50 – Stelarc – Talk: Contingent & Contestable Futures

Where: The Clyde Hotel (upstairs in function room) 385 Cardigan St, Carlton VIC 3053 – bring your appetite, there is a good menu: https://www.theclydehotel.com.au
When: Thursday July 25th – 5.45 onwards, though a few of us will be there earlier (say 5pm) to take advantage of the $8.50 pints (from 4pm onwards – if you say you are with STF you will get $8.50 pints all night)

*p.s. the event will likely be videoed – if you have any issues with being seen or heard on YouTube, please let us know.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Stelarc experiments with alternative anatomical architectures. His performances incorporate Prosthetics, Robotics, VR and Biotechnology. He is presently surgically constructing and augmenting an ear on his arm. In 1996 he was made an Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University and in 2002 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Monash University. In 2010 he was awarded the Ars Electronica Hybrid Arts Prize. In 2015 he received the Australia Council’s Emerging and Experimental Arts Award. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Ionian University, Corfu. His artwork is represented by Scott Livesey Galleries,
Melbourne. www.stelarc.org