Held on the 13th Apr 2022
at 12:30pm to
2pm
, Northern Tasmania
University of Tasmania Library, Invermay Campus 2 Invermay Road Launceston, TAS 7248
Summary:Internationally acclaimed performance artist Stelarc discusses embodiment, perception, presence, space and performance.
Presenter(s):
- Stelarc
- Julian Worrall - Professor of Architecture, UTAS
Stelarc - Body Works
Stelarc is among the most prominent of Australian artists working internationally. For fifty years his work has been traversing the intersections of art, performance, technology, and media, using his own body as his principal medium and instrument.
From the early suspension pieces, in which his naked body was suspended from hooks, to his recent cyborg assemblages of sensors, grafts and prostheses, Stelarc probes the nature of our embodiment and embeddedness within the matrix of our constructed world.
At our present ‘post-human’ juncture, in which the category of the human has been blurred and smeared from the natural to the digital, Stelarc’s body works continue to provoke and illuminate.
Stelarc’s presentation will include a conversation with UTAS Professor of Architecture, Julian Worrall, followed by audience Q&A.
- All are welcome. Tickets are FREE but registrations essential as seating is limited.
- From 15th January 2022, anyone coming to our campuses, facilities and events is required to be fully vaccinated or have an exemption.
- Masks must be worn in indoor public settings, including all university venues, from 12:01am, Tuesday 21 December 2021.
This event is a joint production of the School of Architecture and Design, the School of Creative Arts and Media, and the Library and Cultural Collections at the University of Tasmania. Presented in partnership with Launceston College.
About the Speakers
Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He has made three films of the inside of his body. Between 1976-1988 he completed 26 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to engineer intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He explores Alternate Anatomical Architectures with augmented and extended body constructs.
He has performed with a THIRD HAND, an EXTENDED ARM, a VIRTUAL ARM, a STOMACH SCULPTURE and EXOSKELETON, a 6-legged walking robot. His FRACTAL FLESH, PING BODY and PARASITE performances explored involuntary, remote and internet choreography of the body with electrical stimulation of the muscles. His PROSTHETIC HEAD is an embodied conversational agent that speaks to the person who interrogates it. He is surgically constructing an EXTRA EAR on his arm that will be internet enabled, making it a publicly accessible acoustical organ for people in other places. He is presently performing as his avatar from his SECOND LIFE site.
Julian Worrall took up the position of Professor of Architecture at the University of Tasmania in 2019. He is a prominent exponent of urban and architectural innovation sourced in the study of the built environments of East Asia, particularly those of Japan, with an international career spanning scholarly research and education, critical writing, and design practice.
