[This text has been first published in Evi D. Sampanikou (ed.), Audiovisual Posthumanism, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017]
Introduction
Crossing the boundaries from Cyberpunk Fiction to Reality, Stelarc’s work moves gradually towards the realization of a vision: To investigate the interface between the actual and the virtual world, with the body acting seamlessly in mixed realities, and with an intelligent avatar that performs in the real world, with optical density and tactile experience. This idea, seems to permeate his experimentations with engineering, robotic and digital technology, and with artificial intelligence and biotechnology – from the Third Hand, Ping Body and Parasite, to the Exoskeleton. The Prosthetic Head has been engineered into a robotic version, which is the Articulated Head that gives a “physical and sculptural embodiment” to it. The delineated possibilities are well promising.
Stelarc, Ping body, the diagram (1996) (Courtesy of Stelarc)
Stelarc, Parasite, the diagram (1997) (Courtesy of Stelarc)
From Science Fiction to Reality
In the Cyberpunk science fiction novel Neuromancer (2) by William Gibson (3), the imaginary persons have the possibility of being physically tele-transported, from the Real World to Matrix (Cyberspace), a virtual space, technologically created. In 1990, six years after the first edition of Neuromancer, Cyberspace passed from the realm of Science Fiction to Reality, with the invention of World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee (4), who developed ARPANET (5), a 1969 application that was intended for military use and created the Medium that would determine the course of Post-Industrial Culture (6), introducing the planetary networking in real time, with a global net of personal computers.
Five years later (1995), the vision for sensory interactions of the physical body with cyberspace passed from Science Fiction to the Reality through art. The Aurstalian performer of Cypriot origins, Stelarc (Stelios Arcadiou) (7) achieved sensory interface between the body and the Internet, within the framework of his investigations for alternative and involuntary interactions, between the human body and the smart machine. Between 1995 and 1998, he created the performances Ping Body (November 1995) and Parasite for Invaded and Involuntary Body (1997, Ars Electronica Festival).
Stelarc states that:
The Ping Body performances produce a powerful inversion of the usual interface of the body to the Net. Instead of collective bodies determining the operation of the Internet, collective Internet activity moves the body. The Internet becomes not merely a mode of information transmission, but also a transducer, effecting physical action.(8)
In the Parasite for Invaded and Involuntary Body, the body is again (physically and electronically) connected with the Internet, but, as Stelarc states:
Parasite will scale up not only the body’s musculature but also its optical and acoustical input. Search engines have been constructed that will, during the performance, scan, select and display bits of images and bits of sound – providing an extended and artificial sensory Internet input for the body.(9)
Bearing in mind the above developments, I organized a two-day event entitled “From Science Fiction to Reality”(10) at the Hellenic American Union of Athens in April 2007. Guests were Stelarc and Bruce Sterling (11), a Science Fiction author and a leader of cyberpunk culture since 1982, who – along with William Gibson – formed the first cyberpunk literature cycle. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Michalis Meimaris (12).
Stelarc, Fractal Flesh, the diagram (1995) (Courtesy of Stelarc)
Redesigning the Physical Body
Stelarc (Stelios Arcadiou), the Australian artist of Cypriot origins and professor of Performance, began to use technology in his work when he was still a student in the late 1960s. In his performances, he uses as “canvas” his own body, whose radical redesign he explores using various technologies (13). His goal is to investigate alternative, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body, which he considers obsolete:
Through Stelarc’s work, we reach a second level of existence where the body becomes the object for physical and technical experiments in order to discover its limitations. When Stelarc speaks of the “obsolete body” he means that the body must overcome centuries of prejudices and begin to be considered as an extendible evolutionary structure enhanced with the most disparate technologies, which are more precise, accurate and powerful: ‘the body lacks of modular design’, ‘Technology is what defines the meaning of being human, it’s part of being human.’ Especially living in the information age, ‘the body is biologically inadequate’.(14)
The media he uses to propose in practice are alternative anatomical architectures for the physical body, applications of engineering, robotics, digital technology, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. For some of his projects, he notes that they are under construction, leaving open the possibility they may develop further, towards directions that he plans to realize later.
Interfaces Between Virtual and Real Space
Stelarc first mentions the vision to create an intelligent avatar that will act in real world, in an interview he gave to Ioanna Zylinska and Gary Hall in 2002. Referring to his performance of the Exoskeleton (15), he clarifies:
But what’s interesting for me is not simply going more and more virtual but rather exploring the interface between the actual and the virtual. I’m trying to investigate whether a physical body can function in a virtual immersive environment and whether an intelligent avatar might be able to perform in the real world by possessing a physical body. (author’s translation) (16).
It was in 2005, when I was planning the international group art show “In Vivo-In Vitro” (17) in the art hall “Factory” at Athen’s School of Fine Arts; in a communication with Stelarc for his participation, he had proposed the video document from the process of the creation of the Extra Ear – ¼ Scale be placed next to interactive video installation of the Prosthetic Head.
The Prosthetic Head (18) is:
An automated, animated and reasonably informed artificial head that speaks to the person who interrogates it. The Prosthetic Head project is a 3D avatar head (19), somewhat resembling the artist that has real time lip-synching, speech synthesis and facial expressions. Head nods, head tilts and head turns as well as changing eye gaze contribute to the personality of the agent and the non-verbal cues it can provide. It is a conversational system which can be said to be only as intelligent as the person who is interrogating it.
Stelarc, Extra Ear – ¼ Scale. Snapshot from the final quarter ear, using living cells. It was realized in collaboration with SymbioticA, at the University of Western Australia, in Perth and with Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of the the Tissue Culture and Art Project. (Courtesy of Stelarc)
This Avatar is an ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), a conversational system that interacts and derives answers from an enriched data base. The Extra Ear – ¼ Scale (20) is a 1/4 scale replica of artist’s ear, grown using human cells in a rotating micro-gravity bioreactor, in collaboration with Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of Tissue Culture & Art. This is a technique used to detect in order to realize the later Ear on Arm (21).
Planning the exhibition tour, I realized that the proximity itself of the two exhibit projects–the artificial intelligence (the Prosthetic Head) and the document of the tissue culture for a live limb (the Extra Ear – ¼ Scale) – was generating a bold question that could be on the fringes of Science Fiction:
Might an interactive semi-living sculpture be created by the coexistence of an artificial intelligence (AI) that acts on the Internet and a robot that acts in the physical space, having as a shell skin that “feels”?
Stelarc, Partial Head. A partial portrait of the artist, which was partially living. Its life-support system was a custom engineered bioreactor/incubator and circulatory system which immersed the head in nutrient kept at 37° Celsius. It was realizes in collaboration with TC&A (Oron Catts AND Ionat Zurr) (Courtesy of Stelarc)
The above hypothesis began to take a concrete but different direction when later, as part of our correspondence, Stelarc raised two issues:
1) Is it possible to create optical density and tactile experience in performance with Avatar?
2) Could the body act seamlessly in Mixed Reality, with mechanical and virtual systems?
For the present chapter, I am based on the comparative study of his selected works. The selection was made on the grounds of redesigning and extending the physical body, on the one hand, by using robotics and biotechnology for the members of the body, on the other hand, by using artificial intelligence and digital technology for the verbal interaction between human and intelligent machine. Along the way, it seemed that Stelarc’s seemingly disconnected projects are closely related and then, like links in the same chain of reasoning lead to the idea of interactive symbiosis of the physical body with its prostheses and its extensions, in the Mixed Reality.
Stelarc, Prosthetic Head The 3D model (Courtesy of Stelarc)
On the one hand, the extension of the able-bodied physical body with robotic prosthetics and its evolution in system of body και attached machine in the real space begins with the Third Hand (22), a mechanical human-like hand that is attached to the artist’s right arm as an additional hand and culminates with the Exoskeleton (23), a six-legged, pneumatically powered walking machine, constructed for the body.
On the other hand, we have the series of “Heads” by Stelarc, self-portraits which also form a chain: While “a 3D avatar head, somewhat resembling the artist” was being designed that would be the virtual reality of the Prosthetic Head (24),Stelarc was inspired from the image of the flattened digital skin that was made for the PH, the project Partial Head:
The artist’s face was scanned, as was a hominid skull. The human face was then digitally transplanted over the hominid skull, constructing a THIRD FACE, one that becomes post-hominid and pre-human in form. The data was used to print a scaffold of ABSi thermal plastic, using a 3D printer. The scaffold was seeded with living cells.(25)
It is a “partial portrait” of the artist, in a life-support system (bioreactor/incubator). The PH was contaminated after one week, and was preserved in formaldehyde for the remaining time of the exhibition. The Prosthetic Head acquired its robotic “body” in real space, when the Articulated Head was created.
The AH system consists of an industrial robot arm (Fanuc LR Mate 200ic) with a 17 inch LCD mounted on the end effecter. The LCD screen displays a 3D rendering of a head (Prosthetic Head) that resembles the artist Stelarc. The system also contains an array of sensors including auditory localisation, stereo vision and monocular vision that provide situational awareness for the robotic ‘agent’. The complete system is driven by a novel ‘attention model’, an algorithmic implementation that emulates simple brain functions. The system is driven by a component-based software architecture. (26)
This robotic system models the behaviour of “an active listener” engaged in interaction with other human agents. It is worth noting that the creation of Walking Head preceded as a work in progress; it is a 6- legged autonomous walking robot:
Vertically mounted on its chassis is an LCD screen imaging a computer generated human-like head. The LCD screen can rotate from side to side. The robot has a scanning ultra-sound sensor that detects the presence of a person in front of it. It sits still until someone comes into the gallery space- then it stands, selects from a set of movements from its library of pre-programmed motions and performs the choreography. It then stops and waits until it detects someone else. (27)
From Movatar to Prosthetic Head
Let us examine the first issue: Is it possible to create optical density and tactile experience in performance with Avatar? In 2003, Stelarc presented Movatar, an intelligent avatar in virtual reality, which is able to act in real world, linked with the physical body and activating it:
Consider, though, a virtual body or an avatar that can access a physical body, actuating its performance in the real world. If the avatar is imbued with an artificial intelligence, becoming increasingly autonomous and unpredictable, then it would become more an AL (Artificial Life) entity performing with a human body in physical space. (28)
This artificial intelligence that would become “increasingly autonomous and unpredictable” I realized that was materialized in the Prosthetic Head that he set out in 2003 the same year that he presented the Movatar. Moreover, in the performance with the Movatar, we find that the avatar – a technological entity of virtual reality that is linked with electrodes on the performer’s body – controls it, thus obtaining this optical density and tactile experience in real space.
The 3D animated avatar Prosthetic Head (29) that has incorporated algorithms (30) is, as Stelarc states:
A conversational system which can be said to be only as intelligent as the person who is interrogating it. There is an attempt to make the Prosthetic Head more creative in its responses. It has embedded algorithms that enable it to generate novel poetry and singing each time it is asked.
Actually (2010), Prosthetic Head has:
An ultra-sound sensor system that alerts it of the user’s presence, enabling it to initiate a conversation. With a vision system, The Prosthetic Head will also be able to detect the color of the user’s clothing and be able to analyze the user’s behaviour. This information would then be used by the Prosthetic Head to make its conversation more interactive and convincing. (31)
It would be interesting if at a later stage could Prosthetic Head, Movatar, and performer’s body be combined in the same interactive net in order to accomplish the vision for an Artificial Life that act in the real world through physical body.
Stelarc, Amplified Body (Performance). A performance with industrial robot, medical devices and virtual reality support. (Courtesy of Stelarc)
From the Prosthetic Head to the Articulated Head
Let us now examine the second issue posed by Stelarc: could the body act seamlessly in Mixed Reality, with mechanical and virtual systems? As Mixed Reality is defined “the merging of real and virtual worlds, which we refer to generically as Mixed Reality” (32). We saw that the robotic version of the virtual Prosthetic Head for the real world is the Articulated Head project that is described by the artist as follows:
Recent developments have led to the Articulated Head, with a six-degree-of-freedom industrial robot arm. An attention model for the Articulated Head (THAMBS – Thinking Head Attention Model and Behavioural System), was developed with the Head able to perform vision tracking and sound location. Its active perception enables it to adapt to its environment and people it is interacting with. (33)
The artistic installation Articulated Head “was conceived as the next step in the evolution of Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) transcending virtual reality into the physical space shared with the human interlocutor” (34). He also notes that:
The system also contains an array of sensors including auditory localisation, stereo vision and monocular vision that provide situational awareness for the robotic ‘agent’. The complete system is driven by a novel ‘attention model’, an algorithmic implementation that emulates simple brain functions. (35)
As Stelarc notes, after the Articulated Head project have been engineered, the virtual Prosthetic Head acquires an articulated neck in the real world:
With the Articulated Head, the agent is given a physical and sculptural embodiment”, states Stelarc and continues that “The Head is displayed on an LCD screen that is attached at the end of a 6 degree-of-freedom industrial robot arm, giving it an articulated neck. The virtual behaviour of the agent is now augmented by the physical motion of the robot system generating a more seductive aesthetic experience. We can now more effectively test the sound location and visual tracking of the system that is part of an attention model that allows the Head to interact with more than one person at a time. (36)
It is worth noting that the Articulated Head project is part of a wider “Thinking Head Project”, funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) between 2006 and 2011 (37).
Stelarc, Prosthetic Head. A 3D avatar head, modeled after the artist, that has real time lip-synching, speech synthesis and facial expressions. (Courtesy of Stelarc)
The Promising Possibilities
The Articulated Head project indicates the way to body’s perspective to act seamlessly in Mixed Reality, with mechanical and virtual systems. A prerequisite is body’s connection with the Articulated Head and Prosthetic Head system. At this point it should be recalled the methods used by Stelarc, for connecting the body to the virtual reality in Ping Body, Parasite for Invaded and Involuntary Body and Movatar.
In 2015, Stelarc had already made performance entitled Body on Robot Arm, wherein his body attached on the robotic arm is allowed to pivot in all directions, being still under developers’ watchful supervision, since in that phase there were serious safety issues, if the body is connected with muscles and its motor control is left with this robot (38).
Apart from issues on the operation and expansion of the Articulated Head, at this point the issue of its form, its nature and the limits of its interfaces arises. Apart from the view of connecting the body with the Robot-Artificial Life system, let us consider, with the reductio ad absurdum, the hypothesis of the cohabitation of an intelligent robotic system with living biological material: If we could build alive biological shell (artificial skin) from cultured cells for a robot (Articulated Head) connected with artificial life (Prosthetic Head), then we would have got a semi living avatar with visual optical density and tactile experience to act seamlessly in Mixed Reality.
Stelarc, Walking Head Robot. A 2 m diameter 6-legged autonomous walking robot with a scanning ultra-sound sensor that detects the presence of a person in front of it. Vertically mounted on its chassis is an LCD screen that can rotate from side to side. It is imaging a computer generated human-like head. (Courtesy of Stelarc)
At this point, speaking about living biological material, we are in the field of Bioart, Biotechnology and in particular, the tissue culture. The bio artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr from the University of Western Australia, inspired by earlier research on living tissue culture (1910-1950), moved to the creation of Victimless Leather (skin without killing the animal) from tissue culture that is kept alive for a limited period of time within the bioreactor in 2003. (39) (40)
Stelarc worked with them to create the Extra Ear – ¼ Scale, which was launched in 2003. We should bear in mind that Biotechnology is also used in the creation of both Partial Head and Ear on Arm (awarded the Golden Nica, Hybrid Art category, Ars Electronica, 2010), which is a soft prosthesis from his own cultured tissue in the form of ear and which was incorporated surgically in his left forearm. So far, a semi living sculpture that is created with the aid of Biotechnology can only survive in special circumstances and for a limited period of time, unless it is transplanted into a histocompatible physical body. The cultured tissue cannot remain alive indefinitely and autonomously, outside the device that provides the necessary conditions, nutrients, and protection from infections that would lead to its death in the natural environment.
Therefore, the hypothesis of creating of a living biological shell for robot remains only the prospect of the use of synthetic skin, a material to which Stelarc referred in his early writings on Absent Bodies. More specifically, in the 6th paragraph entitled The Shedding Skin, related to the prospect for the survival of the physical body in the Space, outside planet earth, he notes – with capital letters – that a “hollow body” would be a better host for the technological components that would consist of (41).
If we could engineer a Synthetic Skin which could absorb oxygen directly through its pores and could efficiently convert light into chemical nutrients, we could radically redesign the body, eliminating many of its redundant systems and malfunctioning organs – minimizing toxin build-up in its chemistry. (42)
Stelarc, Articulated Head 2010. Interactive Robot-Art Installation. The intention is to develop a robotic system that will model behaviour of “an active listener” engaged in interaction with other human agents. (2010) (Courtesy of Stelarc)
As far as the creation of Artificial Skin for an avatar that has optical density and tactile experience act seamlessly in Mixed Reality, we would have to move our expectations from Biotechnology to Nanotechnology. Scientific research into Synthetic Skin has resulted in a number of very interesting proposals. Indicatively: in 2010, a publication in Nature Materials presented the results of two research teams of Berkeley that created artificial skin that “feels” by using Nanotechnology (43). In 2014, there was published research into various techniques that are internationally used by research groups in applications of artificial skin that “feels” (44). Finally, in 2015, in Scientific American there was published an article on artificial skin that can send touch signals by using sensors in nerve cells, so that whoever bears the prosthetic member with synthetic leather coating can perceive external stimuli (45).
One of the major reasons that have led to the need of redesigning and expanding human bodily functions is the prospect of survival in conditions of the outer Space. This proposal / hypothesis had already formulated theoretically in 1960 by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline, entitled “Cyborgs and Space” in the pre-publication of their presentation:
Altering man’s bodily functions to meet the requirements of extraterrestrial environments would be more logical than providing an earthly environment for him in space… Artifact-organism systems which would extend man’s unconscious, self-regulatory controls are one possibility. (46)
A different proposal/hypothesis from that of the evolution of cyborg, Dr Louis Friedman, an aerospace engineer, formulated in his last book(47), which was released in November 2015: he is convinced that the exploration of Space will continue in the future, but the manned missions will stop in the Mars. As he notes on his website:
The future for humans in space is to become a multi-planet species with no existential threat (though, possibly, with still many catastrophic ones) living physically on two planets (Earth and Mars) and exploring the universe mentally on many others, learning about life within ourselves and in the universe.” In brief, he states: “That is that the human physical presence will not go beyond Mars, but that our evolving technologies will extend the human presence to the end of and even beyond our solar system, interacting with the Universe without ‘being there’”. (48)
Stelarc, Split Body:Voltage-in / Voltage-out. Body’s physicality is split: voltage-in to induce involuntary movements from its net-connected computer muscle stimulation system, and voltage-out to actuate peripheral devices and to respond to remote transmissions. Performance at Galerie Kapelica in Ljubljana, Slovenia. (1996) (Courtesy of Stelarc)
Looking at Stelarc’s work so far, one can only feel surprise felt by reading comments on Louis Friedman’s book by the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of the American Museum of Natural History, who notes: “Most books about our future in space are written by dreamers. But Human Spaceflight: From Mars to the Stars is written by an aerospace engineer, Dr. Louis Friedman”. (49)
But who can overlook that if the future of Humanity in Space shows promising nowadays, this is due to par excellence transdisciplinary collaborations among visionaries from the fields of Science, Philosophy, Art and Technology, be forwarded in support of the famous quote by Albert Einstein: “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination”?
References
(1) Anna Hatziyiannaki https://www.linkedin.com/in/annahatziyiannaki
(2) Dany Cavallaro, Cyberpunk and Cyberculture-Science Fiction and the work of William Gibson, ed. The Athlone Press, London, 2000 (retrieved 21/9/15) https://is.muni.cz/www/175193/25476916/Cyberpunk_and_Cyberculture__Science_Fiction_and_the_Work.pdf (retrieved 21/9/15)
(3) William Gibson, Neuromancer, Publisher. Aquarius (Athens), 1989, (William Gibson, Neuromancer, Ace Books, 1984)
(4) Tim Berners-Lee, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/berners_lee_tim.shtml (retrieved 21/9/15)
(5) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, A History of the Arpanet-The First Decade, http://ipj.dreamhosters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/A-History-of-the-ARPANet.pdf (retrieved 21/9/15)
(6) Kristopher Kyle Robison and Edward M. Crenshaw, Post-industrial transformations and cyber-space: a cross-national analysis of Internet development Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 N.Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA, 2002
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Edward_Crenshaw/publication/222578217_Post-industrial_transformations_and_cyber-space_a_cross-national_analysis_of_Internet_development/links/02e7e5304e0db9a14e000000.pdf (retrieved 21/9/15)
(7) Stelarc, “Biography” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20239 (retrieved 21/9/15)
(8) Stelarc, “Ping Body, an Internet Actuated & Uploaded Performance”, Media Art Net, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/ping-body/ (retrieved 21/9/15)
(9) Stelarc, “Parasite: Event for Invaded & Involuntary Body” (1997) http://woodstreetgalleries.org/portfolio-view/parasite-event-for-invaded-involuntary-body/ (retrieved 21/9/15)
(10) From Science Fiction, to Reality http://www.hau.gr/?i=culture.en.past_event&itemCode=stelarc_sterling (retrieved 21/9/15)
(11) Bruce Sterling, Encyclopaedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/biography/Bruce-Sterling (retrieved 21/9/15)
(12) Departement of Communication & Media Studies at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens http://en.media.uoa.gr/human-resources/members-of-teaching-and-research-staff/meimaris-michalis.html (retrieved 20/10/15)
(13) Video, Amplified Body, by Stelarc, at V2_ (1994) https://vimeo.com/44181542 (retrieved 20/10/15)
(14) Paolo Atzori and Kirk Woolford, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Germany, “Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc, Introduction”, 3rd paragraph, CTheory.net, 9/6/1995, http://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/stelarc/a29-extended_body.html (retrieved 21/9/15)
(15) Stelarc, “Exoskeleton” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20227 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2MntBUwUxY
(16) Joanna Zylinska and Gary Hall (2002) “Probings: an Interview with Stelarc” (with G. Hall), in The Cyborg Experiments: the Extensions of the Body in the Media Age, 6th paragraph, ed. Joanna Zylinska (London and New York: Continuum), pp. 114-130. [author’s self-archived manuscript] http://www.joannazylinska.net/probings-interview-with-stelar/
(17) In Vivo-In Vitro http://www.artopos.org/main-gr.html (retrieved 21/9/15)
(18) Stelarc, “Prosthetic Head” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20241 (retrieved 21/9/15)
(19) Avatar, Digital Technology, a graphical image that represents a person, as on the Internet http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/avatar (retrieved 21/9/15)
(20) Stelarc, “Extra Ear – ¼ Scale”, http://stelarc.org/?catID=20240 (retrieved 21/9/15)
(21) Stelarc, “Ear on Arm” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242 (retrieved 12/9/15)
(22) Stelarc, “Third Hand” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20265 (1980, Yokohama) (retrieved 12/9/15)
(23) Stelarc, “Exoskeleton”, http://stelarc.org/?catID=20227 (1998, Kampnagel Hamburg) (retrieved 21/9/15)
(24) Stelarc, “Prosthetic Head” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20241 (retrieved 21/9/15)
(25) Stelarc, “Partial Head” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20243 (Heide Museum of Modern Art, 18 July- 29 October, 2006) (retrieved 21/9/15)
(26) “Articulated Head”, part of Thinking Head Project, http://roboticart.org/ah/index.html (retrieved 30/9/15)
(27) Stelarc, “Walking Head Robot”, http://stelarc.org/?catID=20244 (2006) (retrieved 25/9/15)
(28) Stelarc, “Inverse Motion Capture System”, 3d paragraph http://stelarc.org/?catID=20225 (retrieved 25/9/15)
(29) Video, Stelarc, Avatars Have No Organs, Prosthetic Head (2003) https://vimeo.com/28751467 (retrieved 21/9/15)
(30) Tech Terms, Algorithm: “An algorithm is a set of instructions designed to perform a specific task. This can be a simple process, such as multiplying two numbers, or a complex operation, such as playing a compressed video file.” http://techterms.com/definition/algorithm (retrieved 21/9/15)
(31) Stelarc, “Prosthetic Head” (1st paragraph) http://stelarc.org/?catID=20241 (retrieved 21/9/15)
(32) (1. Introduction–Mixed Reality), Paul Milgram, Fumio Kishino, IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays, Vol E77-D, No.12 December 1994 http://etclab.mie.utoronto.ca/people/paul_dir/IEICE94/ieice.html
(33) Stelarc, “Prosthetic Head”, HUMAN+ The future of our species https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/humanplus/prosthetic-head/
(34) Stelarc Stelarc, “The Articulated Head pays attention”, Academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/6172195/The_Articulated_Head_pays_attention
(35) “Articulated Head and Ear on Arm: Alternate Anatomical Architectures”, (case study, Brunel University (H0113) http://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies2/refservice.svc/GetCaseStudyPDF/12521
(36) Stelarc, “From Prosthetic Head to Articulated Head: Designing Alternate Embodiments for Artificial Agents” Tuesday 09/02/2010 1:00pm-2:00pm Location: Howell Building, Room H313 Speaker: Stelarc, University of Western Sydney, Australia/Brunel University, School of Arts
http://hcdi.brunel.ac.uk/seminardetails.aspx?sid=4
(37) “Articulated Head” http://roboticart.org/ah/index.html
(38) “Laura Gartry, Perth artist Stelarc takes ride on $80,000 robotic arm in ‘jarring’ performance”, abc.net.au, 1st October 2015 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-01/perth-performance-artist-stelarc-takes-ride-on-giant-robot-arm/6820464
(39)Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, “Growing Semi-Living Sculptures: The Tissue Culture & Art Project”, March 2001, Leonardo journal http://www.leonardo.info/isast/articles/catts.zurr.pdf (retrieved 21/9/15) & (40)
(40)Oron Cutts and Ionat Zurr, “Towards a new class of being –the extended Body”, Artnodes, 2006 http://www.uoc.edu/artnodes/6/dt/eng/catts_zurr.pdf
(41)Stelarc, “Absent Bodies, The Shedding Skin”, “The Hollow Body would be a better host for technological components”. http://stelarc.org/?catID=20317
(42) “The Hollow Body would be a better host for technological components”. Stelarc, “Absent Bodies, The Shedding Skin” http://stelarc.org/?catID=20317
(43) Kuniharu Takei, Toshitake Takahashi, Johnny C. Ho, Hyunhyub Ko, Andrew G. Gillies, Paul W. Leu, Ronald S. Fearing and Ali Javey, “Nanowire active-matrix circuitry for low-voltage macroscale artificial skin”, Nature Materials, 12 September 2010, DOI:10.1038/NMAT283
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Johnny_Ho2/publication/46220748_Nanowire_Active-matrix_Circuitry_for_Low-voltage_Macroscale_Artificial_Skin/links/02bfe50ca8bb99d2ed000000.pdf (retrieved 20/10/15).
(44) Dragos George, “A Step Closer to Humans – Artificial Skin for Robots”, Smashingrobotics.com, May 17, 2014 http://www.smashingrobotics.com/a-step-closer-to-humans-artificial-skin-for-robots/
(45) Celia Henry Arnaud and Chemical & Engineering News, Scientific American, “Artificial Skin Sends Touching Signals to Nerve Cells, Sensors transmit pressure changes to neurons and could help prosthetic limbs truly feel”, October 20, 2015
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/artificial-skin-sends-touching-signals-to-nerve-cells/
(46) Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline, “Cyborgs and space”, pag. 26, Rocland State Hospital, Orangeburg, N. Y, Astronautics, September 1960 http://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/Documents/Chapter1/cyborgs.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,-94,744
(47) Louis Friedman, “Human Space Flight – From Mars to the Stars” (November 2015) The University of Arizona Press https://louisdfriedman.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/book-flyer.pdf
(48) Louis D. Friedman, “The Future of Human Space Exploration” http://louisdfriedman.com/the-future-of-human-space-exploration/
(49) Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History” https://louisdfriedman.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/book-flyer.pdf
Comments are closed