Performance artists have always been a mystery to me. I am almost always completely baffled about what they do and why they do it. Stelarc, an Australian-based perfomance artist, has just served to baffle me even more and feel really queasy to boot.

Stelarc, in collaboration with SymbiotcA at Univesity of Western Australia and with Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of the Tissue Culture and Art Project, has succeeded in the Extra Ear Project. Success simply means they have been that a cultured ear has been attached to Stelarc’s left arm. Why anyone would want to have an ear on their left arm is something I just cannot comprehend but apparently it makes perfect sense to Stelarc. According to his website his work “explores and extends the concepts of the body and its relationship with technology through…prosthetics…and the internet.” Not surprisingly the project faced some ethical issues since some consider the ear as partially alive and there goes all the whole mess about life, genetics, and boundaries.

Far from being rattled Stelarc is actually planning on making some improvements including making the ear more defined and implanting a microphone inside the ear. The microphone in the ear is meant to record what the ear “hears”. Everything that the ear hears will be sent to a computer a Bluetooth transmitter. It is said that the recordings will be made available for your “listening pleasure” on the internet.