So-called “performance artist” Stelarc whom I first discovered through Andy Clark’s Natural Born Cyborgs (reviewed here) has implanted a “third ear” in his own arm. Apparently the ear will have a microphone implanted to allow others to listen to what his extra ear picks up. It looks like an ear but will it function like an ear? Of course not – the outer ear is not the most important functional aspect of the ear. Sound would have to be encoded to travel through the auditory nerve and the brain-stem until the information reaches the thalamus, and ultimately the cortex. If this is not a possibility, why not just implant a microphone in the arm a la Kevin Warwick? But again, without the full functionality of an inner ear, what’s the point?
The best photographs can be found in that dreadful rag The Daily Mail.
Whatever the aesthetic merits of Stelarc’s work may be, what should be of interest to cognitive scientists and embodiment theorists and extended mind theorists in particular, is the technical implementation of proposals that would be prohibited by any medical experiment protocol. Perhaps this is where Stelarc’s artistry comes in.
Two interviews with Stelarc can be found here:
manwithoutqualities 