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Explore the intersection of technology and human corporeality in this 55-minute conference talk by renowned performance artist Stelarc, one of the most influential contemporary artists working with technological body modification since the 1980s. Delve into how digital technologies enable new forms of embodiment where the human body increasingly becomes an interface between biological, mechanical, and virtual realities. Examine Stelarc's artistic experiments that create provocative future scenarios always containing elements of the unforeseen, including his internationally acclaimed work with robotic limbs, remote muscle stimulation, spectacular suspension performances, and his groundbreaking "Third Ear" project involving a lab-grown ear implanted in his arm. Gain insights into his current research and fundamental considerations about the technical extension of bodies, as he presents his vision of alternative corporealities multiplying, alternative intelligences emerging, machines becoming more autonomous, and bodies becoming technical. Understand his concept of existing "in excess" - oscillating between the biological, mechanical, and virtual in both near and distant spaces, functioning as an extended operative system with distributed senses and expanded agency. Consider his perspective on digital existence within a flattened ontology of interacting algorithms, machines, instruments, networks, microorganisms, and other bodies, objects, and images where humans are not privileged, revealing the connectivity of the human body as an interface. Discover how artists create contested future visions - possibilities that can be performed, questioned, evaluated, possibly appropriated, but most likely discarded, emphasizing that a future without contingency is no future, and a future must include the unexpected.
