Prof. Stelarc has an ear on his arm, which he has grown for the “sake of art,” according to WPTV 5. The award-winning Australian performance artist and professor decided to grow a third ear on his forearm and underwent a surgical procedure to affix the ear (which was partially created out of biocompatible material, and partially cell grown) to his arm. After the transplant, Stelarc’s body — tissue and blood vessels — actually morphed the ear into a real and functioning body part.
“It’s when art is surprising that it becomes interesting. Because it’s generating that anxiety, that uncertainty and that ambivalence and reaction that makes the body re-examine the world,” said Stelarc.
Interestingly enough, Stelarc wants the ear on his arm to do a lot more than get people’s attention because of how it looks. He now has plans to give his arm ear an ear lobe using his own stem cells. According to KCCI 8 Des Moines, Stelarc wants to implant a Wi-Fi enabled microphone inside the ear lobe so that people all over the world can “hear” him whenever they want. And while you may think that a person wouldn’t want to be heard all the time, Stelarc doesn’t seem to be worrying about it at the moment. He’s taking things one step at a time and is focused on taking his third ear to the next level.
“This ear is not for me, I’ve got two good ears to hear with. So wherever you are and wherever I am in the world you’ll be able to listen in to what my ear is hearing. I never imagined this having an on-off switch. For me the project is not interesting until the ear is electronically augmented,” Stelarc explained.
Stelarc, an Alternate Anatomies Lab at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, grew an ear on his arm as a way to “explore people’s changing relationship with technology,” something that he is very passionate about.
If you are fascinated by Stelarc’s ability to grow an ear on his forearm, you will also enjoy reading this story . It’s about a man in China who had a nose grown on his forehead. As previously reported by the Inquisitr , the 22-year-old man needed a new nose because his existing nose was “infected and deformed,” which was left that way after an accident. Doctors decided to put a “skin tissue expander” on the man’s forehead and ended up growing his new nose right on his face. They had planned to transplant the new nose to the correct location. Photos of him went viral back in 2013.
As Stelarc seems to point out effortlessly, the human body is quite amazing and is capable of doing things that are pretty incredible.
[Photo via YouTube]
