Exploits of the skin trade: the ascent of post-humanism

Stelarc deconstructs the body in the truest sense of the term, not as a critical or interpretive act performed upon it, but as a series of speculative interventions enacted from within embodiment itself. The philosophical work of deconstruction is concerned with avenir, that which is to come. It is this imminence, of the body as unfinished, a verbal, iterative state of becoming, which constitutes Stelarc's ongoing body of work. From the remotely actuated and internet driven, fractal flesh performances of the 1990s (Fractal Flesh, Ping Body & Parasite) to his most recent exploration of phantom flesh, Ear on Arm (2006-ongoing), Stelarc stretches the limits of anatomical architectures in response to the ambient conditions of remote sensing and mediated co-presence; habits that, for the human race, are rapidly becoming second nature.