The Extra Ear of the Other: On Listening to Stelarc
The ear, as Jacques Derrida poignantly observes, is uncanny: it is double in more than one sense. First of all, it is always that of the other (ear). The ear can also be open and closed at the same time. The only organ that cannot voluntarily shut itself, it always remains ready to hear, to receive, even if its “owner” is not actively listening. The very possibility of speaking and writing, and thus of communicating, exchanging and, more generally, of being with others comes from the ear. But what happens when the ear wanders down from the side of one’s head to one’s arm – as it does in the Australian artist Stelarc’s most recent art project, Extra Ear: Ear on Arm (2006-07) – and when it mutates from a receiving to a transmitting organ? Stelarc’s Extra Ear mimics the actual ear in shape and external structure but, rather than merely hearing, it will wirelessly transmit sounds to the Internet, thus becoming a remote listening device. The Extra Ear inevitably draws in the observer’s eye; it attracts a curious gaze while also encouraging a cross-sensual exchange between bodies and organs which goes beyond the functionalism of information exchange. But what is Stelarc trying to say with this Extra Ear? And what would it mean to really h-ear him, and respond to him?
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