artforms:
Performance

science engagements:
Robotics
Virtual Reality

science partners:
RMIT Advanced Computer Graphics Centre
SMART Lab, University of Washington, USA
Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne

project description:

Stelarc utilises medical, robotic and virtual reality systems in his performances to explore, extend and enhance the parameters of the body. Working with scientists and medical practitioners, Stelarc develops prosthesis which are controlled by biological events of his own body, which are translated to movement via a technological interface. Most recently, Stelarc has used the Internet as the means of determining / controlling his prosthesis.

Hexapod, a new walking robot performance, is a collaboration between Nottingham Trent University (where I am a Principle Researcher Fellow) and Sussex University's Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems Group at Cognitive and Computing Sciences. The key people are Prof. Barry Smith who is coordinating the project (NTU) and Prof. Inman Harvey (Sussex).

Hexapod is a new design, an engineering architecture that walks with 6 legs using the mechanism's intrinsic dynamics. It looks like an insect, but walks like a dog. It is autonomous and thus not tethered. It could walk on a flat outdoor surface (a road, a carpark) as well as be performed with indoors.

links:
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/