One of the first art pieces which opened my mind to the ability of science to convey artistic meaning was the cloaca machine by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. When the machine travelled to Canada it generated a lot of press and controversy. Although I was unable to travel to see it first hand, it left a lasting impression.
The cloaca (1) is a living breathing machine which, in my opinion, is alive. The machine is an assembly line if bioreactors and incubators built to mimic our digestive system. It must be fed, or it will die. It not only must be fed but it also must be cleaned up after… the machine poops. Due to Wim’s extensive research, consultation and study of microbiology he was able to artificially recreate a human digestive system. The food that goes in is the same food we would serve for lunch and the byproducts it excretes are the same as we would excrete (yes, it even farts).
There are several ethical questions which the machine raises. Many people feel that it is wasteful to feed a machine when there are countless hungry people on the streets (some directly outside of the museum). I suspect, however, that the same individuals that protested allocating the machine food would also be hard pressed to take personal responsibility for letting the machine ‘die’. The machine is a community of bacterial cultures connected by transportation devices all working toward a common goal. If the machine as a single entity can be considered alive, where do we draw the line for the definition of life? Is an ant farm alive? Is a community alive? Is a city alive?
One interesting side effect of the relative fame the machine garnered was that people wanted to buy cloaca souvenirs. As a result you can now buy cloaca poop through Wim’s main website (2). A caution to those with busy schedules, his website is super cool and you WILL spend time in his interactive online city.
More recently, Mr. Delvoye has been spending his time delving into another of my personal interests. He has been learning to tattoo. I suspect the economic success of the cloaca machine spurred his interest in the valuation and monetization of the normally overlooked, but all I can say is you have to see it to believe it (3).
Photo: Original Cloaca Machine (Wim Delvoye)
- http://www.wimdelvoye.be/cloacafactory.php
- http://www.wimdelvoye.be/
- http://www.wimdelvoye.be/tattoo.php#
No comments:
Post a Comment