HACKING THE FUTURE

-Paul Root Wolpe: It's time to question bio-engineering

2011-04-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

-Sufferrosa

2011-04-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

enter the void ...

-Cyril Crépin- Disfigurement

2011-03-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

fantastik serie !

Gallery

-Remote controlled cockroach

2011-03-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

-Sarif Industry

2011-03-06T14:52:00.000-08:00

-Welcome To The Future !

-Cyborg DNA

2011-03-04T01:39:00.000-08:00

"A group of researchers in Denmark is working on creating something entirely new on this planet – lifeforms that contain an improved version of the double-helix DNA. They are, for all intents and purposes, seeking to create stable, triple-helix deoxyribonucleic acid."

-news-

-Cyber-Dog

2011-03-04T01:03:00.000-08:00

-The English Surgeon

2011-03-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

-Wireless Heart Implant

2011-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Pressure patrol: A new wireless sensor the size of a paper clip measures fluid pressure in the pulmonary artery. The metal loops on either end anchor the sensor to the artery walls, while the self-contained transducer in the middle takes pressure readings. The sensor is activated by radio frequency, transmitting data wirelessly to physicians via modem.

technology review is published by M.I.T ...

-Prosthetics pics

2011-02-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

-life magazine slide show

-The Beeblebrox Illusion

2011-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

-In English
-En Francais

-Aron Ralston Amputation

2011-02-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

-Four Hour Body

2011-02-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

the web site

-Human v2.0

2011-02-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

The Documentary Blog

-Anatomy of a Change

2011-01-22T07:02:00.000-08:00

no comment

-Maori prison tattoos

2011-01-21T19:34:00.000-08:00

Inside Tattooing Promo from Buto Productions on Vimeo.

-Mugler VS Lady Gaga vs Body Modification !

2011-01-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

a must see ! (Im serious ;)

-The Sinner Team

2010-12-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

on livejournal

sinner team web site

-Interview "Autre Radio Autre Culture"

2010-12-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

lien direct vers l'interview

-3rd I

2010-12-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

direct link

-Interview for "Tatuaz, Cialo i Sztuka" - english version"

2010-10-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

1. Who are you?

Lukas Zpira... Body Hacktivist, Photographer, Documentarian.

2. Because of Franko B, there is a general conviction that artists specializing in Body Art are mentally unstable. This mental imbalance is often attributed to some trauma one carries from his childhood. What is your opinion on it? Don't you feel offended by this stereotype? And why is it that your scope of interests focuses on body modification?

I am unsure why Franko B's work would lead to a general conviction that artists specialising in body art are mentally unstable. It's not Franko B that is mentally unstable but it's the people who say such things who are the unstable ones. I think this kind of behaviour demonstrates a lack of understanding of one's own self rather than a ny lacking on the part of Franko B. I think people like to attribute performances that express themselves through the body, using the body's excrements, to some sort of trauma because they don't understand the logic behind it. The use of the body in performance art isn't about some trauma one has experienced and as such and is damaged and can't conceive of "socially acceptable" ways of expressing one's self through art… It's about expressing changes in each one of us, the affect experience has on us, how other people affect us and how we in turn affect them… By using the body to express these things we express in the best way, physically, what we experience emotionally and intellectually… Using the body in this way is the only language that can be used that will properly communicate what we are trying to say. So I suppose in response to the people who say that body art is a result of a person's mental instability, all I can really say is that perhaps they need to look at themselves a little closer…

My scope of interests aren't confined to body modification alone. My photography explores a variety of ideas, some of which are body modification, but also include the exploration of counter-cultures, such as that of the Vampyres. With regard to my performances I don't see body modification or body art as an end in itself – body art is simply on of the mediums I use to express what I am trying to say.

3. What political preferences do the artists like you represent?

Political preferences? I am unsure what you mean by this. And as for other artists, I can only speak for myself. I have a very close relationship with the la Demeure du Chaos and the political ideas expressed at part of these over 2,000 art works are quite obvious… I don't necessarily define myself with a political preference per se though. I think there are bigger, more important things happening then politics. Larger philosophical questions that resonate more deeply with me then meagre questions of politics. If I had to answer, perhaps Amour Fou as described by Hakim Bey…

4. There is a theory that says that progress in art goes along with the one in science. It becomes pretty visible on such examples as: scholasticism and the medieval Christian art, the philosophy falling under the Humanities and the art of the Renaissance, physical optics and impressionism, psychoanalysis and surrealism, medicine, with its huge subfield – transplantology and body art… What is your opinion on how this correlation will evolve in the future?

I am very interested actually in physics, especially quantum mechanics. I think there is some very interesting ideas for art that lessons from quantum mechanics can teach us. Having said that I believe that elements of quantum physics can be seen right throughout history and not in just in art. For example David Bohm, before he died, was very interested in the ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti, who quite concisely describes how the troubles of human relationships and human thinking can be overcome by a way of thinking that marries thought, action, emotion, object, into one whole. I think this is where the challenge for art now lies. I guess, for myself, I am trying to explore some of these concepts – the body is used as an extension of the mind, as the mind, seen physically. Or what I might do in a performance – how does this change the environment around me? How does this person react? How does this experience affect (become?) the performance? These questions can then move into bigger questions about general experience of relationships and interactions. Where do I end and you begin… I guess in answer to your question, I don't think there is a correlation between science and art, I think it's all part of the same machine.

5. Your life motto goes: „No Body is Perfect". Ever since, however, certain trends have been gaining in popularity, from time to time. For example: trends focusing on the "going back to nature", as well as statements that the human body is beautiful in itself, and there is no need to additionally beautify it in an artificial way. You, as an expert on implants and scarification, surely have a distinct view on this issue. Do you find a natural, unaltered body interesting, appealing, or sexy?

To start, for me, body modification is partly about aesthetics in the way it explores different ways of seeing or experiencing the world, but I think it is more than that. As I mentioned above, I see body art as a medium and so the motto "No Body is Perfect" is much more about the physical body and the how the body is as an extension of the mind (which is also the body). In this thinking then, the motto is not about people who modify their bodies with piercings, tattoos and scarification – it's about all bodies – nearly everybody modifies themselves in some way – be it dying their hair, shaving their legs or changing the way they do something for a lover who did not like this or that idiosyncrasy. In response to your question, I would ask you what is a natural body? A body that is born without a leg is natural but a body that has a leg removed after birth is unnatural? A body that has been badly burned and scarred as a result of exposure to a bush fire (a natural occurence) is this natural or unnatural? A modification that I put on my body as a result of past experience - natural or unnatural? If you are asking specifically whether I find people without tattoos, or brandings, etc beautiful then yes of course! I find beauty more in people who are pretty but have some imperfection. Those little imperfections are beautiful and are what make people intriguing – I find that very sexy.

6. What new does Body Hactivism bring into the field of Body Art and Body Modification?

I think perhaps this is where some people perhaps get confused about the intent, at least on my part, of what I use body modification for – it is not an end (as I said earlier) but a medium for expression (not wanting to sound wanky – but it's true!). Body Haktivism is more about activist activities through self expression. It's an important distinction because it

7. Do people who change their bodies want to change the world as well?

Unfortunately not. I don't think there's a definite correlation between the two. There are a lot of people who get body modifications just because it's cool and they think they're part of a movement to change the world or they think that they are different from everyone else and know some things – but, a lot of it is often just fashion for them. It's the same for any kind of "off-the-wall" thing that moves a little more into the mainstream. The initial thinking behind it is lost (in translation?!) so that you only end up with the effect and no one seems to remember the cause… Why they are doing this thing. It's interesting actually if you look at how patterns develop in nature, in relationships, in life, how you can get to a point and you look back and at the different things you've done to get there and perhaps you can't work out why you've continued to make the same mistakes over and over again even though you know it's not going to get you where you want to go. I think people can get confused between cause and effect. Gandhi says "be the change you want to see in the world"...

8. What do you value most in art? What artists and art movements inspire you most?

Probably the most important and influential would be surrealist philosophy (not the artistic movement specifically) and pop culture has also had an important influence on my work so far such as comic book art. I am a big fan of David Nebreda's work. For me, he is the Van Gogh of the 21st century.

9. You have a lot of tattoos on your body. What aspects influence your choice of the tattoo design? What relationship (if any) do you have with the tattoos on your body?

They are mostly representations of mind, ideas and thought... I think that language often doesn't properly represent what goes on the mind - I think that there may not be a language that exists yet which correctly translates from pre thought (ie. not in language) to word to speech. So I say that they, my tattoos are representations of my mind, perhaps they are pre-thought, before words, emotions or feeling? And some are a little more self explanatory...

10. Satomi Zpira – what you think of the artistic achievements and activities of your wife?

Satomi is a most creative and gifted person. She is intelligent and explores concepts, feelings and emotions that embody an ongoing dialogue... I think we feed off each other creatively and as you can seen similar themes in much of both of our creative work - performances, photography, writing...

As for TokyoLoveDoll... she has been a creation, a character that grew as we grew and took on different shapes and played games with her, this creature... she is reflected light and ephemeral, beautiful and fleeting, she is a question. TokyoLoveDoll is part of Satomi's artistic achievements I suppose but I would not call her that - I think she goes beyond artistic achievement and she goes beyond Satomi and myself - she is the Gestalt of our love... greater than the sum is its parts...

11. The Soul or the Body? Isn't excessive focus on the body or the soul the shortest way to socio-religious fanaticism? These we very well know from the history of culture

I don't believe in soul ... I think the problem comes when people try to fragment things too much. I think the birth of socio-fanaticism occurs by creating dichotomy between, within a person, ie. the body and the soul (whether you believe in them or not) occupy the same space theoretically and i think it's this inability to see that each are part of the same and don't belong as separate that leads to socio-religious fanaticism... It's separating things that cannot be separated that leads to this splitting in thought that so negatively affects society in this way...

12. Last but not least, will implants and transplants lead humanity to cyborgization? Does this vision invoke positive correlations for you?

See I think the term "cyborg" is a little old fashioned – this term was coined when much of the opportunities we have today weren't available yet. It also depends what you mean by cyborg in any case! We have been implanting organs and pace makers into ourselve for some time now so perhaps you could argue that we are already a society of cyborgs! I also think that perhaps this term "cyborg" is a little too inflexible… this metamorphosis that we are going through is a continued evolutionary process that will not stop at becoming a "cyborg" whatever that is.

I think in order to survive we need to adapt and remain flexible and malleable. It's hard for humans because we tend to be terribly uncomfortable with change as it is unfamiliar territory. I think things, on a mass scale, as a movement toward this kind of change, will happen slowly. More slowly then the take up of things like tattoos and piercings as the implants or nano technology will take more of a change in thinking i think... tattoos and piercings can be seen perhaps more superficially in terms of progress toward change and evolution… things like changes to genetic codes or use of nano technology will take more commitment on the part of individual toward change and evolution, so we shall see…

-Absolute skinny

2010-10-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

enjoy ?!

-Dr. Gunther von Hagens online shop !

2010-10-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

shopping ?

-Shoot ! Chris Burden

2010-08-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

-Body Hacking - a manifesto ?

2010-07-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

(version Francaise en dessous)

A work of art is only the medium of an idea it conveys. Period. The way in wich we utilize our body has no other goal than to transfer our metaphysical ideas into a realistic dimension, to let our subconcious roam free and give birth to our utopias.
Obviously, the fact that the body is being used as a medium to transpose “the center of gravity of art towards real life” (Arnaud Labelle Rojoux) raises a series of problems of political and social nature. We do not reinterpret with impunity what is our main interface with the world . This world wich ultimately only sees this exhibition of the self as something obscene- we are, after all, embodying something that so far was only fantasy- we do not play with our fears so easily, because this is exactly what it entails: Fear.
Fear of the last and first judgement, fear on which our society has based its grounds and our parents our education, fear of the inevitable pain in our approach, and lastly, fear of having reached a point of no return.

If this game is in fact a quest of our personal boundaries and consequently flirts with the boundaries of our society- a game in wich our mistakes remain the visible mark of sincerity of our involvement- it is not in any case a game with pain or death (utopist indeed but not suicidal) It has even less to do with a pathological problem, if not the pathology of a wanning society. A society in great need of transformation, if we do not want to see it become more and more conservative. A society which judges through the prism of its certitudes crushing unscrupulously all signs of individuality.
But there exists the danger of creating a new norm on wich we hasten to align our peers. unless they do so themselves...after all, isn't it man himself who created god in order to have an example on which he can allineate himself and create a social cohesion, a superior being whose judgment will be the last rempart protecting man from his greatest fear, the fear of himself?

Basing myself on the judgemental social views of "freaks" of popular imagery (or the monsters of Foucault) I, for a long time, beleived that my work was counter nature.
I had to wait many years and a few trips to Japan in order to understand, through the contemplation of its gardens, that to the contrary, it is about understanding our "human" nature, with its physical and metaphysical elements, in order to control it better.
It is not about creating some armour- its heaviness would be as important as its ability to protect- but to sublimate a humanity liberated from the gaol of religion and the "natural order" of things, to finally be able to freely express oneself without the fear of some divine punishment.

So here we are and this is where things stand, beyond an "order".
For who today at the simple sight of the news hasn't notice how wrong Darwin was in his theory of evolution, by omitting an essential parameter; that fools are legion?
Consequently, it seems obvious that man's last step to make, in order to attain what Nietzsche calls the "ubermensch" (don't get me wrong, not this cold hero of the nazi type, but rather a man full of awareness and some common sense) implies taking control of each individual's future through a complete requestioning of values and ideas set in the name of a so-called collective interest.
"Become what you are" Promethee is not far.

It is not about attaining superiority over others, but rather over ourselves, and, by "substituting morals by ethics" (Spinoza) not be guided anymore by a totally arbitrary notion of good and bad, but rather what is right or wrong, wich is more subjective...we must after all have a little fun!

It would be such a pity, when for the first time in history of humanity we are starting to dispose of the necessary means to choose the path of our evolution, to let these escape in the name of this obscur common interest, when we know it is levelling downwards , towards the insipid, the odourless and especially the colourless.
From now on we should ask ourselves how, in the future, can we put a little spice in the test tubes and tint with imaginaire the circuit boards of the post human.
Surely no one has any intentions of asking us our opinions...
Not the private corporates for which the capitalist system has permitted to lay down the patents necessary for our evolution possibilities- with all the risks imaginable- nor the leaders of the so-called democracies whose totalitarian drifts leave us to foresee unambiguously their usage.

Evidently we cannot prevent mistakes, but wouldn't the worst mistake be not to do anything at all?

Perhaps the time has finally come for us "to find out how (too) far we can go" (Foucault) and at last start to imagine this future wich we constantly procrastinate by holding on to a past already vanished.

According to Nietzsche, memory becomes sentiment, or more precisely a resentment, when it enters the conciousness...
If we could, to compose our future , use half the energy spent on hanging on to the past, wouldn't our lives be more optimistic and less rancorous?
Obvilivion would then become a faculty, an element of elevation or our conciousness, abling us to make our mental structure evolve and understand that we are not necessarily who we think we are, that there are no ideals, just a perpetual mutation waiting to be initiated.

Even though volition is only an illusion, as Spinoza suggests, surely by dint of sturring things up, we might get something out of this.

Lukas Zpira

_______________________________________________________________

L’œuvre n’est que le médium de l’idée qu’elle véhicule. Point barre. L’usage que nous faisons de notre corps n’a donc d’autre but que de placer dans la dimension du réel nos pensées métaphysiques, laisser libre cour a notre inconscient et donner naissance a nos utopies.
Evidemment, le fait d’utiliser le corps comme médium transposant "le centre de gravité de l’art vers la vie vécue" (Arnaud Labelle Rojoux), soulève toute une série de problèmes d’ordre politiques et sociaux. On ne réinterprète pas impunément ce qui est notre principale interface avec un monde qui ne voit bien souvent dans cette exhibition de soi que quelque chose tenant de l’obscène - car on donne bien « corps » à ce qui jusque là n’était que fantasme - on ne joue pas aussi facilement avec nos peurs.
Car c’est bien de cela qu’il s’agit avant tout, de la peur. Celle du jugement dernier, du jugement premier, du jugement tout court, sur lequel notre société a posé ses bases et nos parents fait notre éducation, peur également de la douleur dans laquelle nos démarches s’inscrivent forcément et peur évidemment de l’erreur dans un chemin qui n’offre pas de possibilités de retour en arrière.

Si ce je(u) est effectivement une recherche de limites personnelles et à travers celles-ci un flirt avec celles de notre société - jeu dans lequel nos erreurs ne seraient que les marques visibles de la sincérité d’un engagement - il ne s’agit en aucun cas d’un jeu avec la souffrance et la mort (utopistes mais pas suicidaires). Il s’agit encore moins d’un problème pathologique, si ce n’est de la pathologie d’une société touchant ces limites. Une société qu’il devient plus que nécessaire de transformer si on ne veux pas qu’elle s’aligne sur sa majorité la plus conservatrice, celle qui juge le monde a travers le prisme de ces propres certitudes, écrasant sans scrupules toute démarche individuelle.
Le danger étant de créer à notre tour une nouvelle norme sur laquelle nous nous empresserions d’aligner nos contemporains, à moins qu’ils ne le fassent d’eux même… Car après tout l’homme n’a-t-il pas lui-même créé des dieux afin d’avoir un exemple sur lequel s’aligner et créer une cohésion sociale, un être supérieur dont le jugement serait le dernier rempart protégeant l’homme de sa plus grande peur, celle de lui-même ?

Me basant sur ce jugement social nous renvoyant aux « freaks » de l’imagerie populaire (ou aux « monstres » de Foucault), j’ai longtemps cru que mon travail était « contre-nature ».
Il m’a fallu attendre de nombreuses années et quelques voyages au japon pour comprendre à travers la contemplation de ses jardins, qu’il s’agissait bien au contraire de comprendre notre nature (humaine), élément physique et métaphysique, afin de mieux la maîtriser et pouvoir ainsi la transformer. Il ne s’agissait donc pas de créer de quelconques armures, celle ci alourdissant autant qu’elles protègent, mais bien de sublimer une humanité libérée des geôles de la religion et de « l’ordre naturel », pouvant donc enfin sans crainte d’une quelconque punition divine, s’exprimer en toute liberté à travers son seul libre arbitre.
nous y voilas donc c est bien la que tout cela se place …. au dessus de l'ordre.
Car qui aujourd’hui, au simple vu de notre actualité, ne s’est pas encore aperçu à quel point Darwin s’est trompé dans sa théorie de l’évolution en omettant un paramètre essentiel, à savoir que les imbéciles sont légion et que par conséquent, le pas qu’il reste à franchir par l’homme afin d’atteindre ce que Nietzsche appelle « le surhomme » (entendons-nous bien, pas cet espèce de héros froid de l’imagerie nazi, mais cet homme augmenté d’un peu de bon sens et de prise de conscience) passe par une prise en main de son devenir par chaque individu au travers d’une complète remise en cause.
« Deviens ce que tu es ! » Prométhée n’est pas loin.

Il ne s’agit pas d’atteindre une autre forme de supériorité que celle que l’on peut obtenir par rapport à soi-même, et, en « substituant une éthique à la morale » (Spinoza), de ne plus nous laisser guider par une notion du bien et du mal totalement arbitraire, mais plutôt d’agir en fonction d’un bon et d’un mauvais pour nous, beaucoup plus subjectif … Il faut bien rigoler un peu.

Il serait dommage, alors que pour la première fois dans l’histoire de l’humanité nous commençons à disposer de tous les moyens nécessaires au choix de notre évolution, de les laisser s’échapper au nom d’un bien sombre intérêt collectif dont on sait maintenant qu’il nivelle par le bas, vers l’insipide, l’inodore et surtout vers l’incolore !
Il faudrait dès maintenant se poser la question de savoir comment il sera possible dans l’avenir de mettre un peu de piment dans les éprouvettes et de facteur aléatoire teinté d’imaginaire sur les circuits imprimé qui composeront le post-humain.
Car il est certain que personne n’a l’intention de nous demander notre avis… ni les sociétés privées à qui le système capitaliste a permis de déposer des brevets essentiels dans nos possibilités d’évolution - avec les risques que l’on peut facilement imaginer - ni les dirigeants de nos démocraties dont les dérives totalitaristes nous laissent sans ambiguïté entrevoir l’usage qu’ils en feraient.

Evidemment nous n’empêcherons pas les erreurs… mais la plus terrible des erreurs ne serait elle pas de ne rien faire ?
Peut-être que le temps est enfin venu d’ «entreprendre de savoir jusqu’où il est possible d aller trop loin » (Foucault), d’enfin commencer à imaginer ce futur que nous n’arrêtons pas d’essayer de retarder à trop nous accrocher à un passé désormais révolu.

Selon Nietzsche la mémoire devient un sentiment à partir du moment où elle pénètre la conscience … plus précisément un ressentiment. Si nous utilisions à inventer l’avenir ne serait-ce que la moitié de l’énergie que nous utilisons à ressasser le passé, nos regard ne s’en trouveraient-ils pas remplis d’optimisme plutôt que de rancœur ? L’oubli, ainsi deviendrait une faculté, un élément d’élévation de nos consciences nous permettant de faire enfin évoluer nos "confections" mentales et de comprendre que nous ne sommes pas tout a fait ce que nous croyons être, qu’il n’y a pas d’idéal, juste une perpétuelle mutation qu’il convient d’entreprendre.

Car, même si le libre-arbitre n’est qu’une illusion comme nous le suggère Spinoza, il ne fait aucun doute qu’à force de mettre les mains dedans, on finira par ramasser quelque chose.

Lukas Zpira

-Satomi & Lukas Zpira Interview

2010-06-21T02:36:00.000-07:00

in french (only)...

-La Piedad - live version / Buenos Aires

2010-06-18T04:01:00.001-07:00

-More about Goran Bertok

2010-06-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

Born 1963, Koper, Slovenija. 1989 graduated in Journalism at the Faculty for Sociology, Political Sciences and Journalism in Ljubljana...

-Back up your brain

2010-06-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

immortal avatar

-Chimeres

2010-06-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

**in french only**
Chimères nano biotechnologiques et post-humanité : sociologie des controverses sur les mutations du genre humain annoncées par les nanosciences...

tres interessant document !

-Bionic Hand

2010-06-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

-Liu Bolin : the silent protest

2010-06-02T01:42:00.001-07:00

When in 2005 chinise governement decide to force him to close is working space, Liu Bolin started to imagine a silent protest agains the autority of is country...

Quand en 2005, à Pékin, son studio d’artiste a été fermé et ses expositions interdites Liu Bolin commencer à imaginer une rébellion silencieuse en se fondant dans le décor urbain pour protester contre les autorités de son pays...

diaporama here
+
on : if gogo
on : artnet

probably one of the most interesting art work I have seen in long time !

-Sociologie du corps - revue Quasimodo

2010-06-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

**in french only**

l exellente revue menée par Philippe Liotard ... tout simplement incontournable !

-Transformation de l artiste en objet par Joffrey Becker

2010-06-01T01:46:00.000-07:00

**in french only**
liens vers le PDF

-A robot with emotions ?!

2010-06-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

**sorry only in french**

-Invisibility ?

2010-05-31T19:13:00.001-07:00

-Bionic eye

2010-05-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

-Bionic Contact Lenses

2010-05-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

-First Man to Be Infected by Computer Virus‎

2010-05-31T01:30:00.000-07:00

follow the white rabbit

Cybernetic intelligence research group

-Synthetic life !

2010-05-31T01:16:00.000-07:00

in english

en francais

and I definitely recommend : the reaction of Vatican !

-Interview for ziguline.com

2010-05-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

italian version

-Hi Lukas, where exactly are you in this time? I know you use to travel a lot all around the world.
probably 35 000 ft altitude over the atlantic somewhere between sao Paolo and Paris

-I was wondering if you have any problems when you go to the airport, you know under the metal detector and all the security issues....
The problem is not so much metal detectors as not all metals are conductive but having to get almost naked is rather annoying...no shoes, no belts et etc..My wife Satomi even had her hair chopsticks taken away because they considered them as weapons, she's been asked to raise her skirt because her garter belt always sets off the alarm and this is just a few examples of how ridiculous this is all getting.!!! My main issue is mostly with customs and immigration control. Too many people on power trips and needing to prove something or with a lot of prejudice thinking that looking the way i am i'm most probably a drug dealer or some sort of criminal. Fortunately travelling around europe is easy for me but the U.S., Australia and New Zealand can be very difficult, time consuming and energy wasting. Ive lived as a nomad almost all my life, travelling and working at the same time. I think with all this paranoia we are making ourselves our own prisoners. And i haven't even mentioned the whole biometric passport problem. Some of my piercings and all my implants i can't remove, and my facial tattoos neither. If we think ahead following this logic what will come next? What about people who undergo facial reconstruction after accidents etc etc.. a lot of questions about freedom are at stake here.

-Reading your biography I noticed that you didn't start your artistic career with body modification, you have firstly performed in the field of writing, photography and drawing. Why at certain time did you abandoned this traditional form of art expressions for body art?
I never abandonned photography or writing. I actually do more than i ever did but there came a point in my life where the body seemed the perfect medium for me because of its nature, being a live tissue it goes through changes and the art work evolves with it. There were many other factors in this change of "field" but i guess i found this to be a powerful statement specially with the laws in France being so conservative. I needed to work on my body as well since i believe that before you can change anything around you, you must first change yourself.

-Do you remember the first time you made your first modification (even the first tattoo) on your body? What did you feel in that specific moment?
I was 28 years old and got my nipple pierced. It was a real turning point for me or paradoxically a point of no return as i had finally cross the boundary and knew that this was the first step of my mutation. Being fascinated with cyber punk cultutre, science fiction and having grown up on comic books , the notion of a foreign metal object resting underneath my skin was the trigger to push my limits further.

-When did you realize that body was your favorite medium to work with?
I can't say that it is my favourite medium because i still love doing photography but they are both very different approaches. What i find exciting about the body and more precisely the skin is that this is a living tissue and being alive means it constantly evolves, even after years a scarification will change in colour, texture and overall aspect. Each person reacts a different way and heals differently too. I enjoy the interaction with the person who will bear the modification, the exchange of ideas and energy. There are many consequences to wearing or performing body art. Whenever one alters his appearance in a marginal form he/she is making a statement and in may countries is breaking the law because they are "attacking the body's integrtity", even if the act is consensual. So just like with photography, painting or other types of artistic expression working on the body can also have legal ramifications (perhaps even more) and many social implications, it can be conceptualized and not just serve an esthetic purpose.

-What did your parents thought when you started your career as body modification artist?
My mother asked me on my 40th birthday what i was doing for a living. i think that sums it up?

-You are the author of the *gbody hacktivism*h manifesto. Could you summarize the concept of this movement for us?
I created the term body hacking out of necessity to redefine a new movement of artists who are working around mutations and using body modifications as a medium. I did not feel that terms such as cyber punk was adequate to represent my philosophy and neither did modern privitism. We are living in an era where techno-medical discoveries are getting ahead of us and we have very little knowledge and control over some of these technologies that are being imposed upon us. Body hacking questions the freedom of choice concerning transformation options our society is facing and re evaluates the notion of collective interest versus individual interest. As i wrote in the manifesto body hacktivism doesn't include the need to be modified and all modified persons are not necessarily body hacktivists. Its not my goal to create a group, its a state of mind.

-I think that the first requirement to be a fan of this movement is a strong resistance to pain. I've seen some videos where you perform cutting, inserting, scaring and stuff like that. How the hell they can resist to the pain without screaming at all? I would passed out in a second if I was at their place.
No. There are no requirements, this is not a club you can join but a philosophy you can adopt. Like i mentioned in my previous answer there are many people, sociologists, anthopologists and professors who share the same opinions and working on similar concepts but they are not modified and don't need to be. If you want to talk about pain first let me distinguish the fundamental difference between pain and suffering or self induced pain that will help you acheive a positive goal, and the pain you endure from illness that is involuntary, as i prefer to demonstrate it. And one can view pain as just another sensation but with proper preparation, the desire and will, it's actually bearable. We are not masochist as in its not the pain that we seek but the experience and personal growth. Think of the pain a marathon runner must experience while training. I feel this is a good paralel.

-The second one is not working as a white collar, I suppose. Could you describe the profile of body modification lovers?
Not all body modification needs to be visible. I've done some rather extreme procedures on university professors, lawyers and doctors. And not all modified people are unemployed or working in the tattoo & piercing business. This is a stereotype. If you're lucky enough to live in NYC all you need to do is look around you and you will find a lot of professionals with full sleeve tattoos and you never know what could be hidden under the suit or uniform.

-I've seen you have a great command of surgery tools and practices, did you ever thought about a medical career?
No. Of course i use medical knowledge and hygiene is a fundemental part of my work but to pursue a career in a medical field would mean that i would need to follow a certain set of rules wich i don't believe in.

-I have to be honest at first time this kind of practice sounds to me pretty weird and somehow crazy, but thinking to plastic surgery popularity even your body modification looks more normal. The true is that the people doesn't accept the way they look and try in different way to make some changes. What about you?
Of course if you compare plastic surgery to the type of body modification i perform you will find that cosmetic surgery is a lot more invasive and bears greater risks. I believe that both of these types of modification can be seen in the same sphere, just on opposite sides. One gives and even encourages the ability to conform to a norm or fit in a mold set by beauty standards and the other one is the desire to move away from this definition of what should be considered beautiful. It's not about not accepting the way you look, that would be a form of denial, it's about revendicating the freedom to alter yourself the way you see fit according to your own standard. The desire to change one's body may be the same, but the motivation is different.But even now in the modified community we are starting to see a strange phenomenon where people get mods to look like or fit in with the others who are modified and the artists performing them are falling into a type of mimicking and do not show any creativity and not taking initiatives to create something new, something avant garde. The plastic surgery industry is always making progress, and so should we.

-Organ regeneration ?

2010-05-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Methuselah Foundation
SENS

-Autism & Evolution

2010-05-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

the next stape in evolution ?

-Fakir Musafar "belive it or not"

2010-04-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

ok ... Im not a big fan of modern primitifs, but fakir in "belive it or not" that worth the post !

-L'homme augmenté

2010-04-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

**in french only**
quand la science-fiction devient réalité.. enfin !

-Skinput: Appropriating the Body as an Input Surface

2010-03-16T16:20:00.001-07:00

-Beyond Human: The Cyborg Revolution (documentary)

2010-03-13T15:27:00.001-08:00

-Cyborg ?!

2010-03-13T15:22:00.001-08:00

-Niet Normal - Amsterdam exhibition

2010-01-24T02:10:00.000-08:00

-niet normal
-Beurs van Berlage Amsterdam

-Cats Offs ...

2010-01-23T17:59:00.000-08:00

"Written by Jack Thorne (The Scouting Book for Boys), the series begins when the disabled Cast Offs are marooned.

As the camera crew follows their struggle with island life - from learning to build their own homes and grow their own food, to fights, births and falling in love - flashbacks reveal more about each of them and the year leading up to the moment they are left stranded."
on Channel 4
Is Cast Offs good news for disabled actors?
on Facebook

-Tattoo tracking !

2010-01-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

(in english only)
tattoo as been for long time done by outlaw, soon it may become a cops job :

Rick Workman,
former Chairman of the Motorola Biometrics (International) Users’ Group Executive Board :
"My understanding is that the best features of both systems may be used by the customers, in whole or in part, depending on the customers’ specific needs and desires...As a direct result of the technological advancements and increased efficiency that will be made possible through this acquisition; we will enhance and increase our ability to identify individuals through biometrics technology, our borders will be more secure, we will prevent and solve more crimes, and additional lives will be saved."

whatever !

-morphotrak
-Innovative Tattoo Matching Technology ?!

-Goran Bertok

2009-12-20T11:53:00.001-08:00

enjoy !
I try to get in touch with goran regarding an exhibition project . anyone got is email ?! if yes please contact me at lukaszpira@gmail.com

-(R)evolution ?!

2009-12-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

-Miss Plastic Surgery !

2009-11-19T16:38:00.001-08:00

**thanks Laurent "laspirale" Courau for the link**
-hungary contest 2009
-list of the participants

but actualy that wasnt the first time ... I found a precedent contest in china back in 2004 !

-Vincent Gallo's Sperm...$1,000,000.00 !

2009-10-29T01:52:00.000-07:00

Vincent (me)Gallo(maniac)marchandiseing web site

-Kelly Slater & David linch by Alberto Seveso

2009-10-27T07:33:00.001-07:00

ok, Kelly Slater is more know for being 9x surf world champion than for anything related body hacktivism and so is David linch ... but I found theise picture on Alberto Seveso web site. interesting isnt it ?

-Anthropo-body.com

2009-10-04T04:35:00.000-07:00

**in french only**
... le blog de Philippe Liotard toujours incontournable ...
MODIFICATIONS CORPORELLES, TATOUAGES, PIERCINGS, IMPLANTS SOUS CONTRÔLE MÉDICAL?

-Terry Bradley

2009-10-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

...just because I love is work !

-(Mars 3) - Hijos de la guerra - Alexendre fuchs

2009-09-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

another documentary on Maras, also from a french director !

-Pour en finir avec Baudrillard. english & french version

2009-09-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

(**english version below**)

Je suis Lukas ZPIЯA,
.01 d’une nouvelle expérimentation artistique basée sur la mutation, dont le koncept est une tentative de fusion entre le corps et l’esprit que j’ai définis comme étant le kør et qui prend racine en Lucas ZPIRA, né en 1993 des cendres d’un homme que vous ne connaissez pas, oublié de tous même de moi. Mais qu’est ce donc que Lukas ZPIЯA .01 si ce n’est une œuvre faite de chair et de sang, ce sang qui pour moi évoque la vie a laquelle elle est dédiée, et dont le message est le pouvoir d’évolution, la possibilité de remise en question… ne vous étonnez donc pas si je ne suis déjà plus l’homme que vous voyez-la.

Mon absence n’est pas volontaire, elle est encore moins une marque de mépris ; il en est simplement que ma quête de cette nouvelle avant garde que je contribue à faire naître me conduit chaque jour un peu plus loin, peut être pour me rendre compte d’a quel point nous sommes encore peu nombreux…

Parmi ces combattants d’une certaine contre-culture beaucoup on compris que dans son étymologie et dans son essence une révolution consiste avant tout à faire un tour sur soi-même, a se changer pour pouvoir enfin espérer participer aux grands changements qui vont bientôt bouleverser notre monde et notre conception de l’humanité.

Personne parmi nous n’a sacrifié son corps a l’idée d’un quelconque sacrifice comme le croit Baudrillard, mais plutôt son apparence naturelle au profit de sa véritable nature, afin de donner kør a cette image que nous renvoie sans cesse notre mémoire résiduelle interne, afin d’être enfin véritablement ce que nous voulons être, juste ce que nous sommes et non ce que l’on essaye depuis si longtemps de faire de nous.

Evidement, dans ce siècle de l’image nous nous prêtons volontiers au jeu des apparences, mais il est stupide et réducteur de croire qu’à travailler la forme nous négligeons le fond ; il existe bien, au-delà de ces apparences certaines choses accessibles à la seule intelligence.

Notre corps n’est que le médium a travers lequel nous redéfinissons nos confections mentales.

Il s’agit bien avant tout de vouloir préfigurer cette nouvelle forme d’humanité qu’y n’en sera bientôt plus vraiment une, et si nous nous laissons aller parfois a cet inventaire que Baudrillard dit « pathétique et burlesque », c’est peut être aussi parce qu’il est nécessaire a notre propos et qu’il vous permet de constater qu’il ne s’agit pas là d’une fiction mais tout au plus d’une sur-réalité, et que nous ne portons pas sur nos extrémités les stigmates de celui que, en même temps que notre monde, son père a abandonné.

Que l’on ne s’y trompe pas ; nous ne désirons pas finir dans un bocal, car nous ne prétendons pas être autre chose que les sujets de notre propre observation et à travers elle de celle de notre monde. Si quelque chose doit nous survivre que ce soit plutôt certaines de nos meilleures idées, car dans un musée d’anthropologie cybernétique nos kør n’auront plus que la force de l’anecdote un peu comme ces ailes de bois et de papier qu’au début du siècle dernier quelques fous ont essayé de faire voler.

Certes, il nous arrive de commettre quelques erreurs… peut être sont-elles nécessaires afin de prendre véritablement conscience des limites qui nous sont imposées et ainsi de poser les bases sur lesquelles d’autres bâtiront bientôt leur réussite. Il est juste dommage que ce soit uniquement a travers elles que, comme Baudrillard, beaucoup s’empressent de nous juger…peut être simplement parce qu’en dépassant quelques limites, en enfonçant certaines portes, nous ne nous sommes pas tout de suite aperçus qu’ils étaient derrière et ce les prenaient dans la gueule.

_________________________________________________________

I am Lukas Zpira,  .01 from a new artistic experimentation based upon mutation, its koncept is an attempt of merging between body and spirit I have defined as the kor taking its roots in Lucas Zpira, born in 93 from the ashes of a man you do not know, forgotten by everyone, even myself.
But what the hell is Lukas Zpira.01 if not a work made of flesh and blood, this blood reminding me of the life it is dedicated to, which message is the power of evolution, the opportunity of wondering … Do not be surprised then if I am not anymore the man you see here.

  My absence is involuntary, it is even less a sign of scorn, it only means that the quest of this new Avant-garde I am helping giving birth takes me a little further everyday, maybe to make me realize how numerous we are …  

Among these fighters of some counter-culture, lots of them understood that a revolution – including its etymology and its spirit – means at first to move around oneself, to change in order to be able to at last participate to the big changes that will soon modify our world and conception of humanity.

 No one among us has sacrificed his body to the idea of any sacrifice as Baudrillard believes it, but rather his natural appearance to the benefit of his true nature, in order to give a kor to that image constantly dropped back to us by our residual inner memory, to be at last what we deeply want to be, just what we are and not what has been tried to make of us for such a long time.

  Obviously, in this century of image we easily play the game of appearances, it is however stupid and reducing to believe that working on the shape, we deny the foundation. Some things do exist far beyond these appearances, reachable to cleverness only.

  Our body is just the medium through which we redefine our mental confections.   The matter really is to prefigure this new kind of humanity that will soon not be one anymore, and whether we sometimes tend ourselves to this sort of inventory that Baudrillard calls ‘pathetic and burlesque’ maybe also because it is necessary for our own speeches and allows us to realize this is not fiction but upper-reality at most and we do not carry on our tips the stigmata of this who was given up by his father at the same time than the World.

  No misunderstanding, we do not wish to end in a bowl because we do not pretend to be something else then the subjects of our own observation and, through it, this of the World. If something should survive from us, may it be some of our best ideas because in a Cybernetic Anthropological Museum, our kor will only have the strength of the episode, similar to these wings of wood and paper some crackpots tried to have flying at the beginning of the last century.   

However we sometimes make mistakes … Maybe they are necessary in order to be deeply conscious of the limits demanded from us and thus settle the basements upon which others will soon built their success. It is just too bad that many like Baudrillard are quick to judge only through these mistakes … Perhaps simply because overtaking the limits, breaking some doors, we did not realize they were just behind and got smashed in the face .

-(Maras 2) - La Vida Loca - Christian Poveda (R.I.P)

2009-09-03T18:49:00.001-07:00

portrait de Maras by Christian Poveda

Le reporter-photographe Christian Poveda, realisateur de ce documentaire a ete assassiné au Salvador mercredi 03/09/09

The photographer and director of this documentary as been killed wednesday 09/03/09 in Salvador

"La Vida Loca" official facebook page

Christian Poveda facebook page

video ITW (in french)

tones of links ... just google it !

-Abnormals Gallery

2009-09-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

Abnormals Gallery Linienstraße 154 Berlin Mitte

...the only thing that we know is that we're abnormal...

-(Maras 1) - Sin Nombre

2009-08-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

-exellent !

-Antonio Murado Salome Coffe Set

2009-08-25T00:51:00.000-07:00

you can buy it from here

-Medical (shoes) fetish !

2009-08-25T00:41:00.000-07:00

-wearable motorcycle

2009-08-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

-Artificial Luminescent Eyelashes

2009-08-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

**in english only**
more on Coilhouse magazine

-The Iron Hand of Gotz Von Berlichingen

2009-08-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

**in english only**
more here

-Tail Prosthesis

2009-08-18T16:55:00.001-07:00

**in english only**
read the article about it

-Crash

2009-08-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

-Quid Pro Quo

2009-08-18T16:19:00.001-07:00

-Conductive ink

2009-07-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

**in english only (thanks Shannon;)**
conductive ink

-DNA (ADN) art

2009-07-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Made in France, sold worldwide . since they are in "Champagne", you can try, for a little extra cost, to get a bottle of this wonderfull wine in order to selebrate the arrival of this really interesting piece of DNA art into your house !

in english

in french

-Old school surgical tools !

2009-07-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

**thanks Richard ;)**
Scary !

-Stelarc third ear

2009-06-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Stelarc web site
BoingBoing 1
BoingBoing 2

dans tracks en francais :

-Bio Art

2009-06-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

marcel.org
Edouardo Kac
Marta de Menezes
the tissue culture and art project
Art Imitates Life Science
Wired

the case Steven Kurt :
Steven Kurt

en francais :
colloque
qu'est ce que le Bio-Art ?

-SymbioticA - Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts

2009-06-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

**quote from Symbiotica web site** :
"SymbioticA is an artistic laboratory within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at The University of Western Australia. It is dedicated to the research, learning and critique of life sciences. It is the first research laboratory of its kind, in that it enables artists to engage in wet biology practices in a biological science department. SymbioticA hosts residents, runs workshops, produces exhibitions and organises symposiums as part of the core activities..."

symbiotica

-Lord of the piercing

2009-06-30T04:15:00.000-07:00

**thanks ruben ;)**

-Cranial deformation

2009-06-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

**english only**

"OF THE FORMS of human self-mutilation that have been recorded, few have been so widespread and long lasting as intentional cranial deformation. The earliest known record of the practice is from Iraq and dates back to 45,000 BC. The custom, which was practiced in many areas of the world, continued well into this century. Although tatooing, ear piercing, and circumcision are commonly practiced in our society, cranial deformation has almost completely disappeared from contemporary cultures, with the exception of isolated groups in Africa and South America"
link 1
link 2
link 3
wikipedia

-Nature ?!

2009-06-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting (?!) comment on a web site called nature.com :

"ONE of the strangest eccentricities in human behaviour is revealed in the widespread practice among even civilised men and women of bodily mutilations, such as scarring and tattooing, piercing ears, noses, lips, or tongue, circumcising, knocking out teeth, compressing the feet, amputating fingers, compressing the waist, and distorting the head. These procedures are so devoid of rational justification and so destructive of the natural beauty of the human form that it is difficult to discover any plausible excuse for their invention."

-Foot binding

2009-06-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

**in english only**

wikipedia
link 1
link 2
link 3
link 4
link 5

-Ocular implant

2009-06-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

**in english only**

NIIOS

-Aimee Mullins - conference @ TED

2009-05-07T03:33:00.000-07:00

Athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs -- she's got a dozen amazing pairs -- and the superpowers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height ... Quite simply, she redefines what the body can be.

-Rachel Larratt ... the non-interview !

2009-04-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

**sorry english version only**

Less than an hour after i put up Shannon Larratt's interview online i received, a message from Rachel Larratt accusing me of spreading lies. I therefore suggested that she reply via an interview wich she accepted to do. Ironically i've yet to receive any answers from her except some pretexts saying that my questions were incomprehensible and unclear ( after consulting with her "friends" ) and that she didn't have time to answer. (?!?)
So after almost 2 month of waiting, I decided to post the questions as such (along with the introduction i had sent her with the interview) since my questions regarding this topic remain unanswered and I would like to continue this debate.
Considering the feedback i received, i don't seem to be the only one ...

to Rachel :
"Let us situate things. My interview with Shannon was in no way an attack against you nor did i seek to take sides in this conflict.Shannon and i are far from being the best of friends but even though the mutal respect we have for each other is undeniable, our opinions and views have often been on oppposite sides of the scale. i don't need to prove my impartiality.
It seemed necessary to hear out what Shannon had to say, not only about this conflict wich feeds the internet with a good amount of gossip, although there is much to say about that. No, this was not my goal. Considering the extent of the history of our "movement" (if i can call it that) this ordeal will most likely be anecdotal in a few years from now . My point was simply to seize the "moment", or turning point i should call it, to ask a fallen king the outlook he might have on a world he once ruled. So let me take your reaction as an opportunity to continue this assessment.
Only one thing really surprises me, why hasn't anyone done it already?"

- what is BME for you. From the time you first got involved right up until now, what has been your journey like within the site, the community and all that gravitates around it?

- What brought on the eviction of Shannon and how was he perceived by the BME staff just before his departure?

-Shannon's ownership of the website was common knowledge but it was called into question. How was this possible?

-There has been a strong change of current within BME since about a year now and the modblog articles are becoming more and more consensual. Which direction is the new BME heading?

-A rather large number of BME members have gone as far as getting the BME logo tattooed or scarred. What are your thoughts on these people and on the ones who have helped impose these esthetic standards? What do you think the future holds for them and what place do they have in the new BME community?

- Don't you think that some people have taken too big of a leap and have gone through very radical modifications in order to exist within this community? What about the practitioners performing these extremely radical body modifications on some people without any consideration to the consequences also in order to exist within this community ?

- IAM seems to be shutting itself out from the exterior world and its will to be communitarian ever since its creation has somewhat turned it into a ghetto, perhaps a lot of members feel that the site doesn't correspond to them anymore and are now turning to more open social networks such as myspace and facebook. Even BME is present on both of these platforms. What are your views on this?

-I am truly surprised by the lack of support given to Andrew Niland**, wich let me remind you as been two month in jail for body modification practices, and i am equally surprised to see the topic deleted from modblog when i posted 3 similar cases. 1 in Japan and 2 in France. Shouldn't this "community" be entitled to a bit more support?

- Substantial debates are a rarity considering the seriousness of body modifications and their implications. Of course there are some interesting interviews but infortunately they tend to focus more on technical aspects (then what follows is mostly bickering) rather than fundamental questioning. Why so little assertiveness in opinions? When will we see on bmeblog a posts that will raise more than just another onomatopoeia or trigger comments that exceed 10 words?

-I am one of those who worry about the normalization of body modifications. We are rapidly entering a type of concensus wich i believe is taking on a form of totalitaranism that dictates a vision of body modification that is clean and smooth along with a displayed determination to fit in the established order. I am thinking particularely of APP, BMX etc..wich are often set up more out of corporatist protectionism motivated by economical reasons than anything else (this says as a philosophical point of view). Isn't the goal of these practices a certain type of self examination and questioning?

-Is BME a good business? What are the stakes of this coup d'etat? And my last question to you is; You are surrounded by a lot of people and amongst these people are some who betrayed Shannon. Are you not afraid of what we could call the "Caesars's Curse"?

Lukas Zpira

**2 weeks before his trail, Andrew killed himself... this interview was already online since 4 month. Rachel never reacted publicly about that, BME as never supported the case...

-Shannon Larratt's exclusive interview

2009-03-04T08:23:00.000-08:00

**version francaise sur laspirale.org**

Lukas Zpira : Hi Shannon. You created in 1995 (corect ?!) BME wich has become and still is to this day the website of reference
for body modification, from the very extreme to the more basic. How did it begin and what is your background?

Shannon Larratt : I founded BME in late 1994. At the time I was working as a computer programmer developing community software for interactive telephone systems, and I had just gotten a job making body jewelry at Stainless Studios, where I got to work with the highly influential piercer Tom Brazda. BME was started as a personal site because I wanted a place to talk about what I was interested in, and I discovered that other people felt the same way, and the whole thing snowballed.

LZ : What role did the virtual community IAM have in the evolution of this scene.

SL : IAM was formed when most of the activities in the body modification world already existed, but IAM definitely acted as an accelerate, creating an insulated environment in which things moved very quickly... On IAM fringe activities would go from "really far out, even in BME-land" to mainstream in a matter of months, and because IAM had such a high percentage of influential body artists as members, these subcultural changes entered the "real world" not long afterwards.

LZ : There was through BME a certain mimicry effect. The artists were influencing each oher and the people interested were copying what they saw on the website. We could almost say that there was a kind of BME style imposed within this community. What are your thoughts on this phenomena?

SL : I think it's very true that there was a phenomena of mimicry (and amplified mimicry where the mimic would try and out-do the person they were inspired by). Even though we were a culture that embraced individualism, there did at times seem to be a "dress code". It always bothered me -- and still bothers me -- that there are so few strong and unique voices in this community. But I suppose in all fields on all subjects, only a small percentage of people are leaders and trend-setters...

LZ : Don't you think that some people have taken too big of a leap and have gone through very radical modifications in order to exist within this community?

SL : One of the side effects of IAM, was that it gave us the illusion of a supportive community. People could spend time on IAM and get the impression that the whole world was on their side -- that what we were doing was "normal" and "acceptable". I think this made it easier for some people to push their journeys farther than what they were really comfortable with, and as a result there were some people who found themselves in difficult situations that they couldn't handle...

I hate to think about it, but I think BME shares some responsibility in a couple of suicides, where BME helped convince people it was a good idea to modify themselves far past what they were personally ready for in the real world. I think it was hard for people to be held up as heroes on BME, and then get beat down by the flesh-and-blood humans they interacted with on a daily basis. Of course this is ultimately the person's own responsibility -- and the fault lies with a cruel and unaccepting world -- but it definitely haunts me.

LZ : What about the practitioners performing these extremely radical body modifications on some people without any consideration to the consequences, Weren't they doing these just so that they could get recognition and acquire status?

SL : I'm sure there is some truth to the idea that some practitioners were just pushing boundaries to get noticed, and I think it's unfortunate. When I got into body modification I was living on a farm in the country, and there were no studios or body modification media that I had access to, let alone people who'd cheer you on -- I grew up in a vacuum. So for me, my interest in body modification is intuitive and instinctual. I wish it was like that for everyone, but that's something we've lost. I think body modification is best when it's a true expression of the self -- when it's a reflection of what you think others want from you, then I think you're allowing yourself to be oppressed on a very profound level.

LZ : Wasn't it a dangerous choice to privilege and put forth the most extreme modifications rather than the most artistic?

SL : "Most artistic" is of course a very subjective judgment! I put forward and showcased the modifications that appealed to me personally. I don't think it's fair to say that I gave priority to "extreme" over "artistic" -- I gave priority to what I liked. Of course my own personality and the personality of the site were deeply interlinked, so I can understand that it might seem like what you've characterized in your question.

LZ : You were often reproached of managing the site in a dictatorial way and there were some significant conflicts like Steve getting banned from IAM or people doing everything they could to be in your good books and get favorable position on the site and specially on modblog. How do you respond to your detractors?

SL : What happened with Steve was wrong, and the breakdown of my relationship with Steve is one of my big regrets. Steve was a responsible practitioner, far more so than most, to say nothing of what an important pioneer he was. He was caught up in a completely unfair witch-hunt. I feel terrible about the way he was treated.

As to the general trend of being a dictator, BME came about as an act of will on my part, as much as it was also a community effort, and to maintain that personal vision, a "dictatorial" approach was the right way to run it. The problem was that when I started to have personal problems, those problems were experienced by the site as well.

LZ : The scene has evolved considerably between 2000 and now, a lot of things went from being completely underground to mainstream. How do you perceive this evolution. What role did BME, IAM, MODBLOG or even BME encyclopedia play?

SL : It's amazing how much things have gone mainstream. Truly unbelievable! BME played a central role in this societal transformation by being a beacon that drew together enough people to give the movement critical mass, and to lead the way and encourage the growth of this community, and to give it legitimacy. I think without BME (or some similar site) the body modification world would be a very different -- and much smaller -- place.

LZ : Surely you have come across some very interesting and intriguing things or characters throughout this period, wich ones come to mind?

SL : I've met so many fascinating people, but for me, I am most interested in male genital modification, because as a general rule, it's the most "pure"... The most free of outside influence, and the most instinctual. I've been posting many of my interviews on that subject at bodmodsex.com and it'll end up in a book later this year.

LZ : How do you think the body modification world will evolve? What are the major tendencies coming up?

SL : I think body modification is at a stasis point right now -- not that much is changing, and there's not that much new to be added. This coupled with the mainstreaming of body modification I suspect will kill off most of body modification other than tattooing -- piercing is certainly already a fraction of what it was a decade ago. A lot of what made body modification special on a cultural level has been irreversibly lost -- in many ways our success has been our failure.

LZ : For a while there was a rumour going around that you had been offered 1.9 million to sell BME but that you had refused in order to keep some integrity...true or false

SL : Well, I did end up selling the site for a significant amount of money, but it wasn't a matter of integrity... I didn't really have any choice in the matter. Basically I was so far in debt from defending myself legally that I had to choose between selling the site or declaring bankruptcy. It didn't matter that I had a "winning" case in proving that I was the owner of the site (that was the core of the legal dispute -- the claim that I was only a "figurehead" and not the actual owner or force behind the site). One of the things I discovered is that if someone else has more money than you and are willing to spend it on lawyers, "right and wrong" are not very important!

LZ : Was BME a profitable website? if so how much? were the donations considerable?

SL : BME was hugely profitable. That said, because I trusted others to manage my finances, I was under the impression that BME was barely breaking even though it really was a license to print money. I was much more interested in BME on a creative level than a business level.

LZ : BME has moved several times between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Why is that?

SL : The BME "offices" always moved with me since I did the work out of my home. No special meaning there. As to the server moves between Canada and the US, this was primarily due to concerns about prosecution -- related to both obscenity and age-related records-keeping laws -- in the US, which has cheaper webhosting than Canada, but stricter laws. In the earlier days, moves were also dictated by who was offering me free hosting (before BME was a commercial business that paid its own bills).

LZ : There was recently within the BME community somewhat of a "putsch" in wich you found yourself ejected from the site. How did this happen? I know that you don't have access to the site anymore and i've noticed that those who have taken your place are re-writing the history of BME and minimizing your implication and the role you played. Is this correct?

SL : The "ejection" happened for two main reasons -- anger and greed. Anger is what fuels the rewriting of the history and the vitriol against me that exists on the site.

The lawsuit was rather surreal as well, with BME being used against me... Claims to the effect of "anyone who supports the sort of thing that BME is about is clearly too crazy to run a successful business like BME" were presented in order to further the idea that I was just a "mascot". Many of my diary entries, pictures of my own body modifications, and so on were used to paint a very negative picture of me to the conservative legal system. It's ironic, because I remember one of the first articles I published, in 1995, was about a husband whose wife used their mutual interest in body piercing to paint him very successful as an unstable abuser and took him for everything he had in their divorce.

LZ : What are you doing at the moment? Where are you at now in the projects you had on the go in wich many people were involved like the film you had started wich was suppose to come out a while back?

SL : I'm limited by legal contract in what I can do unfortunately -- I wish I was able to have more of a role in the body modification world. But I'm working on print projects (some of which is documented on bodmodsex.com and my personal blog at zentastic.com) in the body modification arena, as well as working on my art in general, and various other projects. The one good thing about the sale of the site is that it gives me some time to relax and explore my options... And of course to enjoy being a father. When the legal process started, we were basically told that the likely outcome was that "one of you will get the business, and the other will get your daughter" -- my priority was always to make sure that my daughter continued living with me.

LZ : What can you say about your personal development throughout the years running BME? Are the people who were close to you at the time still are?

SL : The "ejection" has truly showed me who was my friend and who wasn't. It's been very interesting learning that -- seeing people who I thought were old friends spread really nasty lies about me. But it's also been nice seeing who my real friends are, and that's the side of that coin I've tried to focus on. I still have many friends from the early days of BME that I am very close with. Many of them have been pushed off BME as well.

LZ : If you could do it all over again, what would you change?

SL : The main thing I regret was not getting treatment for the tumor in my leg (which admittedly I didn't know I had). As a result of being constantly in pain, I became a heavy user of marijuana, which had a number of devastating side effects.

First, it made me far too trusting and reliant on others -- and I chose the wrong people to trust and rely on. Because I trusted others to help me with the financial aspects of the site -- managing them completely -- I let people who saw BME as a business steal it from me bit by bit, which outside of the personal loss to me, has meant a huge loss to the community in general and I worry will ultimately mean the death of the site, or at least see it change into something very different from what I'd envisioned. It's been very difficult watching the site lose its way, and being forced to stay silent -- I'm legally forbidden from blogging about body modification or running anything "competing".

Second, and in some ways worse than the loss of the site, I allowed myself to be influenced by the negativity and cliquism of those around me because I wasn't standing up for myself emotionally. It was more important to me to feel like those immediately around me were "on my side" and there for me than to do what I felt was right. This meant that I went along with the vendetta against Steve Haworth, and that I went along with the vendetta against you when BME published the deeply unfair review of your book -- I feel absolutely terrible at both of these betrayals, and others. I went along with attacks on members of the community on far too many occasions. It is a huge regret.

I have a lot of things from the five or so years that I was a heavy pot smoker that I'm ashamed of, but letting go of control of the things I cared about, and letting them be corrupted by other people's anger and greed are the worst ones. If I could do things over again, this is what I would address.

That said, and perhaps most importantly, I've got a really great life. Sure, there's things that I'd do differently and things that I regret, but I don't regret where I've ended up in life, and I'm a very lucky and very blessed person.

LZ : You certainly heard about Andrew Niland's case who's been arrested in Canada for having performed a labia reduction on a consenting adult. In Japan there is a piercer in jail for illegal practices. Toro, another piercer is prosecuted in France for having done a suspension for a tv show on a minor but with his mother's consent, i also had a trial (fortunately i won the case) for a scarification i did on a minor who showed up with a false mother. What do you think of this repressive attitude found at a international level? I always thought that the work of re-appropriation of the body was a political action... do you agree with that

SL : I agree completely. If we do not own our bodies -- if we can be prosecuted for manipulations of our own bodies or those of consenting individuals -- then we are slaves. There is no right more fundamental than the ownership of ones own body.

-Art Performance

2009-02-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

**in french only** ... but with so many photos and links (other 2000 articles) that you cant miss this blog created by Olivier Lussac.

tout ce que vous voulez savoir sur la performance (ou presque) est ici ... plus de 2000 articles !

-Bill Joy

2009-02-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

**quote from TED**
"In 2003, Bill Joy left Sun Microsystems, the computer company he cofounded, with no definite plans. He'd spent the late 1970s and early 1980s working on Berkeley UNIX (he wrote the vi editor), and the next decades building beautiful high-performance workstations at Sun. Always, he'd been a kind of polite engineer-gadfly -- refusing to settle for subpar code or muddled thinking.
In 2000, with a landmark cover story in Wired called "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," Joy began to share his larger concerns with the world. A careful observer of the nanotech industry that was growing up around his own industry, Joy saw a way forward that, frankly, frightened him. He saw a very plausible future in which our own creations supplanted us -- if not out and out killed us (e.g., the gray goo problem). His proposed solution: Proceed with caution."

Why the future doesn't need us

en francais :

Pourquoi le futur n'a pas besoin de nous

-Les utopies post-humaines

2009-02-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

**in french only**

interview

articles de Remi Sussan

-Live forever

2009-02-25T03:46:00.000-08:00

Immortality institute

-Better humans

2009-02-25T03:31:00.000-08:00

simply ...

-Life extention foundation

2009-02-25T03:17:00.000-08:00

**quote** :
"The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the intent of restoring good health when technology becomes available to do so..."

Alcor

en francais

A Cold Calculus Leads Cryonauts To Put Assets on Ice - With Bodies Frozen, They Hope to Return Richer; Dr. Thorp Is Buying Long :

dont miss that article

-Transhumanism

2009-02-24T16:26:00.000-08:00

**quote** :
"As human lives and the global environment become ever more interconnected with technology, we become increasingly responsible for making wise decisions about how to use it. We need a balanced opinion on how to apply technology to human needs. We should not reject the products of applied science; neither should we implement powerful new technologies without foresight and proactive preparation. Above all, we must not tackle the decisions of the future with the cognitive habits of the past. We need new, smarter ways to evaluate the opportunities and dangers issuing from nanotechnology, genetics, machine intelligence, climate engineering, or neurological modification.."

extropy

transumanism.org

human evolution

-Neurological implants - from R. Bakay & P. Kennedy to Kevin Warwick

2009-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

**quote**:
"On the 14th of March 2002 a one hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibres of the left arm of Professor Kevin Warwick. The operation was carried out at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, by a medical team headed by the neurosurgeons Amjad Shad and Peter teddy. The procedure, which took a little over two hours, involved inserting a guiding tube into a two inch incision made above the wrist, inserting the microelectrode array into this tube and firing it into the median nerve fibres below the elbow joint."

K.Warwick official web site

back 1998 !

en francais :

**citation** :
"Grâce aux ICM, des patients atteints de "locked in" syndrome ont pu communiquer avec des
ordinateurs à partir de l’enregistrement de leur activité cérébrale. Cette nouvelle boucle de
communication engendre en retour des changements au niveau des réseaux neuronaux et des
capacités intellectuelles des patients..."

F.R.M

-Cyborg monkey

2009-02-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

-Devenir Hybride - Bernard Andrieu

2009-02-23T04:43:00.001-08:00

**in french only**

"La technique n’est plus extérieure à notre corps mais constitue les modes d’action de notre vie quotidienne. Ces hybridations sont visibles sur et dans nos corps : implants, OGM, prothèses, cyborgs, transgeneses, cellules souches, clonages, moteurs, produits chimiques, pollutions…

Mais cette peur des hybrides, de la contamination et de l’étranger trouble les repères, les relations et les modes d’action. Face à ce moralisme technophobe, l’hybridation définit une écologie de l’interaction, de l’altération et de la mobilité.

Devenir hybride est notre nouvelle possibilité de l’existence corporelle par le mélange actuel des genres, des sexes, des cultures et des corps. De la génétique à l’informatique, des nanotechnologies à la cyberpsychologie, les sciences du 21e siècle ouvrent une réflexion nouvelle sur notre identité et sur les modes de sociabilité"

Langue français
Éditeur Presses universitaires de Nancy
ISBN-10 2-86480-951-6
ISBN-13 978-2-86480-951-7
Année de publication juin 2008

-Metamorphosis

2009-02-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

"The LifeGem® is a certified, high-quality diamond created from the
carbon of your loved one as a memorial to their unique life, or as a symbol of your personal and precious bond with another."

the last trip

-The Cybernetics society

2009-02-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

**quote** :
"The Cybernetics Society holds scientific meetings, conferences, and social events, and engages in other activities to encourage public understanding of science and to extend and disseminate knowledge of cybernetics and its associated disciplines. The Society aims to support the Continuing Professional Development of its members. The Cybernetics Society is a member society of the International Federation for Systems Research and is affiliated to the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics."

About Cybernetics ?

-Stelarc - MIT press

2009-02-22T03:11:00.000-08:00

Stelarc
The Monograph
Edited by Marquard Smith
Foreword by William Gibson
With contributions by Julie Clarke, Timothy Druckrey, Jane Goodall, Amelia Jones, Arthur Kroker, Marilouise Kroker, Brian Massumi and Stelarc

MIT press

-EYEBORG

2009-02-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

**ROB SPENCE** :
"I am a filmmaker who lost an eye so naturally I decided to modify my prosthetic eye into a video camera. I am ~not~ a lifecaster. I will use the eye-cam the same way I use a video camera now - or the same way any filmmaker would use a camera enabled cell phone. I work as a director and producer in Toronto, Canada and I have had my work on Discovery, The CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), Vision, and Space TV. Currently, I am in development on a documentary about how video and humanity intersect escpecially with regards to surveillance..."

eyeborg blog I
eyeborg blog II

-Souterrain porte V - Nancy (France) 2009

2009-02-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

**quote** :
"Souterrain is a thematic festival focused on the imaginary of the body in thecontemporary landscape. A cross-over between art, science and imaginary. The event, revolved around an exhibition, brought together about 50 artists forabout 300 works on display (photo, painting, sculpture, installation, digitaland video art,...)

Around this exhibition (which lasts 1 month), is also organized conférences, oneweek of live shows (performances, physical theater, happenings, dance, concerts,...) gathering international artists under the label "INTERNATIONAL BODY-ARTFESTIVAL" and a film festival Under the label HYBRID FILM FEST (HFF)

In 2009 will be the Vth édition between september 11 to october 3The central thème of this year is : Robots, Hybrids, CyborgsExhibitions : September 11 to October 3, 2009International Body Art Festival : September 25 to October 3 2009Conferences : September 30 and October 1, 2009

The entire event is held at the "Totem", managed by the company Materia Prima,in Maxeville (closed to Nancy - East France), a vast industrial wasteland of 6000 m2, divided into different spaces which offers many possibilities.

While remaining an alternative event driven by a company of performers (MateriaPrima) and a publishing company (named "Editions de la Maison Close"), we haveacquired a certain reputaion over the years due to the requirement programming,the rigor of the organization and the originality of the events that we are usedto propose.

Here are the artists who have already participated to the festival :

RonAthey, Lukas Zpira, Stelarc, Marceli Antunez, Tiger Lillies, Empress Stah, VonMagnet, Do Theatre, Maria Betty, Ten Pen Chii, Zuka Off, Yann Mihn, GillesBerquet, Mïrka Lugosi, Romain Slocombe, Alien Nation, William Ropp, Marie L., WïPi Wï, Cocoon, Punish Yourself, Reed 013, Gnom, Ali Madavi and many otherartists..."

Probably the best Body Art event in europe ...

a vision of the precedent event

about 2009 event (not to be missed !)