Methnet Newsletter 3 8/11/06 11:12 am Page 1 venue and subject between arts and works in progress, or The Methods Network staff technology and systems. The final, and perhaps the most challenging activity of the Lorna Hughes - Manager conference was a video conference with Professor Stelarc in email:
[email protected] which he discussed his most recent project. The concept is that the bodily construct is an accident of design and can therefore, Hazel Gardiner - Senior Project Officer be reconstructed—in this case an ear implanted and grown on Activities and Publications Co-ordinator the forearm. Professor Stelarc talked us through the processes email:
[email protected] of his attempt to ‘grow’ this working ear, a process which has been halted (temporarily) because of an infected arm. This Neil Grindley - Senior Project Officer presentation divided the audience by raising such issues as, ‘Is Activities and Publications Co-ordinator this art or self-mutilation?’ and the ethical value of such ‘works’. email:
[email protected] These questions, and the idea of the ‘malleability’ of the human body, brought the conference full circle from Professor Lydia Horstman - Publications and Administrative Officer Beacham’s earlier discussion about ethics, art, and technology Autumn 2006 - Issue 3 email:
[email protected] based on Appia’s theories—that we must ‘guard against technology getting the upper hand’. We must be vigilant in our Stuart Dunn - Research Associate in e-Science Methods pursuit of ‘ethical values and judgement’, and always strive for email:
[email protected] an ‘aesthetic truth’.