Stelarc 'Spectacle of the Mind' performance for Global Mind Project Launch at Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia, 15 January, 2010. Photograph: Brecon Walsh (copyright, 2010). Reproduced with kind permission of the artist.
This on-screen multi-image produced by the interaction between Stelarc's brain-waves, Karen Casey images and Stelarc's own Prosthetic Head is reminiscent of Surrealist art. Generally associated with unusual juxtapositions, strangeness of composition, the depiction of chance events, an engagement with the other or depictions of the unseen world of the unconscious, this somewhat surreal image appears somehow appropriate in a performance that attempted to depict the spectacle of mind.
The manifold faces, distorted as they were by brain-wave activity hint at the schizophrenic nature of identity mediated by technological interface. The self is simultaneously self as non-self - self as other, split between real and virtual body image.
The picture produced is fascinating (and I must admit I'm happy that Brecon managed to capture it because it eluded me) for, as Stelarc conducted a series of screeching sounds into the performance space by moving his right hand slowly up and down, he also appears in this particular screen-grab, to be orchestrating his own self image in the myriad of occurring overlays.
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