The Immortal

source: cohenvanbalen

A number of life-support machines are connected to each other, circulating liquids and air in attempt to mimic a biological structure.
The Immortal investigates human dependence on electronics, the desire to make machines replicate organisms and our perception of anatomy as reflected by biomedical engineering.

A web of tubes and electric cords are interwoven in closed circuits through a Heart-Lung Machine, Dialysis Machine, an Infant Incubator, a Mechanical Ventilator and an Intraoperative Cell Salvage Machine. The organ replacement machines operate in orchestrated loops, keeping each other alive through circulation of electrical impulses, oxygen and artificial blood.
Salted water acts as blood replacement: throughout the artificial circulatory system minerals are added and filtered out again, the blood gets oxygenated via contact with the oxygen cycle, and an ECG device monitors the system’s heartbeat. As the fluid pumps around the room in a meditative pulse, the sound of mechanical breath and slow humming of motors resonates in the body through a comforting yet disquieting soundscape.

Life support machines are extraordinary devices; computers designed to activate our bodies when anatomy fails, hidden away in hospital wards. Although they are designed as the ultimate utilitarian appliances, they are extremely meaningful and carry a complex social, cultural and ethical subtext. While life prolonging technologies are invented as emergency measures to combat or delay death, my interest lies in considering these devices as a human enhancement strategy.
This work is a continuation of my investigation of the patient as a cyborg, questioning the relationship between medicine and techno- fantasies about mechanical bodies, hyper abilities and posthumanism.

The interpretation of anatomy with a mechanical vocabulary reflects strongly the Western perception of the body. Defining the body as a machine – where dysfunctional parts can be replaced by mechanics – speaks of how we understand life. These objects encompass social debates about the ethics of euthanasia, the quantification of both the value and quality of life, making physical a poetic desire to conquer our own mortality.
The medical machine – whether in use or not – is an object which transcends its materiality. Designed and created to perform a single, most meaningful function, we never subject these devices to critical investigation as industrial products within the context of material culture. This work aims to explore the nature of these devices as objects of our times, liberated from their restrained purpose while still charged with its resonance.

The installation is the result of an irrational, laborious and ambitious quest – the creation of a Frankenstein- esque system built from advanced medical equipment. Making the machines work without a body required a definition of this creature as its own species – from interpreting mechanical ʻbloodʼ or establishing brain function replacement, to prioritising and mapping functions of cleaning, pumping and oxygenating, in order to construct a coherent circuit. Most of the machines were reconfigured or hacked, “dumbed down” in order to operate without biological matter. All machines were given new casings that expose their inner workings and unify them as organs of the same body.

The collection of machines used in this circuit and the absence of bodily functions that do not exist in mechanical form highlight the way medical technology evolves from culture. The existing technology illustrates the Western view of the lungs and heart as the centre of our being, avoiding confrontation with the digestive system which is conceptually unappealing yet biologically vital. Similarly, the Cell Salvage machine, developed in response to Jehovah’s Witnesses’ refusal to accept blood transfusions – believed to be in defiance of Godʼs will – is an industrial artefact that blurs the boundary between technocracy and the metaphysical.

Social meanings can also be found within the complex practices and hierarchies surrounding the trade and donation of advanced medical equipment. Medical devices in decline have clear migration patterns: they travel from the western world to the the third world to veterinary practices.
Migration trails indicating which types of machines are in demand in which parts of the world speak of whoʼs body is defined a national priority.

By exploring the medical instruments while detached from the human body and functioning as an independent being, each electronic body part accentuate the distance between the organic and the artificial.
Through the visibility of motors, electronic circuits, fluid pumps, audio-visual signals and particularly the scale and electric exhaustion of the work, we are confronted with the stark contrasts that lie in the primitive functions of precision hardware.

The Immortal is occupied with the compelling and discomforting nature of these objects, the products of our attempts to conquer biology with engineering. The absence of the body only underlines that the machines filling the room are inherently biological.

// Supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award

// This project was made possible with the help of Papworth Hospital, Sorin Group, Medtronic and Draeger UK
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source: cohenvanbalen

Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen run a London based experimental practice that operates on the border between art and design.
They produce fictional objects, photographs and videos exploring the juxtaposition of the natural with the artificial.
Inspired by designer species, composed wilderness and mechanical organs, they set out to create posthuman bodies, bespoke metabolisms, unnatural animals and poetic machines.
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source: thecreatorsproject

On a l’impression que le matériel médical contribue à l’ambiance un peu glauque qui règne dans les hôpitaux – probablement à cause de la mort et de la maladie qui hantent perpétuellement ces lieux de soin. De quoi donner un réel impact à l’installation de Revital Cohen.

Ce travail s’intitule The Immortal et est constitué d’une machine d’assistance respiratoire, d’un appareil à dialyse, d’un incubateur pour enfant, et d’un récupérateur de cellule qui forment un circuit fermé où circule du sang artificiel, des signaux électriques, et de l’air dans le but de reproduire un organisme biologique. Dans sa tentative d’imiter une forme de vie rudimentaire, le bourdonnement de la machine lui confère une forme d’altérité.

Cohen explique :

The Immortal étudie les rapports de l’homme avec l’électronique, le désir de fabriquer des machines reproduisant les mécanismes de l’organisme et notre perception de notre anatomie à travers l’ingénierie médicale.

Cette oeuvre fera partie de l’exposition Superhuman explorant les avancées humaines à la Wlecome Collection à Londres du 19 juillet au 16 octobre 2012.
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source: thecreatorsproject

정확한 이유는 모르겠지만 의료기기나 병원 시설들은 오싹한 분위기를 가지고 있다. 아마 의료 기관과 연관된 죽음과 병때문에 그렇기 않을까? 그래서 Revital Cohen의 설치 미술은 관객에게 깊은 인상을 남긴다.

The Immortal 작품은 인큐베이터, 인공 심폐 장치, 투석 기구등을 사용하여 인공피, 전기 신호 그리고 공기를 돌리는 폐회로를 만들어 생물 구조를 모방한다. 윙윙거리는 소리는 작품에 “다른” 분위기를 더하며 가장 기본적인 살아있지 않은 생물체 하이브리드-머신이 작동되고 있다는 것을 알려준다.

Cohen의 사이트에 의하면:

The Immortal은 인간들이 전자제품에 얼마나 기대며 사는지를 연구합니다. 생물체를 기계들이 모방하기를 원하는 바램과 의공기사가 인간의 몸을 바라보는 관점을 보여줍니다.

작품은 Superhuman 전시회의 부분으로서 7월 19일부터 10월 16일까지 런던의 Wellcome Collection을 통해 인간의 발전을 고민할 예정입니다.
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source: tecniarts

Máquinas que aseguran la vida de otras máquinas. La misma relación que entre seres humanos pero traspolada al campo de la tecnología. The inmortal (2012) [El inmortal] es la última obra de la artista inglesa Revital Cohen, se trata de una instalación donde cinco máquinas que se utilizan para dar soporte vital en hospitales de alta complejidad subsisten interconectadas en el intento de simular un circuito biológico.
Una máquina cardiopulmonar, una máquina de diálisis, una incubadora, un ventilador mecánico y un sistema para recuperación de sangre intraoperatoria comparten una red de cables y tubos transparentes por donde circulan impulsos eléctricos, sangre artificial, solución salina y oxígeno. El funcionamiento integral está calculado para que la circulación sea continua. Cada dispositivo depende del otro, entre ellos se retroalimentan y entablan una relación directa. Las bombas de fluido generan el pulso, se percibe un ritmo respiratorio y un zumbido (los motores eléctricos) que componen un paisaje sonoro similar al de una fábrica en plena producción.
La artista explica que The inmortal detiene su atención en la dependencia humana de la electrónica y en el deseo de que las máquinas reemplacen órganos vitales. La percepción de la anatomía se ve distorsionada y se acerca al trabajo de la ingeniería biomédica. Hay una visión marcadamente occidental del cuerpo: la mecánica es el vocabulario que prevalece –podría decirse el único– lo cual invierte la visión convencional, enfrenta las lecturas de corte biologicista sobre el comportamiento corporal. Si el desarrollo del ser humano necesita de la tecnología y de otros seres humanos para su evolución, las máquinas, en este caso, se valen de las prestaciones de la tecnología para mantenerse en actividad, se aseguran su propia supervivencia y retiran al ser humano de la escena.