If you’ve always secretly thought modern art is just a pile of crap, well, you’re finally right. This year’s Ars Electronica competition featured Cloaca, which received an Award of Distinction in the Hybrid Art category:
Wim Delvoye’s Cloaca is a complex installation that simulates the human digestive process. The machine is fed with everyday foodstuffs. The mechanically produced end product is–even under scientific examination–impossible to differentiate from human excrement.
We’re not sure how rigorously this ‘scientific examination’ was conducted — but then again, sometimes it’s just better to take the artist’s word for it. Wikipedia has an entry on artist Wim Delvoye, and links to an informative interview with him about Cloaca — which answers the questions — “what if you feed it chili?” and “who buys this crap?”
We also like how Cloaca’s website blends elements from the logos of Coca-Cola, Ford, Mr. Clean, Arm & Hammer, and how artist Wim Delvoye borrows from Disney and Warner Brothers…
All the different installations of Cloaca…
Via Regine at We-Make-Money-Not-Art
One NSFW “output” image, after the jump:
From the interview at Lacanian Ink 19:
WD: You would have to look up the exact number, but for some 40 billion years human beings have been eating and shitting. And what do most people do except reproduce, eat and shit