AIR implant (Augmenting Implant Radio)

Plinth Dates: 4 – 6 October 2011

AIR implant (Augmenting Implant Radio) by Marek Kultys

Scenario #3—No one expected that implanting wireless receivers into the human cochlear nerve would prove so easy. Today, many can enjoy listening to the ether with this artificial sixth sense. While adults face difficulties learning to interpret the stimuli, research indicates that full comprehension of radio signals can be developed through pre-birth implantation. Not so long ago many would call it unethical.

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AIR implant is a miniature radio receiver tuned to 912.5 kHz (AM BBC Radio 5) placed in a transparent gelatine capsule. Ten of those are embedded in one AIR implant blister.

AIR implant is part of a critical design project titled ‘The End of Hearing’. It aims at communicating science to the public and democratising the discourse around possible futures, to which current scientific developments—such as implant technologies—can lead.

Marek Kultys (www.the-end-of-hearing.org)

Diagrams

• AIR Implant (in Adobe PDF | Image file)