The Prosthetic Experience Between Body and Technology: Investigating 'Second Nature' in Experimental Art Practices

In this paper, I argue that a prosthetic aesthetic instigated by experimental art practices operate with and within a ‘second nature’ – in-between science and art. Drawing on theories from Dewey and Edelman and examples from Da Vinci, Brancusi, Man Ray, Dali and Stelarc, I am calling for an experience-based analysis of experimental practices operating between body and technology. These practices, which, rather than falling into the category of science fiction or horror cinema as some recent critique from post-human studies would have it, are pointing towards a genealogy of prosthetic experience in art, which is performing a complex re-design of (the idea and representation of) technology and the body.