Definitive Defecation Machine

Oh those wacky Belgians! Above is a segment from the British TV show Eurotrash detailing the stupendous feces faeces making machine Cloaca designed by artist Wim Delvoye. Food is put into the machine and is then fed through a series of tubes into various chambers containing biological compounds that mimic the human digestive system, breaking down the meals and finally excreting them. The finished product is nearly identical to actual human waste, which is quite an achievement. Delvoye even offered the artificial shit for purchase, although he seems to have sold out of it for the moment.

This is not his first foray into the scatological. Previously he had a series of prints of women’s anuses using lipstick and tiles with images of his faeces on them. His other work includes tattooing pigs and x-rays of people slathered with barium fucking made into stain-glass windows. The idea for Cloaca comes from the idea that people don’t spend enough time agog at the miracle that is the human digestive system, which I suppose is true; most of my meditation done on the porcelain throne not being focused on the coil of crap I’m expelling from my body, I suppose.

Watching the clip above — ignore the annoying voices of the translators — one must assume that the piece is something of a success. After all, when is the last time you saw people so eager to get so close to poop or run their fingers through it? It seems that by merely removing the human element one renders the entire undertaking acceptably sterile.

Eurotrash Cloaca the poo machine [YouTube] : Cloaca : Thanks, bela!