Steph came across this really odd story from boingboing.net about a mini cloaca gadget which, I guess sits in your office, living room, or or on your desk and makes shit from food.

The story says that this gadget is from artist Wim Delvoye, and is his latest installation of his Cloaca series.

This model is called the "Mini Cloaca." Delvoye’s machines take food, grind it up, add it to a slurry of digestive juices, and make—more or less—shit. While previous models were almost industrial-sized, the Mini consumes about as much food as a breakfast meal. 

Delvoye’s wiki entry says that The first Cloaca machine was exhibited at the MuHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp) in 2000.

The machine was "fed" an exquisite meal twice a day, the feces coming out at the other end of the processing unit as a result of the "digestion" of the food.

There are several Cloaca set-ups: the original setup is that of a series of containers in glass on a long table, while the more modern ones are comparatively shorter, digesting food through what looks like a series of washing machines.

The logo and other promotional art work of the Cloaca project are a parody of the logos of Coca-Cola, Ford, Mr. Clean, and other brands. The feces produced by the Cloaca machines are sold vacuum-packed in translucent boxes.

Check out his website at www.cloaca.be

mmm.