Health Problems Force Professor to Pull Camera From Back of Head
February 7, 2011, 5:46 pm
An NYU professor triggered adebate about campus privacy in November when he decided to implant a camera in the back of his head for a year-long art project.Now the professor, Wafaa Bilal
, faces a much bigger obstacle than students who might not want their pictures taken. His body is rejecting part of the implanted device.
, faces a much bigger obstacle than students who might not want their pictures taken. His body is rejecting part of the implanted device.The Iraqi-born artist underwent surgery on Friday to remove a section of the camera apparatus, which is rigged to snap a picture every 60 seconds and publish the image on aWeb site set up for the project. The pictures are also displayed on monitors in a physical exhibit at a museum in Doha, Qatar.
“I’m determined to continue with it,” Mr. Bilal, an assistant arts professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, said on Monday.
Under its initial configuration, the camera was mounted on three posts. Each led to a titanium base that was implanted between Mr. Bilal’s skin and skull. The procedure was done by a body-modification artist at a tattoo shop in Los Angeles. But the setup caused constant pain, because his body rejected one of the posts, despite treatment with antibiotics and steroids. So Mr. Bilal had that post surgically removed, leaving the other two intact.
Once the wound heals, Mr. Bilal hopes to figure out a different setup and remount a lighter camera. For now, though, he’s carrying on the project by tying the camera to the back of his neck.
This type of intrusive performance art is not my thing but OK. It's cool that it technologically can be done, even if I don't get the point.
ReplyDeleteThis part unnerved me. "The procedure was done by a body-modification artist at a tattoo shop in Los Angeles."
What?! Don't you think that a doctor might be the appropriate person to see? Or maybet Best Buy.
I hear ya, B-Ben....if I ever felt compelled to embed a largish chunk of titanium into my head, I'm not sure I'd go with someone who specializes in nose and nipple piercings.
ReplyDeleteIt may well be that he couldn't readily find an MD willing to do it.
ReplyDeleteWhere is Bitchy Bear when we need her? She would love this.
ReplyDeleteHis noggin graces the back of my alumni magazine--I might try to get him to come talk to my classes about the ways we've been "interpenetrated by our technology," as William Gibson put it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a dumbass.
ReplyDelete"Where is Bitchy Bear when we need her? She would love this."
ReplyDelete- Frog and Toad
We had an arguement in the round about whether this was art, how gross this was, etc. She made the point then that she didn't consider the pictures art. I don't know if she has changed her view on Prof. Bilal's project. I know that I was afraid that his body would reject the implants....my hope is he can finish it; four out of twelve months isn't good enough.
@Keener
Go back to watching re-runs of "Family Ties."
This is absolutely, completely, and utterly REVOLTING, and I hope this smeghead gets an abcess that dribbles and causes every decent human being for yards around to flee in terror and DISGUST! EEEWWWWW!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete@Strelnikov,
ReplyDeleteI can't. I'm busy immersing myself in an illegally downloaded marathon of Night Court instead of doing my Comp homework.
@Farris: I agree; I suspect that many doctors would see a conflict with the Hippocratic Oath. Which might be a good reason not to do it in the first place.
ReplyDelete