An NYU professor triggered a debate 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.
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 a Web 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.
The professor has offered several explanations for what motivated such an extreme piece of art. The inspiration comes from his chaotic past: Mr. Bilal fled Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991, living in refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before coming to the United States. In retrospect, he wished for a record of places he left behind.
He also sees the project’s mundane, daily images as a way of slowing life down and calling attention to the present. “Most of the time, we don’t live in the places we live in,” he said. “We don’t exist in the city we exist in. Perhaps physically we exist, but mentally we are somewhere else.” Yet another explanation: The project points to the future—a future where, as Mr. Bilal sees it, communication devices will become part of our bodies.
But why not simply wear the camera, rather than implant it?
“It’s a performance,” Mr. Bilal said. “With the performance comes endurance. But also it’s a commitment. And I didn’t feel that strapping something around my neck would be the same way I’m committed to the project as mounting it to the top of my head.”
23 Responses to Health Problems Force Professor to Pull Camera From Back of Head
drangie - February 8, 2011 at 6:50 am
This is neither art nor performance. It is nutty narcissism.
cio1491 - February 8, 2011 at 7:50 am
This is old technology. Moms have always had eyes in the back of their heads.
And what kind of shampoo would you use?
berkeleyprof - February 8, 2011 at 8:15 am
He had this implant done by a piercer, not a licensed medical specialist of some sort??
And Bilal’s a professor? Shouldn’t he have understood where this frivolous act was headed?
dank48 - February 8, 2011 at 8:23 am
“When everybody’s somebody,
Then no one’s anybody.”
The academic-art equivalent of Jerry Springer. . . . In a society in which attention is the brass ring, this is art. Right. And this discussion is Homeric epic.
rmalamud - February 8, 2011 at 8:24 am
Two words: duct tape.
interface - February 8, 2011 at 8:45 am
Inspiring. I have decided to pack this academentia stuff in and have wheels surgically attached to my feet. The procedure will be done by the same kid who in 7th grade pierced my ears with a safety pin, as soon as I can find her on FB.
drjeff - February 8, 2011 at 9:13 am
berkeleyprof- I imagine he had it done by someone who does piercings because I can’t imagine any “licensed medical professional” would do it. This is WAY outside the practice of medicine, and would have violated the “do no harm” part of the Hippocratic oath (obvious even to us in retrospect, but the possibility would have been apparent to a doc prospectively). Not to mention malpractice insurance. And even if they would do it, I’m not sure how good an idea it is to be their first. But implanting titanium mounting posts is well within the “normal” practice of some of the more advanced “body modification artists.”
On reading the previous paragraph, I’m wondering how my daughter’s pediatrician justifies their (apparently lucrative) practice of piercing girls’ ears. I’m not sure I understand how it’s different, other than being more common.
To paraphrase Dr. Pangloss: we live in the strangest of all possible worlds.
writersblock - February 8, 2011 at 9:22 am
“Yet another explanation: The project points to the future—a future where, as Mr. Bilal sees it, communication devices will become part of our bodies.”
I believe we already have these–aren’t they called “mouths”?
feudi - February 8, 2011 at 9:26 am
I realize that we are all our own networks now, but maybe Professor Bilal should have listened to his own head when it started rejecting the device. Isn’t all of the output bass ackwards?
e_eddie_edwards - February 8, 2011 at 9:31 am
More than 30 years ago some chums attending Antioch Baltimore had a similar idea. They wanted to attach a video camera to the top of a motorcycle helmet with clamps and duct tape, walk around the city and record the results.
They were dissuaded by their adviser, who quipped: “What are you going to record pictures of, besides people gawking at an idiot with a camera taped to his brain pan?”
physicsprof - February 8, 2011 at 9:57 am
Poor guy, his tenure project failed.
22199179 - February 8, 2011 at 10:10 am
sewiously?
bbetsy56 - February 8, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Was this a post from The Onion?
anonytrans - February 8, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Expert piercers regularly implant metal objects into people’s bodies (check out bmezine.com for examples – or don’t). Whatever you might think of it, it’s not so unusual.
rlevine - February 8, 2011 at 1:01 pm
He needs this project like a hole in the head.
11253423 - February 8, 2011 at 1:56 pm
And what kind of shampoo would you use? cio1491 – February 8, 2011 at 7:50 am
Head & Shutters
qweruiop - February 8, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Please tell me this project was not funded with federal grant money. Money generated by tax payers who would no doubt love to see their taxes hard at work here. And Liberal Art students wonder why the general public sees their medium with such distate.