New York University professor Wafaa Bilal had art on his mind when he had a camera mounted to the back of his head, but Iām claiming having electronics surgically attached to your body in the name of science.
If the name of the Iraqi-born professor is familiar to Kotaku readers, thatās because heās the man behind the controversial Virtual Jihadi, which modified a low-budget game called Quest for Saddam, putting the player in place of a young Iraqi that joins Al Qaeda to avenge the death of his brother and kill George W. Bush.
A cable runs from the back of the camera to a specially designed shoulder bag housing a laptop computer, which will process the pictures taken once every minute.
Why would he do such a thing, other than the sheer coolness of having a piece of technology grafted to your skull?
āI wanted to lose that subjectivity of knowingly taking photographsā, Mr Bilal said. āAt the same time I wanted to capture everyday mundane images.
He also said āYes, it hurt alot.ā
His project, called 3rd I, will see Bilal spending a year with the camera attached to his head, with images constantly being beamed to the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. Visitors there will see whatās happening behind him as he sleeps, eats, showers, and has sex. Iād imagine that last one involves a lot of zooming back and forth while focused on a wall, ceiling, or pillow.
My guess is heāll capture a great deal of photos featuring people trying to figure out what the hell is going on in the back of his head. I donāt know if thatās art, but as a staunch supporter of cyborgs and cyborg-by-products, I definitely approve.
Artist has camera surgically inserted so he can have āeyes at the back of his headā for a year [Daily Mail]
