Artist implants camera in the back of his head
Artist implants camera in the back of his head
A New York University arts professor might not have eyes on the back of his head, but he's coming pretty close.
Wafaa Bilal, a visual artist widely recognized for his interactive and performance pieces, had a small digital camera implanted in the back of his head — all in the name of art.
Bilal, who is teaching three courses this semester at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, will wear the camera for one year. It is 2 inches in diameter and less than an inch thick.
The project will raise "important social, aesthetic, political, technological and artistic questions," he said.
He said he chose to have it put in the back of the head as an allegorical statement about the things we don't see and leave behind.
How it all fits together is still a bit of a mystery.
The camera will capture his everyday activities at one-minute intervals 24-hours a day and then be transmitted to monitors at the museum, said curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, who commissioned Bilal on behalf of the museum.
"As a school of the arts, a school whose mission is to educate artists, we place a high value on his right to free expression in his creative work as an artist ...," NYU said in a statement.
Bilal said "The 3rd I" builds on his other body of work that combines performance art, digital and body art and photography "into a unique conceptual piece."
Many of his previous works have invited debate and controversy.
In a 2007 online installation, "Domestic Tension" in 2007, virtual users could shoot a paintball gun at Bilal 24 hours a day. The Chicago Tribune deemed it "one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time" and named him Artist of the Year that year.
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- Posted on November 24, 2010
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Maybe this new technoogy can evolve into recording the video and sending it to your mobile device so it is always handy. This new idea cna help capture little things in life that couldnt be seen before.
Actually, this was an amazingly smart idea. It has so many different purposes and so many different possible outcomes that its perfect. Just think about how many reasons or things that we want to look back on or want to leave behind forever. Maybe looking back isn't a bad idea after all.
How would you not get electricuted? This is the strangest thing I have ever known of. Now I guess we can all say he is the first artist to implant a camera in the back of his head.
Honestly I beleive this guy is pretty smart. There has alway been that expresstion, I have eyes in the back of my head and im realy glad someone decided to do this. It is a little weird
Honestly I beleive this guy is pretty smart. There has alway been that expresstion, I have eyes in the back of my head and im realy glad someone decided to do this. It is a little weird but I sure this will give him great artistic inspiration.
This guy look's like the guy from the 7/11 store from up my street an he talk's weird because he can't speak what we speak an some how i think that's funny.
Wafaa Bilal has some major innovative ways of thinking and functioning in his world. We do leave things behind us, and don't stop and smell the roses most of the time in this day and age. Bilal is going to show us how much beauty there is in the world in a radical, strange way, but nonetheless his project will be an eyeopener.
I find it interesting that his camera will capture his activities every minute; there will be lots of dark pictures for when he is asleep at night! Although we cannot see what happens around us when we're sleeping, maybe this project will show us some interesting information.
Bilal is an innovator, and I think this is a daring yet wonderful thing to do.
That's what I call self expression. I wish I could think of something that amazing and have the guts to go on with it. I love art and it pretty much is my life so this is such an amazing work that I kind of honor this man. Being smart enough to actually put a camera in your head doesn't come very often. This man is amazing and I wish I could meet him.
I'm all for freedom of expression,and controversy is essential,but I think that this is a little extreme and definitely over analyzed.As something of an artist myself,I know that different things inspire different people.But how this will instill anything positive in young artists,I have no idea.He got a camera stuck in the back of his head.End of story.Well,in any event,I hope I'm wrong and I hope it does galvanize people to look at things differently,because its all about perspective.Anyway,if that's what he wants to do,more power to him.This is still a free country,right?
Wafaa Bilal ideas on art and his creations have from the beginning introduced debate and controversy. Although in New York he is revered and his works are considered unique and creative. The Third I he has made captures his everyday activities at one-minute intervals a day. It is then transferred to a museum to record all the things we don't see and leave behind in our day to day lives.