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Video, Photos: NYU Prof Installs Camera in Back of Head
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 3, 2010
Modified Dec 3, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 3, 2010
Modified Dec 3, 2010
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The operation was a success, and NYU professor Wafaa Bilal's transformation into an Orwellian cyborg is complete! You'll recall that Bilal has decided to install a camera in the back of his head, to be held in place by "a piercing-like attachment" for one year. According to the project's website, in about a week the digital camera will start snapping photos every minute, 24 hours a day, and then transmit them via the Internet to a new museum in Qatar. Which makes us wonder: Who'll be the first savvy viral marketer to photobomb his third eye? (Gothamist.com interns are currently staking out the NYU campus.) Here's video of Bilal before and after "The 3rd I" procedure:
Bilal reached an agreement with NYU to put a lens cap over the camera when he's on school grounds, so as not to disturb the notoriously private college kids at NYU. But once he's off campus, the lens cap comes off too, and it's party time. Well, sort of. Bilal tells the Wall Street Journal that some of his stuffy friends don't want Old Headcam at their dinner parties anymore. You really find out who your friends are when you implant a camera in your head, huh? "If people don't accept it, then I don't want the invitation," Bilal sniffs. To make matter worse, he's now having a hard time sleeping, what with THAT CAMERA ATTACHED TO HIS HEAD.
He also has to contend with his girlfriend, who didn't actually think he'd go through with it. We're not sure why she's surprised, though; after all, this is the guy who created a video game called "Virtual Jihadi," in which he inserted an avatar of himself as a suicide-bomber hunting President George W. Bush. "She's my best friend and she believes in what I do," Bilal tells the Journal. "So far there is no cap restriction, but I'm waiting for the first photo of her on the Internet." So are we!
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Wafaa Bilal
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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