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NYU Professor's Body Rejects Camera Implant
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 10, 2011
Modified Feb 10, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 10, 2011
Modified Feb 10, 2011
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An NYU professor whose big plan to document his life using a camera surgically implanted in the back of his head has hit a snag. You'll recall that Wafaa Bilal, a provocative "performative and interactive" artist, completed his transformation to cyborg at the beginning of December. The project, titled "The 3rd I," was commissioned by a museum in Qatar, and you can view all the photos taken so far here (one every minute!). Bilal had agreed to wear a lens cap on NYU grounds so as not to violate the privacy of the university's notoriously reclusive students, but now the project faces another challenge: his body has rejected the implant! Looks like the singularity is further than we thought.
The Iraqi-born professor had to get surgery on Friday to remove a section of the camera apparatus. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that "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."
Bilal insists he's committed to continuing the project, and will try to have the camera attached to his head again. But for now, he's just tied the camera to the back of his neck with a piece of string... which doesn't seem quite as bad-ass.
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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
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