In November, David wrote about Wafaa Bilal, the New York University lecturer who had a thumbnail-sized camera surgically installed into the back of his head. The idea was that it would snap one picture every minute for an entire year and the feed would be displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. Except that Bilal’s body wasn’t too impressed by the foreign body stuck in his skull and rejected it.
Whatever the cocktail of steroids and anti-biotics that Bilal was taking, it couldn’t stop the implant from becoming unbearably painful. So out it came. Still, Bilal is planning on continuing with his experiment. He’s going to strap a camera to the back of his neck, instead.
I know that there’s this weird idea of suffering for art, but wouldn’t that have been the more sensible option in the first place?
(Headsup to Engadget.)