Eye See It Differently

Only in America?  Steve Austin (SixMillion Dollar Man) eat your heart out!

In the name of art, an assistant arts professor at New York University has become the first person that this reporter knows of, to have a camera surgically embedded into the back of his head.  Unfortunately, it became quite the headache.

Wafaa Bilal had the camera implanted between his skin and his skull at an L.A. tattoo shop.  (Where else?)  It was rigged to shoot spontaneous images every minute that would live-stream to a website that screens at the Muthaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

As you might expect, it was quite painful, even with help from steroids and antibiotics.  Seems his body was rejecting the foreign object.  He's since had the camera removed.

According to NBC New York:

One of the three titanium posts holding his "third eye" was removed by surgery this Friday, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, forcing him to find other means to continue with his photography project for a museum in Qatar.

"I'm determined to continue with it," Bilal told the Chronicle about "3rdi" which is described on his website as "a statement on surveillance, the mundane and the things we leave behind."

And from the "If At First You Don't Succeed" Department, Bilal plans to try the experiment again using a "lighter camera and alternate setups."  For now, he's just got the camera tied to the back of his neck.

Might try a better tattoo parlor next time.