聯合翻譯有限公司/聯合翻譯社

A New York University professor has had a camera implanted in the back of his head – and it was done all in the name of art.

Iraqi-born Wafaa Bilal had the procedure done at a piercing studio last month for a project commissioned by a museum in Qatar.

The camera will broadcast everything he ‘sees’ to the public and will be transmitted to Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in time for their December 30 opening.

The project, called The 3rd I, will take snap-shot photographs each minute of his everyday activities for one year, Mr Bilal said.

The waterproof camera will capture everything from him taking a shower, walking down the street, to even him having sex.

Mr Bilal shaved a square patch of hair before a titanium plate was inserted inside the back of his head.

A small camera was mounted on the base plate which connects magnetically.

He has a cable runs from the camera to a computer which he carries in a custom-made shoulder bag.

Yes it hurt a lot’, he said in response to whether the procedure carried out under local anaesthetic was painful.

‘I wanted to lose that subjectivity of knowingly taking photographs’, Mr Bilal said. ‘At the same time I wanted to capture everyday mundane images.

He says the project is ‘a comment on the inaccessibility of time, and the inability to capture memory and experience.’

After an uproar over privacy issues, Mr Bilal has agreed to conserve the privacy of his students at Tisch School of the Arts by wearing a lens cap on the camera when he’s on campus.

University spokesman John Beckman said: ‘We place a high value on his right to free expression in his creative work as an artist. But as a school of the arts, we also take seriously the privacy issues his project raises.

The Qatari museum’s curator Till Fellrath said: ‘He’s not really a photographer, he’s not really a video artist, he’s not really a performance artist. (Daily Mail)