So, there’s this NYU art professor who has implanted a camera into his head. Wafaa Bilal teaches at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Hey, if I knew it was that easy to be an art prof, I would have gone further down the academic rabbit hole and gotten my Masters. In fact, back during my art school days, I was already well aware of this type of tomfoolery. This guy’s act is simply going to be accepted in certain elite art circles. It legitimizes a stunt. Bilal is giving art a bad name but, then again, what he’s doing is not art. Make no mistake. No matter how much intellectualizing is done over this. No matter how many lectures you may go to that cite this, and invite you to consider it within the context of his work, blah, blah, blah, it is still not art. Listen to him explain what he’s doing and the best he can come up with is to say that he wants to demonstrate that art is relevant. Well, he’s not doing that by implanting a camera into his head, now is he?
Please do not do this at home or apply for a grant and have this installed by another crazy artist. This is not art!! I am a dyed-in-the-wool artist, embrace all kinds of art, but this is nuts. Why couldn’t the guy wear a hat with a camera attached to it, you know? Doesn’t he watch LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN? Hey, I’ve linked it just in case he’s reading this. Hasn’t he heard of running around with a camera attached to your head–not literally implanted to your head? He would be the “Artist Cam” guy. So, when you stop and think about it, before engaging in any death defying surgery (his body has rejected parts of this insane implant) you have to come to the conclusion that this has already been done and done quite well by the talented staff at LATE SHOW. It’s comedy, not art. You don’t implant a camera in your head. That’s not art, it’s tragic.
