美国纽约大学摄影系伊拉克裔教授瓦法·比拉尔将通过手术在自己的后脑勺中植入一个拇指大小的摄像头，每隔一分钟拍摄一张照片。

A New York University arts professor might not have eyes on the back of his head, but he's coming pretty close. Wafaa Bilal, a visual artist widely recognized for his interactive¹ and performance pieces, had a small digital camera implanted（种植，灌输） in the back of his head — all in the name of art.

Bilal said Tuesday that he underwent the procedure for an art project that was commissioned by a new museum in Doha, Qatar, in the Arab Gulf².

Titled "The 3rd I," it is one of 23 contemporary（当代的） works commissioned for the opening of the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art on Dec. 30. The exhibition is entitled "Told/Untold/Retold."

"I am going about my daily life as I did before the procedure," the Iraqi-born artist said in a statement.

Bilal, who is teaching three courses this semester at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, will wear the camera for one year. It is 2 inches in diameter and less than an inch thick.

The project will raise "important social, aesthetic³（美学的，审美的） , political, technological⁴ and artistic⁵ questions," he said.

He declined to say when the camera was implanted or other details of the art installation, saying it "will be revealed to the public as part of the museum preview on Dec. 15" and on a website to be launched on the same day, http://www.3rdi.me.

He said he chose to have it put in the back of the head as an allegorical（讽喻的，寓言的） statement about the things we don't see and leave behind.

How it all fits together is still a bit of a mystery.

The camera will capture his everyday activities at one-minute intervals⁶ 24-hours a day and then be transmitted to monitors at the museum, said curators（馆长，监护人） Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, who commissioned Bilal on behalf of the museum.

"He doesn't have to alter his lifestyle or what he does. In principal, he's moving on with his life," Bardaouil told The Associated Press from Doha. "It will be a three-dimensional, real space-and-time experience. Once the piece is revealed, you'll realize that the camera is only one aspect of the work and there are aspects as important that will be experienced."

Bilal said "The 3rd I" builds on his other body of work that combines performance art, digital and body art and photography（摄影） "into a unique conceptual piece."