Tanya Vlach: The human camera

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Tanya Vlach lost her left eye in a car accident three years ago. Now, as part of an artistic experiment, she'd like to wear a video camera - behind her fake eyeball.



Vlach, with the help of enthusiastic strangers who responded to a call for engineers on her blog, hopes a tiny recording lens can be developed to help her launch various art projects, from filming documentaries to live Web casting through her eye.

Meanwhile, another one-eyed filmmaker in Toronto named Rob Spence has announced that he's enlisted inventor Steve Mann, an expert in "wearable technology," to also enter the race for the world's first recording eyeball.

Both Vlach's and Spence's cyborgian art projects speak to the growing acceptance of transhumanism - a broad term used to describe the community of inventors, academics and enthusiasts who, among other things, encourage the ethical use of technology in bodies to expand human capabilities.

Remember Professor Kevin "Mr Cyborg" Warwick of Reading University talking about his man-machine interface experiment?

He embedded a radio receiver and several chips under the skin inside his left elbow. The chips allowed sensors around his department to detect his presence and open doors, switch on lights and have a synthesised voice say: "Welcome Professor Warwick."

His secretary could locate him simply by looking at a computer screen, a useful tool to find the constantly moving Warwick.

Warwick may have started an odd trend.

Tanya Vlach's experiment sounds more exciting, in a kind of ghoulish way.

One wonders when we will have the memory implants similar to those seen in the Omar Naim/Robin Williams movie The Final Cut

MORE: Humans hope high tech can improve their bodies

Tanya Vlach's blog

Rob Spence's blog

Kevin Warwick's website