Life = Art

Posted on by scott

Here are a couple of real-life (if speculative and fanciful) glimpses into the Uglies universe.

First this one . . .

cat9_image.jpg

What is that? A special? A pretty with some fairly heavy flash tattoo action?

Nope. It’s a Claritin makeup ad.

And check this out . . .

bioniceye.jpg

And eyescreen? Well, yeah, sort of.

Implanting a micro-camera directly into the eyeball may be a future solution for restoring sight to people with damaged vision, according to this patent application. The camera could be charged wirelessly, and communicate directly with a chip implanted at the back of the eye, so very little external hardware would be needed.

It’s from an article over at Gizmodo about installing a camera into the eye. So it wouldn’t just be an eyescreen, delivering data into the visual field, but also a camera, taking in real-world information to pass onto the visual cortex.

Maybe it’s not working technology yet, but it’s far along enough for a patent application. (Not that people wait very long for that these days, but still.)

Anyway, I thought I’d share those images with you. Working too hard on Leviathan to blog much. Sorry!

Update: The Claritin ad was sent to me by Tali (short of Natalia) Eldering. Thanks, and sorry I forgot to mention that the first time!

218 thoughts on “Life = Art”

  1. haha! sweet first comment! but thats awesome! it looks like an eye screen. also i think on one post/comment somewhere there is actually an eye screen! its pretty sweet!

  2. I love the ad—I really thought it was a flash tattoo, though.

    (And I really, really want that “eyescreen”) 😀

  4. SO MUCH FAWESOMENESS!!!

    wow. i totally have to buy that makeup. hehe.

    i cood totally use one of those. i had a really creepy dream last nite that i was the first person to try computerized contacts! they made my eyes gold and sharp. it was SO kick!

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 8)

  5. Ooh, the makeup’s really pretty <3

    Oh yeah, I think I read that article about the micro-camera to restore vision story a two weeks ago or something (on NewScientist, though, and later on Gizmodo).

    Pretty sweet; maybe someday X-men and all that stuff will be true too. Like Jumper maybe. Is anyone else going to go see it when it comes out?

    ~Issy

  6. wow. i cant imagine implanting a device in my eyeball. and i dont get how they can put the hardware BEHIND our eyeball. too scary to visualise. but it would be a cool future.

  7. Hey, thats cool. The eyeball screen/camera whatever. Hey, maybe if I get one, I won’t have to wear glasses anymore! And I get totally cool future technology in my eyeballs!!

  8. And comment 7! The closest I got to numba 1.

    That makeup is totally kick. I thought it was flash tattoos too.

  9. Cool pics, Scott. Is life imitiating art, now and not the other way around? And by all means– keep on typing up Leviathan. We masses are waiting!

    Wanda

  14. OMG! That is soooo fawsome!!!! It just makes you wonder how fast and how close the world will get to the Uglies/Preies/Specials world.

  15. And the eye cmaera thing sorta reminds me of this movie I saw a few years ago called The Last Cut or something like that. It was about the future and how they put cameras in people’s heads to tape everything they did and when the person died, the Cutters would make a funeral video type thing. It was to get everyone to be good and so when they die they will be “remembered.” It was just a way of controling the society. Pretty cool movie though.

  17. I LOVE the eyescreen thing and the makeup seems to be pure Fawesomeness

    Though i would be curious about what its made of. Obviously not metal
    I mean if they went anywhere near a magnet their eyescreens would be torn out!
    Gross!!

    Just something to think about!! 🙂

  20. yes, but working on Levithan is writing books. once books are written then they are blogged about and then they are waited for and written. sadly, this makes for a blogging drought.
    BUT, when you have been curled up in a dark room with a high-grade fever for the last week, blogs are surprisingly low on your mind.
    so come everyone! catch my horrible plague and wait it out!
    god, those feverish delusions really aren’t stopping.

    i think the best thing about the eyescreen one is that eyecolor. it’s so….colorful.

    also, i am equally disturbed that even in my coma, i was *positive* that as soon as i clicked on my westerblog link, there’d be a new post. the psychicness is truly disturbing. not the first time this’ happened.

  23. new post, yay! and i have a snow day too! this is turning out to be a pretty good day.

    and you should all go out and see Juno right now. just go. now!

    random, but i saw that and it’s now one of my favorites…

  24. the whole camera-in-eye concept is fawesome, and all, but what happened to the pupil? like, seriously, if i got that i’d wanna still have a pupil.

    i love that makeup, even if it’s impossible to recreate, but i wish i could do that…

    and, um, scott? Claritin is an allergy medication. Clarins is the makeup company…

  28. Don’t feel bad sera-la cause last night i came out of my feverish coma and then this morning i have got what my mom and dad and my big bros g/f has plus strep! GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FEEL HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want to be better… liike now….
    sera-la what illness put u in that feverish coma?

    in other news….

    i love that pic of the makeup… and ya scott…. um…. Claritin is meds…(which DON’T WORK!!!!!!) And Clarins is the makeup… he he he… i am like out of it cause of all the meds i have to take (THAT DON’T WORK!!)

    but i wish i was at school………

    *returns to whining about the meds i need to take that DON’T WORK*

    Sophie-La
    Sick is not fun 🙁

  29. Sera-la i have missed 3 1/3 days of school week…
    i hate missing school!!!!!!!!!!!!1
    i’ll have so much work to do……. ughhh….

    Sophie-La
    Sick is not fun 🙁

  31. I agree, this is a great day! 10 Inches of snow, a snow day which delays my mid-term AND a post! Now, Scott, if you could just finish Leviathon so I had something to procrastinate writing my papers with, life would be perfect.

  32. today is not a great day……

    i am really sleepy…. but not able to sleep….. i am sick and really really bored!!!!!!!
    i do have something fun to look forward to….. i get my new puppy tm…. i can’t wait….

    Sophie-LA
    Sick is not fun 🙁

  33. dont sweat it scott-la. you just finish up levithan asap! 😀
    those pictures are really creepy… right out of one of you’re books for sure.

    (GO LOOK AT MY BLOG! it is so lonely… (click my name))

  35. Y did Zane have to die if David and tally never got together? I cried for like two hours when Zane-la died!

  38. Loving the flash tattoo. I am getting Zane in a flash tattoo Specials stylee when i am older on my lower back XD

    Yes, i am obssessed with the books and Zane (Y)

    I missed 3 days off school last week, came back with a load of work to catch up on. So lameeeee.

    EXTRAS. IN. TWO. FREAKING. DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I AM ACTUALLY SO EXCITED IT HURTS!

    GOD. I can’t wait. I am going into the city straight after school to buy it, my mum wouldn’t let me miss school in the morning to get it first thing ]:

    BUT STILL!!

    EXTRAS BABY!!!! XD XD XD

    Don’t sweat it Scott-la, Just finish Leviathan (Y)

    WE can keep ourselves amused with our comments. Maybe we will started talking about Ugg boots again.

    OOOH. I turned my friend today. Once she saw what it did to your feet [they ALWAYS fall in and it looks horrible :S] she swore never to wear her Ugg boots ever again. GO ME!

    Alisha-la xx

  39. Also.

    With the flash tattoo picture, its so annoying. That woman i bet is really pretty, and yet her image has been airbrushed so much it looks like someones just drawn her.

    Stupid idea of perfection nowadays.

    Everyone’s a bubblehead really, just without the good looks. Oblivious to everything.

    Alisha-la xx

  42. may i just say that that is nine kinds of fawesome! the whole camera-in-the-eye thing is really interesting, sounds to me like it would painful. I dont think i would want to get one of those, i happen to like my eyeballs. hehe.
    but yeah, and that make-up in the first pick is really pretty and cool.

  43. omg thats soo fawesome!! do you think the world will actully turn out like this? Bubbly headed pretties with eye screens and flash tatoos? when i first saw the picture i thought it was gunna be the new poster for the uglies movie (which im so totally looking forward too!) The camera in the eye thing is really cool…almost like eyescreen.Todays technology:P

  45. Those pictures are fawesome! I love the ‘eyescreen’.

    I hope you’ll tell us a release date as soon as you know one for Laviathan! I can’t wait to read it!

  57. i’m just saying that there’s no proof that he ever knew you sent it to him—it’s a makeup ad, there’s like, a million ways a person could see or hear about that.
    if Scott-la posted something i’d sent him pics of (which i have…but someone never sees the awesome fanmail…) i’d probably just be like “cool. i ttly knew about that already and sent it to him!”
    now, if it was like, fanart that i drew up there with a different name on it, i’d be p*ssed.
    but don’t go psycho over something you have like, no proof of.

  61. Yes, work on Leviathan. Mwahaha. I think that’s the only book where my anticipation was/is in the same ballpark as Extras.

  63. freakyness, especially the makeup ad. it looks like one of the crims to me…

    HOW COULD YOU BE MAD IF SCOTT-LA POSTED A PICTURE OF SOMETHING YOU SENT HIM BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT IT WAS FAWESOME ON HIS BLOG???

    because really, now everyone gets to see it as well, and now we knows who found it…

  69. Everyone ants a 4th midnighters, but I, and 1000000000000s of other people in the world, want another Uglies series book! It should be the Populars!

  70. populars?
    …interesting. hehe
    i think that if there were to be another one it should be from tally’s POV. because that would be sa-weet!

  72. Those actually sort of scare me…quite a bit. Like, how awesome is it, Scott, that the future could be exactly like Uglies. And at the same time…how frightening.
    But imagine, they’ll be calling you Psychic: Scott Westerfeld, Oracle of the 21st century.
    Congrats =]
    <3

  73. eh, the thing is that Uglies had CLOSURE. i mean, even with the sadness of Zane-la, even Specials had closure. Extras had closure. there *could* be other books after both of those, but Midnighters………..
    i MUST have a fourth book. not just like “omg i’ll die if we never see these characters again” but like, “dude, story seems so…more-wanting.”
    cuz Uglies is all high-profile, it got a sequel and a guidea and stuff. but Midnighters is so awesome, don’t let the world forget about it!

  76. Whoa! Big day, small time.

    Cool post. I likie.

    Well im mad. My friend has a myspace and she posted really bad and embarassing pictures of my being all weird while she was at my house. and i look really bad. My hair is a freakin mess.

  77. xD thats funny Scott. CLARITIN instead of CLARINS! Hahahaha 😀 Thats an allergy medicene

    OMG are you saying that flash tatoos can give you an alergic reaction?!

    Cause I totally want one!

  82. mmm… i want one!!!! ok so im going to washington for a conference, i got like 200 dollars for my b-day for this, so im gonna save like almost all the money, then for next halloween, im gonna buy a bunch of scotts shirts and wear the special circumstances one. then im gonna use like makeup sticks and paint on a flash tattoo!!

  87. I have ahd homework and school and friends and to amny things i can name. I started a book today and im almost done.

  101. wow…. i go back to my NON-feverish coma and come out only to have like 70 more comments for me too read……

    ahhhhhhh…. when i leave the blog no one is supposed to comment….. arghh……

    hmph

    Sophie-La
    Sick is not fun 🙁

  107. Courtney-wa I LOVE your Twilight fan fic.! It’s awesome! Just one problem, Edward’s middle name is Anthony not William.

  109. The ads are awesome!!! I loved the eyescreen pic – though it’s a scary idea to me that they would insert a camera into your EYE!!

  114. speaking of eyes. ugh.
    i need to go get new glasses now.
    because i’m sick yesterday, right, and i’ve got a headache, so i’m not wearing em, and i’m sitting on the couch and they’re next to me, and my mom comes up next to me and she’s all “do you want something to eat” and she puts her hand down.
    AND SNAPS MY GLASSES IN HALF.
    like, on the nose part.
    now they’re superglued together and all fragile.
    and i need to go to Lenscrafters, which is hellish.

    at least i’m not all deadly sick today.

  115. Yeah, deadly sick, not so good. For some reason Serafina-la, you remind me of this girl in some of my classes, her name’s Cheyeanne.

  117. omg this is kinda weird but i have like an obsession with eyes and this is my home page so wen i hit internet i was about to chnage the website imediatly and then i saw the pic and started flipping out lol I LOVE IT

  120. The eye-camera thing also remind me of the Artemis Fowl books, where there are iris cams. (cameras you put in your eye like a contact lens)

  121. Scott i was looking at like older posts, and like i mean really old ones, and you would only get like 10 to 60 comments! I was just curious, did like, more ppl start visiting ur blog latly?
    ~Clarissa-wa

  123. That or we just got a whole lot more talkative, maybe it was all my senseless babbling and ranting. HaHaHa!!!LoL!!! J.K.

  124. very possible! maybe like we are having now, ppl started having meaningless convorsations! haha! 😀

  125. Oh so true, I’d like to think I was the cause of at least a couple of those fabulously random and meaningless conversations. LoL!!!

  126. yeah! I think you were. I know i started the whole “ugg boot” convorsation! but yeah, most of the time its pretty meaningless. 😀

  129. IT IS VERY HAPPY-MAKING!!!!
    Very very very
    i get introble during school all the time for talking meaninglessly

  130. So yay
    i must share this to the world
    OH CRAP I TOTALLY MEANT TO DO THAT.

    Sorry about that. Will fix now.

    -scott

    On Feb 1, 2008, at 4:32 PM, Tali Eldering wrote:

    Hi you might have seen my email before, when i sent you the clarins add and than you posted it on your blog, well I would like some reconition please, I not trying to be bratty but, I was just wondering.
    tali (natalia)

    http://www.scottwesterfeld.com

    =

  135. HAHA
    THAT IS FREAKIN AWESOME.
    I would so get both.
    The tatto is just uberly awesome.

    And I’d get the camera, well mainly because I want to be a photographer.

    I think youre starting some trends or fads of some sort , Scott-wa 8D

    The ad so owns my eyeliner art I did yesterday.
    :C
    Thanks a lot, Claritin.
    I thought that was a contacts brand?
    Hm =/

  138. its rolling on floor laughing
    oh yay not to be picky but claritin is a medince for allergies i think you mean clarin clarissa

  140. Hmmm..
    I like completely never comented on this post
    Curse my teachers’ need to overload my mind with useless stuff to try to get me to remember things that I ALREADY REMEMBER!
    Seriously, I can only handle knowing so much
    I mean, you know that you have a severly damaged brain when you have just got your tonsils out so you are laying in a hospital bed with an IV pumping morphine into you and you are like half concious so you realize that your grandpa is there, sit up, say “Hey grandpa did you know that it is illegal to chew gum in Singapore without a licence?” and not hear a response because you passed out from morphine again.

  144. I know my mom would sooo not let me get my GumLiscence, she hates gum, and is allergic to it, i get in so much trouble for chewing it, but do it anyway, just not when shes around, or in my house

  145. I dont even know what i ment guys. But i think it was why “ROFL” for the e-mail. I know what ROFL means. i think thats what i ment. But i dont really care anymore!
    wow. A gum chewing liscens. interseting.
    Netta-la, nice. that dosnt sound too cool.

  146. Wait… so your teacher makes you learn that in Singapore you need a license to chew gum? Talk about useless information!

  150. Wow, people can be allergic to gum? I didn’t know that. My Mom hates it when I chew gum, she says I chew so loud that I sound like a cow. HaHaHa!!!! exaggeration much?

  152. Don’t be too sad, look on the bright side. If they screw it up all of us Scott fans can go after them with pitchforks and torches! That would be all too enjoyable, don’t you think?(-insert evil laugh-)

  153. wow! thanks! Tally & Zane! that actully dose make me feel much better! I will go shparpen my pichfork right now! jk 🙂 thanks! 🙂

  156. HeHeHe!!! I’ll go gather the angry mob! Sure Amy-la you can have a sledgehammer! Everyone can, heck lets even throw in a crow bar or two! HaHaHa now I’m getting carried away.

  158. wow! i can see the angry mob coming down my street! oh! i have 2 crowbars! yes Tally & Zane you did get carried away but it made me laugh hystaricly! 😀

  159. Glad I could help.HaHaHa!!!! Yeah, um…I just said Amy-la cuz when you add a wa or la it’s supposed to be la, but that’s okay just Amy is fine. Sorry.

  163. The camera eyescreen is totally happy-making!! And that flash tattoo is really cool, it would be so awesome to see people actually walking around with them on a day to day basis! =]

  165. Wow I love love love that “flash tattoo” i bet they did get it from “Specials”
    To Scott – I love your writing!!!!
    PS to Clarissa-wa, Amy(-wa), and Tally & Zane: you guys are crazy 🙂

  168. LoL, I was just kissing, but if you really want to see crazy go to the Flash Tattoo watch page and see Amy and mine’s plot to world domination. HaHa, it’s amazing what a sugar rush can do to a normally calm person like me.

  175. i have this HUGE project due monday for school but my mom 😛 was going to make me finish it tonight – but she just said that i can work tomorrow and over the weekend and stuff!! yay so now i can actually have a life

  177. yeah this is a project we got assigned in like november so i procrastinated a lot but so did all my friends…oops
    oh well

  178. Wow, that must be a HUGE project! I always end up doing my lil bro’s projects. Like I did all of his mission, But I got him back cuz he did the Santa Cruz Mission so I decked it out with tons of flowers and sea shells so it looked really girly.

  189. Thank you, I know i am crazy. Me and my friends always talk about destroying things from books movies, ect.
    I thought it was a Lunar Eclipse. Thats what i heard.
    It was sooooooo cool! I was like outside in the freezing cold for like 1 and a half hours, but it was totally worth it! 🙂
    (at the moment me and my friends are thinking about raiding Little Brown books company which has Breaking Dawn. oh and bashing up Jabob!) 🙂

  190. wow are you kidding? i thought breaking dawn came out in august!!
    i dont know who i like more, jacob or edward … so hard to choose…

  191. to Ali-wa: you should read scott’s story about the eclipse he saw in australia – it’s on this website under stories -> check it out!

  192. Yes, Tee-la, I am very crazy. I get that a lot. And what’s more, I’m proud of it! “I’m crazy and proud of it” has been one of my mottos since umm… fourth grade, maybe? “I’m crazy like that” is another, and “I do that sometimes” or “I’m like that sometimes” are my standard responses to “You’re creeping me out” or “You’re really weird”.

  194. hahaha!
    Tee-la, i ausume you were saying your kidding to me, but i dont know if your talking about me being crazy or that i sat outside to watch the Lunar Eclipse for an hour and a half.

    It does come out in august, but we are just so frustrated we want it now!!!!! and i have a love hate relationship with Jacob with myself. but i still would like to hit him with a crow bar! 🙂

    (oh and me and my friends only like to destroy fictional things that we dont like.)

  195. i love jacob and i love edward
    i dont know who id choose 🙁
    but yeah i might have been talking to you, i cant rememerb lol

  197. lol! oh okay! i dont know, they are both super annoying, I think it is spelled Remember. 🙂 yeah, i dont know who i would choose

  198. Those tatoos are TOTALLY BUBBLY!!!!!! Iwould LOVE the whole Special Circumstances look on me!!!

  205. Не пора бы вам начать монетизировать ваш блог?

  206. she is so pretty i love her face lace its awesome <3<3

    I want an eye screen so bad how cool would that be!!

  208. just so you know, it is really Clarins make up, NOT CLARITIN. its a french company. I work for them.

  210. omg the eyescreen look is so pretty-making!!!(wow, i sound like a bubble head) i want one, hopefully they’ll be in my lifetime 🙂

  212. Wow! The eye screen is totally bubbly! It’s so pretty! (Athough it is a tad bit scary. How do they place it on your eye? *shivers* )

    Still. So cool!

  213. GOD i want that tattoo!!!!!!!! I want it sooo badly! is it possible to get a flash tat that looks like that anywhere? im also getting manga contact lenses in about a month. [:
    im so excited! as soon as i leave school today im buying bogus to bubbly no doubt.

  214. I was scanning something else about this on another blog. Interesting. Your linear perspective on it is diametrically contradicted to what I read to begin with. I am still contemplating over the diverse points of view, but I’m tipped heavily toward yours. And irrespective, that’s what is so good about advanced democracy and the marketplace of ideas online.

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