A medium and its effect

Vito Acconci’s Undertone and Themesong stress the importance of the viewer/video maker relationship of video work. The two are necessary for a piece to be complete yet distanced by the very the medium that is video. In both pieces Acconci sits or lays in front of the camera addressing the audience viewing the video on a monitor. Each piece consists entirely of Acconci as the sole narrator longing to be closer the viewer, to be able to interact with the viewer. He wants the viewer to enter into the scene and be a part of the piece yet he knows that this is not possible and that it would make the piece devoid of its meaning and the effect of both these pieces would be lost. That effect, I find, is created by the irony of the pieces. Acconci knows that his work, like that of any other artist, is being produced in his studio or some site and then shown in gallery or setting where the audience can view the work. At the gallery the audience can interact with the original piece, whether it be a sculpture, canvas, video or whatever the medium may be. But, is the audience member who views a showing of a video work actually viewing the original piece, as a one examines an original work on canvas and not its printed reproduction. As a viewer of video we are viewing a reproduction of the artist’s performance, a reproduction that makes the piece possible. If we were to view, live, Acconci’s narrative we would have the option to interact with the piece, or remain passive and watch, in which case the effect would be like that of a staged play, where once the show is over the work is lost to be performed another day. The effect of a work such as that leaves us only with the memories of what has just occurred in front of us and is immediately lost to our memory for us to call upon. But, with video we can watch it again and again and contemplate the nature of the piece or the emotions is may invoke. It is exactly the ironic effects that video art has on us that makes us contemplate it meaning. Each piece of video art could be viewed by a live audience or off the monitor, or perhaps by both, but does each audience group/member, experience the same work and have the same reaction to a piece no matter how the work is viewed. I must say definitely not. The key behind the effect of some pieces, such as Undertone and Themesong or many works by Chris Burden, is created by being a either a live audience member when the piece was made or by being an audience member viewing the piece playing on a monitor and contemplating the effect the piece has on either group. That is, to be a live member as the piece is being made and contemplating the effect it has on you, and then viewing it playing on a monitor and realizing that while you may be watching the same piece the different medium creates an entirely new effect.