Theme Song/Undertone

Vito Acconci’s videos both made me feel very uncomfortable. In Theme Song, he at first showed a degree of decency in his requests for the viewer to join him. However, as the video progressed, he began to beg in a desperate manner as he stated that he “doesn’t even care what the viewer looks like”. His demeanor of humming along with the songs playing the background seamed impromptu and unscripted, as did his rambling to the viewer. Because of this, he seemed drunk and reminded me of the bums on the street who make rude and inappropriate remarks to girls. His unusual position, lying on the floor, with his face so close to the viewer creates an unwarranted intimacy. The way he was lying only on the right half of the screen was especially disturbing because he had already created this space for the viewer if the viewer should choose to join him and during the video, he would gesture or curl his legs in this “space” that we were supposed to occupy. I was also very put off by his smoking, which was really emphasized by the black and white video whenever he blew out puffs of smoke.

While Theme Song gave the viewer this unwanted opportunity to join Acconci, Undertone gave the viewer an unwanted invasion into Acconci’s private space. The way Acconci scripted this piece, with him transitioning back and forth from believing this girl is under the table and believing it is only himself, makes him seem like he is really uncertain of himself. This uncertainty is only exaggerated even more with his statements directed toward the viewer where he claims that he needs the viewer there to believe what he is saying as well as if he cannot make this choice himself. Acconci’s tone as he relays his fantasy is not particularly confident and this makes the video quite disturbing because he is talking about things that are supposed to be kept private, yet he is of course aware that there is a viewer. He nevertheless continues in such a way where he knows there is a viewer, but he still wants to talk about his fantasy anyway, which makes him seem like a really creepy person.