In “Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism” Krauss discusses video strategies such as: mirror-reflection, installation forms of video which use the medium as a sub-species of painting, and a triangular relationship created between a video camera, an instrument that will project the live camera image onto the surface of a wall, and the wall itself. I could use mirror-reflection in my work to skew the image of the vacuum or the objects it is sucking up. This would create an illusion that the object being sucked up is both moving away and towards the viewer. Next, how I frame the vacuum and the objects it is sucking up against the wall or floor will drive a wedge between the two types of figure/ ground relationships Krauss discusses. The one that is internal to the image of the vacuum and the one that works from without to define the vacuum as a painting. Finally, if I chose to use a projector to display my video and aim it at a wall at an angle, I can create a similar triangular relationship that Krauss discusses. The only difference will be the absence of a live camera projecting the viewer, instead the viewer them-self will serve as the third point in the triangular relationship.
Krauss writes that video art cannot be held to a specific set of material conditions. Rather, she proposes psychology as its medium, focusing on “instant feedback” capacity and new dynamics of moving-image time. Her central idea is that the medium of video is narcissistic: “In that image of self-regard is configured a narcissism so endemic to works of video that I find myself wanting to generalize it as the condition of the entire genre.”
On the other hand, in “Media Hot and Cold” the core of McLuhan’s theory is his definition of media as extensions of ourselves. McLuhan discusses hot and cold media as dynamic concepts that are designed to get at the experience and the effects of how we use media. McLuhan defines “high definition” as the state of being well filled with data, which is key in understanding the difference between hot and cool media. A hot medium is high definition and is low in audience participation. Examples include: photography and books. However, a cool medium is low definition and high in audience participation. Examples include: telephones and television.