Krauss mentioned the video art Now by Bengli where the artist is performing next to a recording of herself. The artist moves in-synced with her recorded version creating an illusion of which is ‘live’ or which is ‘taped’. I think this technique is a great way for me to mess with the idea of time and force my audience to question the idea of time itself in terms of video art. Since we have technology to create this illusion (i.e. masking), I’m thinking of filming myself watching a video of myself in a computer. But in reality, the video that is being watched was actually recorded after the video. In short, I’m filming a video of myself watching nothing and then adding a video of myself after it, thus, creating this ambiguity of time in video art.
Another, one is the way Nauman films himself in Revolving Upside Down. As the name suggests, the camera is rotated so that the floor he is standing on is at top of the screen. This strategy could help me create a “Spiderman”-esque shots without having to do any daredevil acts. Instead of upside down, I could also do sideways or diagonal but I have to find a way to incorporate this to my videos without ruining the overall feel of my video.
Lastly, in Air Time by Acconci, I liked the way he used the mirror as a form self-reflection. I could have my subjects look through the mirror and maybe see a different reflection of themselves. Or I could have my camera point to a mirror and have the audience think that it the monitor is an actual mirror( this may be hard to pull off). In essence, I believe using mirrors would create a powerful effect on my videos by creating a sense of self-reflection on my subjects.
Krauss’ central idea is that medium of video is narcissistic. It’s about the subject being the object itself. Video focuses more on the piece itself, rather than, the audience. On the other hand, Mcluhan suggests that the media is being used as a way to connect with a large audience and not just the individual. He called them hot media and cold media.
Mcluhan defined hot media as high in definition which means a low participation from the audience, while cold media he defines as low in definition but high in participation. For example, in today’s society, podcasts can be considered as hot media because the listener can passively listen without requiring any interaction. On the other hand, text messaging, is a cold media in a sense that the user is forced to interact with the other person on the line. But in my opinion, the internet has enabled us to combine hot and cold media to create a high definition yet high participation media in the form of Facebook and YouTube (and many more). We can watch a really provocative video on YouTube and we can still participate through the comment sections or emailing it to our friends or posting on social media.