Foster on Breder

Stephen Foster seems to very heavily rely on Hans Breder's work as a way of defining what intermedia is, and what it has the potential to encompass. Acknowledging Breder's (contemporarily) recent incorporation of more video into his work, Foster goes on to praise the ability of video to inherently raise the questions and confronting the problems Foster feels are central to the development of a work as intermedia. The obvious effect Breder's art and opinions have on Foster make his take on intermedia feel somewhat flat, as it is clearly built by one major influence rather than an assortment of sources and critical opinions on intermedia, or a more personal take on Foster's part.

Although Foster goes on to deride the ability of most media -- and artists -- to provide a source of intermedia, he does define it, in the context of Duchamp's fountain, as being able to "catalyze a variety of artistic and social mechanisms....as a 'function' of a single thing." It is an interesting line, because it simultaneously encompasses the inherent ability of intermedia to involve multiple elements while trying to bring them together as one idea on a much grander scale. It makes the creation of a work of intermedia seem somewhat elegant, and it reminded me of The Clock, a video project by Christian Marclay. The report below describes The Clock in more detail, but in essence, it is a synced and accurate twenty-four hour clock, built from film clips which reference the time, verbally or visually. It simultaneously creates a narrative and disrupts thousands from the way it cuts often tiny clips out of much larger sections of story, but the creation of an awareness of time is fascinating and spellbinding, while raising the occasionally troubling question of "what are we doing in watching this?"

a BBC newsreport on Christian Marclay's The Clock