Intermedia is metatextual

        My interpretation of Foster’s definition of “intermedia” is that part of the magic of true intermedia pieces is that they peel back multiple layers of meaning. Not in the sense that there are multiple visual interpretations, as with an optical illusion, but that their deliberate betrayal of their construction offers us new ways to perceive the object that is the focus of the piece. I’m reminded of Platonic forms, in context of the idea that the pure Form can never be accessed. Let’s take the chair, for example. Suppose there is a “Platonic” “chair”, composed of the basic qualities of a chair and nothing more. While we can intuitively understand this concept, any attempt at imagining this chair will always take on our expectations based on the chairs we have been exposed to. I feel that intermedia, rather than attempting to discover or expose the Platonic state of an object, instead takes advantage of its complexity.

        An intermedia piece says “This object/concept that I’m exploring in my art can be understood from various perspectives – let me show you how.” An intermedia work takes these possible ways of looking at something and integrates them into a piece that evokes multiple layers of interpretation. I don’t know how this definition can be applied to something like Duchamp’s “Fountain” but that may be a fault in my own analysis of the art, because I don’t know the artist’s intentions. I think it makes sense that video has a high potential for being intermedia, simply because it already removes the audience from direct interaction with the subject – the video camera becomes our eyes and shows us the variability of perception. For example, it can make images in black-and-white, with camera distortion, or a variety of other effects.

        I think the 1998 Peter Weir film The Truman Show is an interesting example of an intermedia video piece. In this movie, Truman Burbank was born into a giant dome in southern California staged as the town of “Seahaven”, on an island surrounded by a sea that Truman has been afraid of since he was a young child. Here’s the trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1878327577/. He’s been followed by cameras since birth and the images have been projected 24/7 on a television program that is broadcast all over the “real” world, “The Truman Show.” I believe The Truman Show is intermedia because not only do we as viewers see Truman through the television show’s cameras, from different physical points of view, but there’s an additional layer of distancing because of the movie camera recording the actors, and finally we through the movie camera also watch the TV show’s creators watch Truman and control his environment. Everybody in Seahaven knows they are actors except for Truman, including his wife and best friend; they often advertise products directly on the show in obvious displays of product placement. With these layers of observation alone we’re forced to see the simulacrum constructed in Seahaven. The metatextual quality of The Truman Show, the watchers being watched, draws attention to the pervasiveness of monitoring in our world and thus brings into question the realness of our own privacy and free will.