My first thoughts while reading Foster's Video and Intermedia were, "I am confused.", "What does that even mean?!", and "I should probably read this sentence over." My second and third thoughts weren't too different. I did find; however, toward the end of the writing, I was understanding what the overall message was. I felt if I could just visualize it, I'd be home free. And so different snapshots of past works I had seen popped into my head: stories that arose from motley mixtures of the arts that stood out to me. But I was still slightly confused by a) what Foster even considered intermedia and b) how the subject matter, elusive and almost inconceivable to me in the first place, behaved.
And then, with the mention of how video lends itself to intermedia, I started to get it. And the example that stuck in my head was Sigur Rós' Fjögur píanó. Partially because this video, quite similarly to a certain paper, confused me until the last few minutes; but more so because of how I struggled to see what Fjögur píanó was about.
What caught my attention most in Stephen Foster's Video and Intermedia was his assertion that video's spontaneity exists only because of viewer's expectations. I actively fought to predict what was going on, struggling against the natural current of where the piece was taking me. And I noticed I do this frequently, out of habit. And I did the exact same when reading about intermedia. I wasn't being receptive to what was being provided to me. The very nature of video is one that is organic, it can include so much or be very basic. It has endless possibilities and isn't as formulaic as I sometimes want to force it to be. Which is why it works so well when utilized for intermedia. Eureka! At this point my inner hippie chimed in and about the fluidity of our perceptions and the connection between all aspects of culture and I am fairly certain I got a tad of track again. But there was Foster, who in his last paragraph, held out a hand and in so many words explained how much freedom was allotted when using video. And, sighing heavily, and decided I should shut up and let the performances do with me what they wanted. My body, and mind, were ready.
Fjögur píanó
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