When considering the prescribed relative merits of intermedia, it is vital that there is some human, almost Hegelian, mediation between a spacio-temporal entity/object and the feeling of "essence of art" that a piece invites in itself. This is why Ai WeiWei, particularly in Grapes, comes to mind immediately, as his art invites "social mechanisms" (Foster) to the obscured objects - the stools in Grapes. Foster mentions Duchamp's pieces as being intermedia due to Duchamp's pieces (specifically "Fountain") finding mediation between sensibility and art. There is a realm of object-invitation, which is perfectly expressed via WeiWei, who has been dubbed Duchamp's successor. The stools in Grapes are assembled together in a traditional Chinese joint technique but are clearly obfuscated by their rendered uselessness. The chairs are made of wood from the Qing Dynasty (dating from 1644 - 1911) and, thus, Grapes metaphorically extols homage to the outlived era of the dynasty itself. Ai WeiWei is the perfect intermedia artist, with cultural and political values being questioned via human experience - these are clearly sculptures requiring conscious interpretation. However, I would argue that while not seemingly obvious, all art is, philosophically speaking, intermedia, as art requires cognition with a consciousness. All consciousness contains a determinist chain of cognition - one cannot objectively interact with anything and, consciously or subconsciously, assigns some political and social relevance to the most banal of objects making all objects performance art (with varying degrees). By projection, all objects (that are experienced) can live only in intermedia as they only become objects once physically recognized - all physically realized objects become mentally recognized as, dualistically speaking, phenomena undeniably corresponds to noumena. Metaphysically, mind and body are separate yet connected via the "pineal gland" (Descartes) and, unless in a completely detached stance (transcendental meditation), affect one another.
However, some art is more easily labelled as intermedia - specifically performance art. When examining performance art it is viable to take the inner human emotions riveted by the short-lived yet violent Viennese Actionists. By thwarting their bodies through intimate and violent methods, artists such as Otto Muehl forming political communes often teeming with sexual extremism (for political purposes). This was a method of calling into question, via extreme means, "norm" climates. Barring social convention(s), such horrifyingly intimate art that unquestionably invokes personhood - "action art" - is undeniably the essence of intermedia. In his Stille Nacht (1969), Muehl embodies the sexuality and religion questioning of anti-conformist, contorted extreme performance art. Here is a link for your viewing pleasure: http://www.ubu.com/film/muehl_stille.html
In Viennese Actionism it is difficult to scrupulously prescribe a particular reaction. The Feminist Actionism of Valie Export, however, was a clear reaction to 1970 Austria's social opinion of women that held the clearly conservative and oppressive roots of Nazism. The Feminist Actionism movement, continued via new facets of artists such as Judy Chicago to the Riot Grrrl punk movement, is a clear example of intermedia - a culmination of political stance and art. I consider this fluid movement modernly expressed brilliantly and beautifully by glam-rock, post-punk performance artist Kembra Pfahler (The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black). While, considering politics, Pussy Riot might be seemingly more appealing, I believe Pfahler has done more for the movement considering the sheer range of performance art that questions sexuality - Pfahler dolls her nude body in vividly neon paints and chants harmonious tunes in a child-like innocence (Alaska). Here is a video of the "voluptuous horror" of the avant-garde and poetically surreal Kembra Pfahler. Out perceptions of sexual anatomy are thwarted in exchange for a relatively liberated haunting:
http://www.ubu.com/film/pfahler_cornelia.html
Thus Spake Intermedia
