Jack Scardino - Re: Foster and Intermedia and video theory

I’ll agree with Foster to some extent when he talks about video being “compelling”.  It is different than other media because of how immediately it can affect one’s emotions and sense of reality, and can have a powerful effect on people, in part because it synergizes media.  But to say the reason video is alive is because “our conceptual and perceptual apparatus for ‘images’ is dead” I think is really an exaggerated and over-glorifying claim.  It reminds me of the argument “kids get violent because they listen to rap and play video games”, which I also reject.  I have the sense that I’m missing something critical in this reading, because some of these statements come to me so simultaneously bizarre and matter-of-fact.

Claiming that video is an “extension of one’s self rather than an extension of one’s notions of art” is just semantics.  All art can be called an extension of one’s self, and creating a difference here I think is an unnecessary and misled view.  I agree- video, the more developed it is, has great difficulty not being partisan.  But that could be said for many art forms, especially those that use language and visual media.  Isn’t it up to the viewer of the art to apply his/her own ideals to it?  Suppose I made a short video featuring only shots of lakes and rivers.  How does that fit into Foster’s vision?  Foster’s article does not really define how the term “video” is being used, and that might be creating a problem for me.  Throughout the reading I assumed he was discussing videos made with some kind of budget, intended to be viewed by an audience wider than say, one individual.  I’d rather film and videos that were intellectually and heartfully composed simply be called art and only then evaluated for value or credibility.

One point did interest me though: that intermedia, because it is intermedia, is inherently political.  I’m not totally on-board with the statement, but I do think there’s an inherent quality to intermedia that actively engages the audience and pushes them to approach the work more thoughtfully.  Intermedia has a special kind of relationship with the audience, I think.  A rock concert can do that.  A loud, spontaneous, and high-energy performance can be a very aggressive and captivating way to deliver music, but it becomes more than just the music because of the relationship between everyone in the room.  Video might be more one-sided in its delivery but it typically requests or requires and active role on behalf of the audience.

I found this piece on Ubuweb which I think is a fitting example of intermedia for our studies.  It is piece written and read by Jack Kerouac, and combines the written work (actually, spoken) with jazz piano playing.  I think that the interplay between the words, music, and his delivery is all noteworthy as part of analyzing intermedia.  The sum of these three elements is less than the result of their being combined together.

http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/sound/kerouac_jack/poetry/Kerouac-Poetry-for-Beat-Generation_1-06-Goofing-At-The-Table.mp3