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September 26, 2006
Bill Viola and the Viewer
Reading Bill Viola I was kept thinking of that difference between "looking" and "seeing". Working with young actors one often has a sense that they are looking at their scene partner, or the imagined space of the setting of the play, but not really seeing it, not asking questions about what they are seeing, not moving in and out of their perceptions. There is a difference in the direction of energy in the action. Looking is a sending out of energy, the mind is occupied with the action of of the self observing, not what is being observed. Seeing is a receiving of energy (literally, in the sense of light energy.
Bill Viola, and Peter Brook as well, both approach their work with a kind of fearless curiousity, and ask of a space, or an image, what it already has their within it. In "The Empty Space" Brook writes about starting with nothing. Then there is a chair. Why is there a chair, and not a divan or a futon on the floor. Viola, looking at the waterdrops reflecting cars passing by, is looking deeping into what is in front of him, asking questions of it, changing the focus changes the object itself, and changes our psychological experience of our environment and the objects in it.
I was also interested in how Viola breaks the flat surface of the screen, pulling the viewer into the image and pulling the image into the room. I'm struck that creating 3D desktops in the computer interface has been so long in coming, though we now have the video acceleration technology and vivid powerful monitors with which to display this "spatial" workspace metaphores. I think the challenging nature of this indicates that we may not have asked enough questions, or the right questions. That creating a three dimentional workspace is something more than taking a two dimentional design and giving in depth. There is something more going on there with how such a workspace effects us, the Viewer, both psychologically and emotionally.
For the Viewer's Space assignment, I was struck when walking down Bedford Avenue that someone had placed blue chairs on no parking signs.
I heard these were part of the Conflux Festival but wasn't able to confirm that.
They have a kind of subversive quality to them, they break the line of the street, when you sit in the chair you're facing away from the traffic on the street. you really take in the grafiti, you see details what you are observing that you had passed by before. you are encouraged to take time away from the rush of life on the street and to really observe your surroundings. The angle of the chair also breaks the line of sight of the rest of the space. usually as you walk along the street the main line of sight is north or south. Those lines define the direction of energy of the space. putting a simple seat on a no parking sign totally breaks that line, saying, "why not look northwest for a moment.
Posted by Nathan Guisinger at September 26, 2006 11:14 PM