Page 49 - Studio International - November December 1975

a) tv-aquarium (the medium taken literally) b) The fish, which first share a large area, wander down with the
The tv-apparatus is the aquarium water-surface and come closer together
The tv-apparatus is filled with water to the top. After some minutes
the tv-aquarium runs out bubbling and loudly amplified

c) The water-surface sinks, the tv-apparatus becomes empty, d) An electronic sinus tone rises, while the water almost disappears
the picture-tube appears and the fish thresh about, moving convulsively Until it becomes
quiet at the bottom of the monitor and the fish die
Peter Weibel The Communication is the Medium 1970
communication and not remain a domain for specialists. sandwich 1969) ; seemingly turning the presented image
Peter Weibel is concerned with the film medium as into a real object (The communication is the medium
expanded cinema, which besides classical film also 1970) ; or creating an object on the telescreen which does
includes video, telephone, holography and laser. In not exist in reality (Video water sculpture 1971).
changing the media, in liberating them from the narrow The possibility not only of reproducing reality but also
conventions of depicting reality, he sees the possibility of producing it by the generation of images, is for him an
of extending experience and of refining and changing the important aspect of the medium : 'If the world can be
structures of communication, perception, emotion and represented in a machine in such a way that we can
cognition. At present he is occupied mainly with video. approximately recognize it, it means that the machine is
In working out its basic conditions, he extends its area also able to simulate the world so well that it doesn't
of operation and brings the specific communications need it any more ... reality (ie the real musicians,
process into consciousness. Apart from the possibility instruments, landscapes, women and men, objects, etc.)
of generating and transforming images synthetically, he was up to now taken as the conditio sine qua non of
considers that 'the more important videological methods reproduction, the first link in the chain of reproduction
of producing new time and space structures, new and transformation. TV and records are the first
behaviour and a humanizing of reality are self-reference shortenings of this chain. Not only are the connecting
and instant time. Video is a technological communication links left out, but you can leave out even the first link.' 16
system with all kinds of feedback, reactions. That is its What are still left out of his considerations are the power
basic difference from the cinema ... There is a linear systems that control the media. However, the
unity of consumption and production ... If you don't consequence of his thinking would demand an inclusion
therefore emphasize so much on the sign-systems as with of these problems in his work.
synthesis and transformation, but on the communication Valie Export also works with video as a continuation of
system, these reactions (feed-back) allow new research former expanded cinema actions, while her new films,
into social behaviour, new therapies. For the visual signal Remote . . . Remote . . . 1973 and Man & Woman &
systems open new social, didactic and political functions. Animal 1 973 (both shown in London in 1973), represent
From private to public life they make new ways of a new development. In contrast to her theoretical video
communication possible ...'15 work, she has here started on an investigation of her own
Peter Weibel's works have the character of emotions. It is an attempt to recognize the depth of
demonstrations. They are pictorial statements which in psychological deformation caused by society, which
their mostly short visual formulation contain complicated determine her position as a woman. In this context her
theoretical information. They only can be understood if work at the exhibition of women's art, Magna, Vienna
you are at least approximately on the same level of 1975, should also be considered. It can be understood
information as he is himself. A central point in his work as part of the work that concentrates on the exploration
is the pseudo-reality of the medium and its own conditions of woman's situation in our society. The theoretical
of time and space. He demonstrates it to the spectator concept basic not only to her work but also to a great
by unusual operations : engaging the viewer actively part of the bourgeois women's liberation movement is
in the events presented on the monitor (The endless assailable : the problem is only seen in the psychophysical
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