Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Aesthetics of Mediation

An example of a webcam/amateur video clip in which there is no mediation by a 3rd party obvious or presumed. The clip is from a single and unmoving position, and the subject has set herself up, carefully framed to show us a priveledged view of herself playing with herself.

Her full body is in view, except for much (but not all) of her face. Her actual identity is obscured in this way by elision. Yet the video, as long as 4 minutes, is an uninterupted, and un post-managed document of herself.

The subject has also made no attempts to play "to the camera." There is no eye contact. She is not specifically showing herself to the camera or adjusting her position as it has already been positioned. Her activity is predetermined. She is not in a hurry.

The sense of time is close to "real." The strategy serves to create a meditative state in the viewer, to observe the clip as an entire entity, without change in focus, perspective, or subject.

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