I've been exposed to the discussed videos previously; Acconci's Centers, Serra and Holt's Boomerang. I found them to be a great way to introduce video into art. Before learning about the history of new media art in my art history classes, I never thought about how these technological forms of art begun and blossomed into what they are today. Of course Centers has the overbearing sense of narcissism, but there's also that feeling of exploration and excitement. I prefer to discuss and focus on the latter. In the article, Krauss mentions deboublement, feedback, and the fusion of the artist and his or her reflection. To me, this feels like a journey into a second world. A world where you can physically mimic the movements of real life in present time as opposed to copying a still life just for it to continue to sit still. Krauss discusses the difference between reflexiveness and mirror-reflection --> the former describing two entities in different categories that are similar or the same, but always separate, while the latter becomes a fusion when the line separating the two entities is smeared. She also states, "The result of this submergence is...a kind of weightless fall through the suspended space of narcissism" (59). I would rather look at this act as a fall through another reality. When creating a video of yourself, you have free range to do things that may be physically impossible in our reality, especially with the technology available today. Maybe it's because I grew up with this stop and go technology that the narcissistic qualities of video art do not affect me in the same way it would a painter in the 1960s. Though I do not prefer the aesthetics of these mediums over painting or sculpture, and vice versa. But I do believe that video and sound make for fascinating medias for creating fantastical art.
