One to One is an interactive video
installation by Rudie Berkhout
Video Art to take home.
This is an installation where the participants take home the video
experience in the form of a short VHS tape or a still frame printed out
on paper.
The New York Times review:
"....The video installation involves a kind of projection, one that
literally transforms participants' images of themselves. Two people
at a time are stationed in an ingenious booth that allows a video camera
to observe one through the reflection of the other. By lighting the opposite
halves of the two faces simultaneously, a hybrid combination of both is
formed. One monitor is visible to both participants, allowing them to adjust
their position and expressions to create conjunctions and divergences;
another projects the results to viewers outside the booth. As two individuals
become a composite being, the effect is both amusing and provocative.
Once the initial camera shyness
and self-concious mugging have worn off, the tendency is to make a deliberate
effort to merge, to test the possibility of complete union. Differences
of race, sex and age disappear as the process progresses,
affirming the notion that we all have more in common than we usually realize.
Although this unity is purely visual, transient and only achieved by technological
trickery, the fact that we are drawn to pursue it is the lesson of the
piece. If only we could carry this lesson with us into daily life, we might
be more accepting of others and more open to their influence. And we might
retain a greater awareness of our own mutability and the variety of selves
that we carry within us."
Minimum space requirements: 10'x10'x 8'
high.
Possible locations:
museums, galleries, shopping malls,
bus and train stations and other public spaces.
Thanks to
Peter van Riper
for helping me build this page.
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