This next reading was Screens- Viewing Media Installation Art by Kate Mondloch. The excerpt is about video installations and the attention span of the viewer. It talks about many artists that use giant scale screens and play time-altered video. For example, Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho. Gordon used the movie Psycho but edited the run time to 24 hours. The video is projected onto a translucent screen; it can be watched from either side. The discussion is more about the viewer than the work itself. How long should viewers stay and watch the video? Its clearly not possible for the viewer to stay and watch all 24 hours in one visit- so what is appropriate? Because the video of 24 Hour Psycho is so drastically slowed down, it pushes the limits of the viewer. How long can you watch a video that is painstakingly slow? What is the viewer attention span for such videos? Another question that is asked is about the location. Does being at a gallery force the viewer to stay and watch, or does it invite the viewer to move on faster to the next piece? I think it all depends on the person and video. This reading gives several examples of different videos. I’d be more likely to stay and watch a video with dialogue rather than a video that is slowing going through frames.
Altering the concept of time through video is a very interesting concept. The artist can do whatever he/she pleases when it comes to speed and dialogue (or lack there of). The viewer doesn’t have a choice about video alteration, but they do have the choice of how much time they want to spend watching it. According to the reading, many viewers find themselves with reoccurring thoughts of the video clips at another time and place. That can be considered another aspect of time because the video is still continuing in your thoughts. The viewer is personally making the video last longer.
My question is, did the viewer know how long the videos actually were? If I walked into a gallery playing a video, I would want to watch the whole video. I would be more apt to sit and watch for a longer duration if I didn’t know it was a 24 hour long video. How long would the viewer sit until their nerves were shot or they became disinterested?
