Space And Time In The Language Of Images

In Regis Debray‘s viewpoint,by the middle of the 19 th century,photography deprived of the primary function of printmaking – the reproduction of drawing images makes printmaking develop to be an independent art category.In the 1970 s,the popularization of video allowed the photography to be considered as an art.As a medium and a means of dissemination,the iteration of printmaking,photography and video originated from the revolution in the technology of communication media.Nowadays,images and videos permeate people's everyday life.We have achieved to use and apply images and videos anytime and anywhere as our wishes.However,in the current situation,what confuses people is not “what to shoot” but “what not to shoot”.The appearance of Video Art was a media revolution.It was the invention of Sony Portapak that allowed Video Art to enter the stage officially.As a second-generation video artist,Bill Viola(b.1951-)obviously presents a profound understanding of Video Art.In his art creation,it is not the cameras,filmstrips or videotapes but the everlasting proposition of time that counts.When Giorgio Agamben evaluated Bill Viola's “Passions” series of works,he held the view that instead of inserting images into time,Viola filled images with time.This comment precisely pointed out the essence of Viola's work or the essence of video art.The video,as an intermedium to archive time,avoids the erosion of time to a great extent,which allows the proposition of “existence” to be realistic.Through taking the concepts of space and time as the starting point,this thesis intends to discuss several questions.For instance,how can video as a medium be distinguished from paintings and photography? What is the essential difference between video and other media in the sense of space and time? How did Bill Viola employ the identity of this medium to achieve eternal existence? This thesis would take iconography and media ecology as the methodology and Bill Viola as an example to explore the characteristic and significance of Video Art in the current cultural context.