TEACHING VIDEO ART AS A SECOND LANGUAGE - 2007

This video is in the form of an educational video.  The performer, wearing an apron and talking directly to the camera, references the direct camera work and direct demonstration approach of Martha Rosler’s ‘Semiotics of the Kitchen’ (thus an opportunity to learn an aspect of video art is embedded in this video).  The video is firmly tongue-in-cheek. A parody.

In this video, I thought, wouldn’t it be good, if we could learn video art in the same way one learns a foreign language. The thing I am sitting on is either named a chair (oder Stuhl auf Deutsch), or it isn’t.  The object I use to write is either a pen (oder Kugelschreiber auf Deutsch) or it isn’t. And I learn each word by using question-phrases such as “What is it?”  Once I have an understanding of question-words my ability to learn a language is limitless.  So, I thought, why can’t video-art (or indeed all interpretative arts) also be binary in nature?  It is either video-art, or it isn’t.