본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

A Phenomenological study on Video Works of Bill Viola : Integrative Environment and Existential Meaning

  • The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
  • Abbr : JASA
  • 2016, 49(), pp.229-264
  • DOI : 10.17527/JASA.49.0.08
  • Publisher : 한국미학예술학회
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Published : November 30, 2016

AHN SUN MEE 1

1홍익대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study attempts to examine the phenomenological characteristics in the works of Bill Viola. His artistic works are generally based on the conception of time and the bodily experience and their themes are also related to the existentiality attained through the unity of time. Therefore this could be accounted as a research to examine the video works of Bill Viola from the perspectives of the conception of time, the bodily experience and the existentiality. Bearing in mind that phenomenological conception of time, launched by Edmund Husserl and critically developed by Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, evolved into the existentiality of a being through the incorporation of time and body, this study aims to connect the characteristics of the bodily experience based on the conception of time in Viola's works to the concepts of phenomenology and to explore their thematic characteristics through the existentiality from the ontological perspective of phenomenology. In his video work, Viola uses various kinds of camera techniques to manipulate the stream of time such as a stand-still, slow motion, close-up and others. Through the manipulation of time, he tries to represent internal consciousness of time. This is not the time to be numerically counted and objectively existing outside world but the one to flow in the human mind. This thesis proves that such Viola's sense of time meets with Husserl's concept of ‘time as internal consciousness’. The close-up in Viola's video art shows his psychological dynamism and the use of slow motion conveys the human emotion effectively to audience and arouses internal experience in them. In this thesis, Viola's time manipulation through the juxtaposition of screens or retrogression of time is explained by Heidegger's concept of ‘Ekstatikon’. Putting the screens representing the past, present and future respectively side by side can be interpreted to show the conception of time which is unified through the anticipated future and the recalled past in the consciousness of the present. Also retrogression of time in Viola's work is explained in connection with Heidegger's ‘unity of time’ which brings ‘the future(Zukunft)’ to the present by projecting towards the future. Viola's representation of the death is examined from two perspectives; first it is understood as the death of the absurdity which brings up the element of existential anxiety to audience rather than the meaning of resurrection or reincarnation, second as the death of a means for ‘resoluteness(Vorlaufende Entschlossenheit)’. Viola's intention to induce the total perception by stimulating the senses of the audience works more effectively on the perception of the audience in the specifically prepared installation space. The environment where the bodily experiences are induced by installing projection or objects in the dark space and giving sound effects can be seen to have a connection to Merleau-Ponty's ‘the integration of the senses’. Viola's works in which ‘integrated senses’ bring about the perception of the audience and their bodies are led to feel the unity with installation space can be understood with the Merleau-Ponty's concept of ‘the integration of the world’ through ‘the integration of the body’.

Statistics

  • 986 Viewed
  • 2 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search