Otherwise, If You Don't Do That, It's Going To Be Just Some Ego Expression.

Otherwise, if you don't do that, it's going to be just some ego expression. This notwithstanding, he does not behave like a visionary possessed by mysticism, living on a far ideal island set apart from the daily concerns of common man. His point of view on tv and visual communication, for example, is a result of a personal analysis that is all but superficial, and can compete with the 'sociological' efforts of other contemporary artists. And, perhaps most important of all, it restores hope in the power of art to go through any dark age: they learned now, the powers that be, how to get into the images and manipulate those but artists will always, masters of images that they are, will always come through, will always go through that, will have that power and be immutable and undeniable. I think as for what is going on right now, I think we are going to move into an age where the mistrust of the visual image will grow, not recede, its happening already, a lot of people don't believe what they see on CNN. That disconnect from the visual which has so defined our era now I think is, as digital tools extend, the advantage we have is, the reality is a code, not an image, and those codes are the underbelly of the infrastructure of what we are experiencing. So I think the artists of the future are going to understand the image as a surfeit and their work as artists will be in the subterranean levels beneath the image, where the real reality is... The big responsibility right now is to develop an understanding and awareness of the effects these images have. We are in a situation now culturally whereby the people who have created this huge, giant image machine which is inundating us, flooding us with images, every night every hour every day all around us, have no knowledge or awareness or understanding of the real effect those images are going to have on us. It's like someone who is so focused on the food you are eating and getting the taste to be right, and the food hits your mouth but hasn't got a clue about nutrition, about what happens after the food comes in and goes into your body. I mean hamburgers are going to give you cancer. And it is the same thing with images, they go in there and they live in you, all these things you've seen, these presences, are living in you and continuing to affect you.
Bibliography
Michael Rush, Video Art, Thames & Hudson, 2003
Michael Rush, New Media in Art, Thames & Hudson, 2005
Bill Viola, Statements, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, 1985
Bill Viola (ed. Robert Violette), Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House: Writings 1973-1994, Thames & Hudson, 1995,
VV.AA., Bill Viola, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1983
VV.AA.