VIDEO-DRONE: dźwięk we wczesnych pracach Billa Violi

VIDEO-DRONE: Sound in Bill Viola’s Early WorksMedia art is – in most cases – considered to be a visual form. Yet, even video art, visual by definition, has its roots in sound. Not only some of the most important video artist (including one of the pioneers – Nam June Paik) were influenced by John Cage. Some of them were also trained as musicians, composers or thoereticians of music. Bill Viola, especially in his early works produced back in the seventies, was quite aware that the new form of expression is closer to the tradition of sound and music-making than to the tradition of cinema. He noticed that video recording seems to be an extension of the possibilities of a sound recorder rather than of a film camera. The basic idea was that both video and sound recording devices are able to capture certain continuity, while film camera “deconstructs” reality and creates the impression of movement from 24 stills projected onto a screen in one second.Bill Viola not only commented of the relationship between video and sound in his writings, but also tried to express it in many of his works. It is surprising that most of his early works are quite “sound-aware”. The essay by Andrzej Pitrus is an attempt to interpret some of the works by famous American artist in some of the sound – related contexts. They are e.g.: the problem of representation, ontology, and the influences of Eastern philosophy and aesthetics.