Being present: here and there : an investigation and analysis of the conscious and unconscious roles of the spectator during participation in interactive, open-system video installation

Being present: here and there - An investigation and analysis of the conscious and unconscious roles of the spectator during participation in interactive, open-system video installation, uses video installation to explore how we confront and conceptualise our identity through self-reflexive imagery. The focus is on how the roles of spectator and performer vacillate to bring the individual's identity into question. Using the ideas of historical video pioneers as a starting point, and supported through visual and psychoanalytic theory, the exegesis argues that the embracing of digital technologies within video installation has emphasised, through interactivity, the multiple reading, and the concept that an interactive artwork is ultimately created through participation by the user. The research investigates the oscillating roles of identity manifest in interactive video installation. Through a suite of live and delayed video installations and the accompanying text, this work examines the phenomenological experiences of the spectator as an interactive performer.