Imaginary Water Sculpture

“I throw water in space with a bucket. A video camera pictures this. Another camera pictures this event from the TV screen. 3 modalities of reality: 3 levels of interpretation. Reality: filmed reality: filmed film.
You see the water thrown, suddenly the water stops just at the moment of its greatest volume in the air, the view of the camera becomes greater and you see that you have not watched reality but a film. You have jumped from one level or reality to another (…). I trace the water sculpture on the screen (in time and space, for the reality of our senses, the water has long
since vanished) – imaginary for the reality of the senses but real for the video – and define TV in terms of a drug experience just because of this potential for distorting the ratios and the reality of our senses. At the moment where I describe VT and TV as a time-space-switch the water sculpture dissolves on the screen (which, once again looks like reality because it provides a frame just like a window) and falls with a big bang on the surface of the sea.”

broadcasted on June 29, 1972, ORF