OBSERVER / OBSERVED and Other Works of Video Semiology

This video trilogy of Camera, Monitor, Frame, Observer / Observed, and Observer / Observed / Observer creates a semiology of video as a work on video rather than a written text.  Its main purpose is to study the structural relationships between video and language, in this case using the English language.  I designed a system depicting the relationship between the observer and the person being observed using words such as "I" and "YOU" through a video feedback system as the basis.  This trilogy is a remake of my 1975-76 piece.  It is shorter in length, but its original concept has note been changed. 

--Takahiko iimura

"The development of the closed circuit syntax is closed when iimura stands behind one of the cameras, thus being able to declare (in terms of the image) 'I am a camera.' Camera, Monitor, Frame, is one of a series of work that derived from the literal usage of language in terms of construction."

-- Daryl Chin, The Video Art of Takahiko Iimura, Anthology Film Archives, New York, 1999, New York.