Boomerang (Nancy Holt & Richard Serra, 1974)
The mindblowing effects of an extremely simple -but familiar- technical defect (voice is delayed and then looped back into the headphones) on human thoughts, behaviour, sense of identity and perception of time. Nothing special about the visuals (I didn’t post it in the wiki) but I found it incredibly powerful.
On top of what Nancy Holt herself says during the performance, a 1976 article by Rosalinda Krauss explains that “Because the audio delay keeps hypostatizing her words, she has great difficulty coinciding with herself as a subject”. I didn’t know the word hypostatis but I dig anything that fucks with the human brain, and this is such a thing.
Your own words becoming things that exist out of yourself, rather than being manifestations of your thoughts? It reminds me of Terence McKenna’s little friends.
the mentioned 1976 article by Rosalinda Krauss (see 5th page):
i liked this commentary better than others:
