Mid-Sleep
Nightmare comprises of
eleven sections-dreams, allegedly seen as a nightmare in the course of a
person’s sleep. Although each section-dream stands alone, together they unfold
a fragmented story on culture industry that is twofold: (1) in relation to its
influence on spectators and art; (2) in relation to its involvement on
misperceptions of reality and on frail interactions of the individual with the
world.
In Introduction,
Adorno’s text sets the tone for the work’s understanding, without forcing it to
a resolution. Some promises that Adorno’s text generates are kept, while others
are not. The work is more than the text but is also less. This incomplete
relation between text and visual helps the work to remain open while also
focused.
Culture industry is
viewed as “industry” in Industry Life Cycle sections (Industry
Life Cycle: Growth and Industry Life Cycle: Decline) and
in its relation to sexuality in Visual Masturbation. Room-Thing is
a Beckettian style parody of art world’s antagonism between aspiring artists,
“behind the scenes”. Sheep and Rain sees a similar problem at
a larger scale, namely the relation between celebrity-icon and mass, a theme
also explored in Industry Life Cycle: Decline and in Visual
Masturbation. These sections deal with the first part of the story
(spectacle and culture industry’s influence on spectators/art).
In Public
Space the urban landscape becomes an audiovisual event, which the
section To the Office picks up and develops to a familiar
Hollywood action movie scenario. Together with Reality Television,
they question what is the meaning of “seeing” today and its relation to the
real. This exploration is continued in Topsy Turvy World where
the engagement of the individual with the space is more surreal than the
upside-down blue landscape itself. In Desert of the Real (quote
from the movie “The Matrix”) what ultimately remains from the encounter of the
individual with the world, is silence. These sections deal mostly with the
second part of the story (spectacle and culture industry’s involvement to
perception/interaction of the individual with reality/world).
