One-Eyed Bum, Pat Dallas & Premiere of New Work!

Andy Mann, invisible behind the video camera, approaches a bum who is walking down the Bowery and offers him a dollar to take his picture. The bum accepts, asking if it is for Eye-Witness News. He talks openly about himself, friendly, embarrassed when he swears, telling Mann about his cataract, serving as a sergeant in Korea, being raised in Philadelphia. The process of taping is, for Mann, related to the perception of events, the video image parallel but not equivalent to seeing without a camera. There is a reciprocity between the taped content and technology – while certain images look very abstract, the simulation of motion in video is extremely naturalistic.

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