Video spa : Krisna Murti's treatment of the senses

Abstract

This article discusses Indonesian artist Krisna Murti, whose video art and other creative work can be seen as a form of televisual metadiscourse. Murti’s artistic type of televisual metadiscourse provides insight into the commercial and ideological mechanisms behind the mass media industry; the cultural-technological features of various media; the historical dimensions of different genres of representation; the position of the artist and audience in processes of mediation; and alternative forms of intermediality and interactivity. Beyond merely television critique, Murti’s work presents an alternative vision of mixed environments where media and people harmoniously coexist and interact with each other. The author argues that this attempt at promoting pleasant, effective and sustainable communication environments could be seen as the media equivalent of ecology.