Date: 1973 Running Time: 33:15
In the early 1970s, Acconci produced a large number of tapes, including Theme Song, which played off the intimacy of the video viewing situation and dealt with the conventions of direct address. The wide-angle lens distorts Acconci's face, making it bulge forward on the screen, thus breaking down the separation between screen and viewing space. Occasionally he shifts his body so that we can see his legs shrink away by means of the distorting lens. The disproportion between head and body emphasize that this is a mental seduction, a verbal barrage, but with the body still behind it all. The use of popular song lyrics puts a distance between Acconci and his words; he insists on his sincerity with someone else's words. Acconci makes us aware of the complex set of conventions governing the direct address of the viewer/ listener. The singer (Bob Dylan) constructs a listener who is in passive agreement. Acconci is not so presumptuous; he desperately courts our assent. He needs interaction, something the video medium neither permits nor desires. It dooms him to failure.
Référence: http://www.thekitchen.org/MovieCatalog/Titles/ThemeSong.html