Bicycling Damascus

Rainer Ganahl’s “Bicycling Damascus” proved to be a prime example of video’s capabilities in the realms of perspective and documentation. The aspect of perspective is brought forth through the fact that we, the viewers, are “riding along” with Ganahl on his lengthy tour through the streets of Damascus. The actual perspective, through which we are viewing the piece, I feel, is neither truly first nor third person; this is due to the fact that this point of view through the camera lens is not focused on any particular thing. First-person perspective, or a subjective camera, tends to trace and transplant a particular character or person’s thoughts and feelings onto the audience, based on what the character/person in question is seeing before him or her. Third person perspective provides an “outside-looking-in” approach to an action or setting, but still provides a point of focus or visual absorption for the audience to follow. However, through the use of Ganahl’s “shaky”, almost impromptu, camera work (We know that what we are seeing is being held and positioned by another person) and the fact that the action on screen corresponds with his leisurely ride through the streets of Damascus, therefore providing no narrative or figurative focal point (Other than the city itself), an actual identification of perspective in the two common realms is, more-or-less, lost. Throughout this piece we are simply “on safari”. We are taking a tour of Damascus, because the camera is. This use of video to provide a, I suppose I could say, “floating” perspective, directly relates to video’s capabilities to express the aspect of immediacy. What is captured and viewing is/was the real and the now. We relate to the events on screen, not as a staged act, but something that was real and progressing in real time. It is this sense of immediacy that also builds instant reactionary emotional response. It is hard to deny the fact that the audience (Myself included) was quite caught up in the suspense of Ganahl riding his bike erratically into oncoming traffic. The audience was, for the moment, transplanted into the actions they were viewing on-screen in real time. In relation to video’s aforementioned abilities in the realm of perspective are its capabilities as a documenting tool. As stated, video, being an electronic process that literally and symbolically captures moments in real-time (Notice I did not say images), naturally lends itself to being a tool of capturing and documenting moments in all of their emotional, conflicted glory. In this video work, it is Ganahl’s ride through Damascus that is being captured and replayed in real time, and, also as stated before, we follow and react to the events (In all of their tense, adrenaline-pumping excitement) in real time as well. All in all, this work proved to be, I feel, more of an experiment in manipulating/shaping people’s sense of, I suppose I could say, “intimacy” toward moving images on a screen. When one views this, they are, temporarily, taken out of their world and placed on the seat of a bike going head-first into oncoming traffic. The suspense and everything is replicated/generated by the viewers; however, objectively speaking, what is being shown is simply a regurgitation of events that had transpired. This video definitely reflected the unique capabilities of the video medium and tested the realms of perspective and physiological response.