Contacts

Overview

Contacts is one of a series of tapes in which Acconci creates a controlled performance situation to explore the limits of a private space. Applying intense mental concentration and intuition, he uses the body as a vehicle to explore perception and interactive communication. Acconci stands blindfolded, the static camera focused on his torso. A woman kneels before him, holding her hand over parts of his body, concentrating on her hand's location to convey its placement to him. Acconci tries to intuit her hand's location through body heat; she answers "yes" or "no" and moves it to another location. Acconci has written that "her hand is used as a kind of dousing rod — the ground responds."