Vito Acconci
«La Generazione delle Immagini. Public Art»

Excerpt]

[...] We made some pieces a few years ago that are kinds of clothing you might wear in the city, they're kinds of masks_they're all based on conventional fencing masks. This one's called «Virtual Pleasure Mask.» It has a penis for nose, a vagina for mouth, and two televisions sets facing in for the eyes. On the other side of the vagina is a pacifier. So when you're wearing the mask, someone can be fucking you on the outside, and you can be watching television on the inside, sucking on a pacifier in a world of your own. The «Virtual Relations Mask» has a penis for nose, vagina for mouth, one television facing in at the eyes, and a surveillance camera on the top of the mask that mechanically rotates, up and down. So if you're wearing the mask and someone is fucking you from the outside, you can see who's fucking you by means of the camera, and if you don't like who's fucking you, there's a whistle on the inside you can blow. The «Virtual Intelligence Mask» has three televisions: one larger television facing out, and two miniature televisions facing in. The miniature televisions cover the eyes of the person wearing the mask, he/she seems blindfolded by the televisions. At one side of the mask is a small radio, positioned at the ear of the person wearing the mask; the radio's speaker is directed out. On top of the mask are two surveillance cameras, one on top of the other, one directed toward the front and the other toward the rear. They rotate mechanically, side to side. The person wearing the mask can see his/her environment on the screens in front of his/her eyes. In the meantime, passers-by may switch the TV channels outside the mask, or change from one radio station to another. A passer-by can literally «dial» the person wearing the mask; a passer-by can literally «turn the person on.»


Excerpt from: La Generazione delle Immagini. Public Art: Vito Acconci , in Undo.net.
[LE: http://www.undo.net/cgi-bin/openframe.pl?x=/Pinto/Eng/facconci.htm]