He wants instead to question the medium's belief in the viewer's eye. He repeats that idea in his preliminary notes, on display in a quieter room off to the side. As one sketch puts it, what is missing from video art is the viewer. For Viola, that means something is also missing from the viewer. The artist and viewer may think they can rely on their inner eye.
Ordinary myths revel in the eye of the artistic genius, the eye of human consciousness itself.
Consciousness has to learn its dependence on the eye of another, the eye of nature. The eye of nature suggests, too, another side to Viola's skepticism. Nature defines him because it fills him with awe. As in last year's museum show of just two works , Viola spends his life in slow motion, like lovers in a TV commercial. Too often, nature turns into an excuse or a platitude.