Usually when we look at the image of the speaker on our TV screens at home, we don't see the 'actual' person speaking behind the image. This confrontation, facilitated by the operator and his or her staff, is therefore unexpected; the story told by the staff's operator is interrupted and and even contradicted by the pre-recorded image which tells other stories and visa versa. This image on the screen may show the operator recounting a tragic scene or comic moment concerning his or her alien status; however, the operator who holds the staff, thus relieved of telling this story, presents another face. Standing next to his or her own history, the operator asks the viewer, who now appears to be the stranger, to tell their own story. At this point a new space is created by the operator/object in relation to the spectator. The distinction between stranger and non-stranger is problematic here, maybe around this staff everyone becomes a different kind of stranger.
Excerpt: pg. 158. Tectonic Acts of Doubt and Desire, Mark Rakatansky: Krzystof Wodiczcko: Why The Figural.
