Bolter Readings: Q&A

3) How, in 20th century art, can a viewer look at or see through the piece (for example Bolter uses the example of collages)? [Nicole]

20th Century art appears, in some way, to be self aware and self-mediating (in the traditional sense, not in the made-up-theory-word sense). Collages, in the given example, are representative of relationships between physical space as well as of more abstract ideas, and furthermore the physical suggests the abstract. Collages, too, necessitate a creator; nothing is naturally 'collaged'.
The idea of transparency leads to the idea that anything perceived must not only been seen but seen through. This in turn goes back the idea of mediacy and transmitting information across different media. As with collages, 20th century art when read as media can be both a transmitter and a transmission. There is a duality at hand that becomes increasingly inherent within art as it becomes more (post-)modern. It is self-aware of the creator as it attempts to hide him/her and become an entity unto itself.