I agree with Krauss that video is a medium of narcissism, while not necessarily singularly encompassing the medium. To me this was the most important and most obvious issue that Krauss takes on. Krauss brings me to terms with this conclusion by discussing whether the medium of video is mainly physical or psychological.
He discusses that it is difficult for some to accept this idea of video being narcissism perhaps because video requires certain physical mechanisms. However, the illusion that video can depict to the viewer represents and presents a different notion of an "extraordinary image of distraction". Krauss explains that artists achieve this with video through the simultaneous reception and projection of an image and the human psyche used as a conduit. He continues this discussion by explaining that use of these two features in video causes the present to appear to collapse onto itself because it is replaced simultaneously by itself and is instantly made into past history. This causes one to question present, past, and time in general. Whether the artist uses mirrors to view or audio, Krauss describes that the play with history is created with the use of text to tie one moment to the previous one.
Krauss exclaims that many compare this reflective mode or process to the way an artist would use a reflexive process with a different medium discourse. However, he describes reflective to be different than reflective instead of reflective simply being a variation of reflexive because reflective mode deals with radical symmetry and reflexive deals with radical symmetry. He describes the reflective mode, unlike the reflexive, implies the "vanquishing of separating" of subject and object. This fusion of subject and object actually diffuses the object, which Krauss describes as the electronic equipment and its capabilities, and enforces the notion of video being narcissism and not about its physical aspects.
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