Two 12-inch monitors, one stacked on top of the other, are placed on a table in a small private room (approximately 8.2 x 8.2 ft). The upper monitor shows the live video image of a video camera with a person present in the room, while the lower one plays back the same image after a 7-second delay. A microphone is also provided for visitors. The installation is set up for just one day at the Experimental Studio in the School of Art at Syracuse University (N.Y.) and only one person can enter the room at a time, the room being locked from the inside.
Instant Replay (In Situ Installation) (1972) is the first closed-circuit video/sound installation produced and directed by the artist. This type of intimate experience of the self on offer is key for
Bill Viola in that most visitors, at the time of the installation in 1972, had never seen their own live video image.
—Slavko Kacunko - Culture as Capital