Double Vision is one of the earliest and best known video works by American (born 1937) artist Peter Campus.
The video is divided into seven parts,[2] each referencing a phenomenal mode of perception or form of biological sight.
Each part utilizes a different configuration of the video cameras to record the interior of a small loft space.
It opens with the title Double Vision superimposed over a photograph of a fundus (the back layer of the retina) taken through an ophthalmoscope.
[3] Campus described the video as "an exploration of double or two-camera images, relating to the evolution of sight in animals.
"[4] Campus's contemporary Bill Viola wrote in Art in America: "Unlike many of his contemporaries who used the surveillance camera as a detached, fixed observer documenting the performer’s actions, Campus assigned an active, independent ontological status to the camera eye.
"[5] The two cameras pan wildly around the room in dizzying combinations, resulting in confusing juxtapositions of images.
This disparity serves as the basis for stereopsis, one of the most important depth cues in human sight.
The point where they appear as one is far away, at the other side of the room, indicating that he did not only rotate the cameras inwards, but also may have inadvertently moved them closer together.
In vision, convergence is a term signifying the ability of the eyes to turn inward, typically used to focus on objects that are close up.
The imperfection in his process has been said to underscore the difference between the mode of sight performed by the cameras and human perception.
At this point in the video, the camerawork is no longer tied as directly to the mechanics of human perception as it was before, but uses technological means to reference biological sight, relocating it outside of the body.
In the upcoming sections, configurations becomes further divorced from the human sensory apparatus, imagining new possibilities for sight.
This section introduces a sense of space not yet seen, and highlights technology's potential to extend the human sensory apparatus.
[4][5] The sound in the video consists of a mixture of noises coming from inside and outside of the room, as well as the hum of the videotape itself.