Thirty years before millions of Americans worried whether Gervase would get booted off ''Survivor'' before Sean, or whether the purple-haired Brittany would lose her virginity under the ever watchful eye of ''Big Brother,'' Frank Gillette and his cronies in the video-art collective Raindance sat on a beach in Point Reyes, Calif., turned on their portable video camera and passed it around ''like a joint,'' as Mr. Gillette remembers it.
Among other artists who used viewers as collaborators in their installations was peter campus. His video installations from the early 70's, including ''Interface'' and ''Mem,'' made the audience the artwork. In both pieces, visitors to an exhibition found their own image projected onto large screens as they were being taped by a camera. Placement of the projectors or discreetly planted sheets of glass resulted in the image's appearing enlarged or skewed. In what may seem an ironic twist from our present remove, Mr. campus was trying to shake viewers from their passive role as spectators. Now passivity rules as television viewers, like the Romans in the Colosseum, watch the ''reality TV'' gladiators try to survive the psychological barbs of their supposed teammates.
