Photography's Neuter State

In his article Intermedia, Higgins addresses that “we need more portability and flexibility, and this the traditional theater cannot provide” (189). However, he later contradicts himself by indicating that intermedia is universal to some extent throughout the fine arts. Would he consider mime shows a presentation of intermedia within theater? Can we consider the possibility of a still film to a monologue evidence of de-compartmentalization of theater?

Throughout Photography’s Expanded Field, Baker stresses the evolutionary role of photography as a bridge medium to “more compelling forms” in exchange for its debasement as an art form in and of itself. Furthermore, Baker formulates an interpretation of photography as “being neither truly narrative nor static in its meaning” but able to aesthetically organize into sequence and series. Since there exists the possibility of photography existing as both an intermedia and independent art medium, how do we reconcile its dual functions and, also, who defines the conditions for either discourse: the artist or the audience? And overall, is the breaking away from compartmentalized art mediums a foreshadowing of the fluidity of all art structures? Will sculpture, paintings, architecture, etc gradually emerge into postmodernist manifestations parallel to photography?