Abstract
This paper considers video data recorded and used by professionals for the practical purposes of their work. The issues addressed here concern how, in the course of their work, medical practioners deal with the fact that they are filming and being filmed. How they orient toward the video camera and accomplish the ordered character of their work whilst reflexively taking into account the fact that it is being recorded. The fieldwork data comprises a telemedicine project in the domain of surgery. A surgical operation was carried out employing the laparoscopic technique by a team within an operating room, connected by video-conference to an external expert giving advice online, and to an audience of advanced trainees in an auditorium witnessing the operation on a giant screen. This situation involves video materials as a constitutive feature of action. On the one hand, minimally invasive surgery is performed by introducing an optical system into the body, allowing the surgeon to operate by looking at the anatomy on a TV monitor and not directly at the patient's body. On the other hand, broadcasting the operation within a larger public space, beyond the operating theatre, involves also the filming of the surgical procedure. The detailed way in which this surgical procedure is perfomed is reflexively tied to this situation. Surgeons display their attention toward the ways in which their action is being recorded and viewed online by the audience. They accomplish their action in such a way that it is recipient designed, visible and accountable for both the audience and the expert. The analysis of these materials takes into account the way in which the video image is produced and oriented to in work practices.