More on TV As A Creative Medium

The following are my favorite excerpts from the exhibition brochure, but if you have the time it is a very interesting read (). There are links to quicktime files of some of the videos that were at the exhibition, but neither Frank nor I could get them to work on our computaters. Maybe you guys will have some luck. I think all of this might be useful to think about in terms of manipulating people on a massive scale and through images and sounds, and in subverting that sort of mass control by exploiting the same mechanisms. In case you have not already checked it out, I am getting most of this information from , which is an informational goldmine. Anyways...

"Ever since Marshall McLuhan has become a household name, people have become aware of the tremendous force, both actual and potential; that TV is having and will have on their lives.

The machine is obsolescent. Magazines, books, newspapers and other publications making use of the written word as we have known it are threatened. The relationships of nations, classes, generations and individuals are deeply affected. Education will be revolutionized, schools transformed if not eliminated (why interrupt your child’s education by sending him to school?). TV is at the cause, or at least at the root of the cause, of all of these changes that are transforming our civilization.

Why has not art been affected by this pervading influence? Perhaps quite simply because, up until now the time was not right. Perhaps it had to await the maturing of the generation who were in their sub-teens in the 1950’s, those who were “brought up” on TV. They read 'do-it-yourself' books on how to make radios and TVs. They earned pocket money repairing the neighbor's broken sets. Or they were trained in the technology while they were in the armed forces. As in every generation, some were artists. These have been at work for two, three, five and even more years, scrounging around second hand shops for parts, working with TV because they were fascinated by the results they were able to achieve, and because they sensed the potential of TV as the medium for their expression." -Howard Wise

“The real issue implied in ‘Art and Technology’ is not to make another scientific toy, but how to humanize the technology and the electronic medium, which is progressing rapidly—too rapidly. Progress has already outstripped ability to program. I would suggest ‘Silent TV Station.’ This is TV station for highbrows, which transmits most of time only beautiful ‘mood art’ in the sense of ‘mood music.’ What I am aiming at is TV cersion of Vivaldi…or electronic ‘Compoz,’ to soothe every hysteric woman through air, and to calm down the nervous tension of every businessman through air. In that way ‘Light Art’ will become a permanent asset or even collection of Million people. SILENT TV Station will simply be ‘there,’ not intruding on other activities…and being looked at exactly like a landscape…or beautiful bathing nude of Renoir, and in that case, everybody enjoys the ‘original’…and not a reproduction…

‘TV Brassiere for Living Sculpture (Charlotte Moorman) is also one sharp example to humanize electronics…and technology. By using TV as bra…the most intimate belonging of human being, we will demonstrate the human use of technology, and also stimulate viewers NOT for something mean but stimulate their phantasy to look for the new, imaginative and humanistic ways of using our technology.’” –Nam June Paik

AC/TV (AUDIO-CONTROLLED TELEVISION)

“As a child I would often close my eyes and ‘see’ music as colored patterns. One day two years ago, I woke up in the middle of a dream with an intense desire to recreate this experience electronically. This developed into an obsession, and I created dozens of Audio Controlled lighting effects, culminating in a work in which the speed of a motor was controlled by music.
As soon as I became aware of the Color Cathode Ray Tube, I realized that the red, blue and green guns in the CRT were ideally suited for audio control by the low, middle and high frequencies of music.
I view the Color Television receiver as one of the highest technological achievements of mankind, and the fact that it is generally used to transmit sub-human material points out in dramatic fashion the imbalance between man’s technological and social progress. The AC/TV is radical art because it allows the viewer to turn off the endless stream of garbage and use his Color TV in a personal aesthetically satisfying way.” –Joe Weintraub

P.S. I don't think that any of the links I am adding are working. I'll figure it out eventually.