In the 1990s, a group of radical artists called the GALA Committee smuggled political messages into Melrose Place. This story is WILD.
“Watch enough episodes of Melrose Place and you’ll notice other very odd props and set design all over the show. A pool float in the shape of a sperm about to fertilize an egg. A golf trophy that appears to have testicles. Furniture designed to look like an endangered spotted owl.”
[via]
I just discovered my new (old) favourite documentary series. It is titled Connections and it was aired by the BBC in 1978 an 1979. The series was written, and presented by British science historian James Burke. “It took an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, and demonstrated how various discoveries, scientific achievements, and historical world events were built from one another successively in an interconnected way to bring about particular aspects of modern technology.”
And to my immense surprise and delight, I also read that the series is coming back, 45 years later, with a brand new season.
Nam June Paik’s predictions on #television, #museums and #drugs.
[source: Letter to Messrs Lloyd and Klein (“It was a heavy earthquake … “), Dated February 10,1971. Typescript (copy) with handwritten notes in ink. Two single-sided pages, each: 10% x 8V2 in. (27.3 x 21.6 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Nam June Paik Archive (Box 2, Folder 18); Gift of the Nam June Paik Estate. ONLINE HERE]
Founded by a collective of radical media makers in 1981, Paper Tiger Television pioneered edutainment. Broadcast on public access television, the collective took a grassroots, DIY approach to media production that showcased how television was made through television, while critiquing corporate media and attempting to build a more equitable form of moving image. As one of the founders put it: “It is one thing to critique the mass media and rail against their abuses. It is quite another to create viable alternatives.”
On a Sunday morning in Henrico County, Virginia, dozens of residents woke to find old TV sets dumped on their lawns. One person reviewed their home security footage and reported the following: “It was a guy dressed in a jumpsuit with a TV for a head,” said Adrian Garner. “It’s the weirdest thing. He squats down, puts the TV there and walks off. It’s really weird.”
[via]
Slow television is the uninterrupted broadcast of an ordinary event from start to finish…
[via kottke]
The de/Rastra oscillographic synthesizer is a real-time audio/video instrument and computer-interfacing device that allows a performer to generate visualizations intrinsic tocathode ray tube technology while simultaneously creating the acoustic analog of the displayed imagery.
“Overly melodramatic and cheesy Boston TV channel news report about a computer virus outbreak discovered by MIT nerds in 1998. Fun because they don’t just report on the virus – they interview geeks, and insert random clips from retro videogames and TV movies to illustrate what a virus is.”
[via dangerous minds]
(Via Driveby Blogging)
Good stuff never gets old…
“A moving picture is a real thing and as a real thing it is not imitation. It does not reflect on life, it embodies the life of the mind.” -Ernie Gehr
Spectacular tv sculptures by Antoine Catala (on view at AVA, New York, until November 4th).
[via triangulation blog]
John Cage performing Water Walk on a game show in 1960. Incredible stuff.
[via imrevolting]
I took advantage of these calm midsummer days to dig into my analog archive and reverse some material that otherwise would be lost. I’m very proud to show you what I found!
Here are some videos that document my first two exhibitions, both organized between the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003. They’re television reviews, so sometimes the voice over tells naive or even wrong stuff, and they’re available only in italian, but nonetheless…
I was younger, slimmer and full of enthusiasm :-)
The first two videos are about “Netizens. Cittadini della rete” (december 2002), a small show I curated in a private gallery in Rome. The show was not just about net art, but about making art in the age of the Internet, and more precisely, it tried to demostrate how important was for this new community of young artists to share a citizenship: the web citizenship.
Artists: Cory Arcangel/BEIGE, Elout De Kok, Jodi.org, Limiteazero, Carlo Zanni
more info: http://www.netizensonline.it/2002
The third video is a review of “L’oading. Videogiochi Geneticamente Modificati” (Genetically Modified Videogames). This show was open from January to March 2003 at the Siracusa City Museum, in Sicily and it was, as the title suggests, about artistic modifications of videogames.
I’m particularly happy that this video exists because this exhibition didn’t have a catalogue, so there’s no documentation around, and I think it was a great project.
Artists: Mauro Ceolin, Brody Condon, Arcangel Costantini, Corby&Baily, Delire, Victor Liu See-Lee, Nullpointer, Chiara Passa, Retroyou, Gentian Skhurti
more info: https://www.valentinatanni.com/2008/07/2003-loading-videogiochi-geneticamente-modificati/
Enjoy the jump in the past :-)
Turn any tv screen in a work of art with the Abstractor…
Annoiati? Fatti? Insonni? Upl8 TV è perfetto per ricoglionirsi fino all’alba. La selezione è acida (cartoni, televendite, videoclip, conferenze, giochi, stramberie) e si cambia canale con la barra spaziatrice…
Televisioni all’uncinetto. Dal portfolio di Esmé Valk...
Su Sky Cinema 3 sabato sera c’era Fantasmi da Marte, dell’insuperabile John Carpenter. Che immagina un futuro in cui la Terra colonizza Marte, con un governo tutto femminile. Una specie di società matriarcale. I due pezzi grossi della polizia sono anch’esse donne: una di colore e una bionda tossica (le pasticche magiche la salvano dalla zombificazione). Il malvivente dal cuore d’oro è nientemeno che Ice Cube (altro che Eminem) con il coattissimo nome di “Desolazione Williams”. Nonostante l’ambientazione ‘rosso Marte’, il film è una specie di western, dove al posto degli indiani ci sono dei minatori zombificati dagli spiriti di un’antica società marziana. Per finire il quadretto, il capo di quest’orda di indiavolati è un’incrocio tra il cantante dei Kiss e Marilyn Manson. Carpenter: un uomo una garanzia.
Finito il film ho dato un’occhiata al Grande Fratello versione integrale. Che vi devo dire? Aveva ragione Bill Viola: “Life without editing, it seems, is just not that interesting”.
Perchè noi Adriano Pappalardo e gli inglesi Johnny Rotten?
Afef ha sostituito la Marcuzzi a Le Iene. E la cino-spoletina Erika del Grande Fratello ha il pigiama uguale al mio. Non è tempo per me di guardare la tv.
p.s. Imperdibile il commento di Zoro alla prima puntata del GF.
C’è una rete televisiva coraggiosa in Italia, che se ne infischia dell’audience e punta sulla cultura? Io ora so che c’è. E’ Teleambiente . La rete laziale dedica tutto il suo sabato sera agli approfondimenti culturali. Sabato scorso ha mandato in onda nell’ordine: intervista a Toni Negri sui temi affrontati nel suo libro Impero; Colori – Arte Contemporanea, trasmissione dedicata a mostre, artisti e musei e infine il programma di utilità sociale L’investigatore, in cui un tizio vestito alla Dick Tracy va in giro per le periferie romane a raccogliere testimonianze su casi umani, disavventure burocratiche, degradi vari.
Il problema però è che, nell’intento (forse) di fare una tv anche formalmente e linguisticamente alternativa, specie nella trasmissione “Colori”, la produzione si adopera in: inquadrature da mal di mare, carrellate a schiaffo, improbabili zoom, audio montato fuori sincrono e montaggi alla Blob. Raggiungendo picchi di trash assolutamente sublimi.
Ah, dimenticavo. Toni Negri, che tra le altre cose aveva lo sguardo di Moro nella foto delle Brigate Rosse e la verve di Boy George a Sanremo nel 1985 quando salì sul palco imbottito di eroina, l’hanno intervistato in cucina! Un’atmosfera informale, non c’è che dire…
Stasera è uscito Pasquale dalla casa del Grande fratello. In studio, viene intervistato da Barbara D’Urso:
“Allora, come va?”
“Non tutte le ciambelle riescono col buco”.
“E cioè?”
“Quando la capra canta lasciala cantare”.
Qualunque cosa stiate facendo, smettete subito. Andate ad accendere la tv e mettete Rai due. C’è uno speciale sugli Anni Ottanta che fa venire le lacrime agli occhi. Heather Paris, Mazinga, Alberto Fortis, Patrizia Pellegrino, Ufo Robot, Daniela Goggi, il cubo di Rubik…devo continuare?
