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Television-Art or anti-art?
Conflict and cooperation between the avant-garde and the mass media in the 1960s and 1970s

icon: authorDieter Daniels

Television emerged and developed along tracks that had already been laid by the established mass media of film and radio. There was scarcely a phase when everything was open, allowing creative investigation to define the medium. In the following, three snapshots will provide examples of the developing relationship between art and television over three decades. The conflicts between avant-garde and television as a mass medium in the 1960s and 1970s will be highlighted from an artistic perspective. [more]more

Text Sections
icon: heading Television as a world powericon: heading A medium without articon: heading Three time-windowsicon: heading I → First Time-Window: 1962–1964—Fighting the boob tubeicon: heading The television set as art materialicon: heading From Cage to Paik and from music to interactive articon: heading Paik's «Participation TV»icon: heading Vostell's TV Decollageicon: heading Paik or Vostell?icon: heading Parallel concepts—the television set as an art object in the work of Wesselmann, Uecker, César, Isou and Gerstnericon: heading Tom Wesselmannicon: heading Günther Ueckericon: heading Césaricon: heading Isidore Isouicon: heading Karl Gerstnericon: heading TV interiors in painting, photography, action art and theatericon: heading Summary of the first time-window—from intermedia to multimediaicon: heading II → Second Time-Window 1968–1969: Artists go on the airicon: heading Television—the art form of the future?icon: heading «Black Gate Cologne»—a happening in the studioicon: heading «The Medium is the Medium»—everything is possibleicon: heading Schum's «Fernsehgalerie«—art without a placeicon: heading III → Third Time-Window—Intervention and cooperation since 1970icon: heading Conceptual interventionicon: heading Playful disturbances—Dibbets, Weibel, Export and Hallicon: heading Radical intervention—Burdenicon: heading Radical cooperations—Paikicon: heading VT ≠ TVicon: heading Prospects: Four post-utopian strategies