TV-News (TV-Death II)

Die Kommunikation ist das Medium / Communication Is the Medium; Tele-Aktion (IV b) / Tele-Action (IV b); projected: 1970; broadcasted: June 29, 1972


“Video as box, the TV set as box. Communication is the medium.” “Death II (…) (is) another variation of my idea of video not as a screen but as a box. The message occurs in the medium. Words really taken at their meaning, the daily dose of deadly words, affect the death of their speaker/distributor. The intoxication of communication as it is daily affected by TV is shown visually by a slight deviation of behaviour: The news-speaker smokes. The smoke becomes an overdose because he sits in a box (the TV box), such that he finally suffocates in his own output: the deadly ecology of TV, the closed circuit of word and meaning, of meaning and action, feedback of action and information.” “After the transmission many people phoned up angrily, but not because the news was old and odd (the man read last month’s news), but because he smoked so much.” (Peter Weibel)

Orig. Title
TV-News (TV-Tod II)
Year
1970
Country
Austria
Duration
5 min 50 sec
Director
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
German
Credits
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Sound Format
sound
Color Format
b/w