Television was not immediately and universally celebrated as the medium to and of the masses. Indeed many artists treated it with intense scepticism and as a result it quickly became appropriated as a medium to critique technology itself. Nam June Paik is an artist that I have been interested in for some time, however, there were many of his generation in Germany who treated the TV with cynicism and distrusted the medium’s power for manipulation. It seems that from the start the TV, presented as the American dream, left an underlying foundation of fear due to the inherent power over it held over its viewers. The German critic Theodor W Ardorno and artists Gunther Uecker and Wolf Vostell joined Paik in his quest to expose the medium by blurring the lines between “COLUSION AND CRITIQUE”. This meant working within the medium (but with distain). For example, Gunther Uecker’s attack on brand new televisions with hammers and nails was, in turn, filmed and disseminated via TV. To accept a certain medium for its ability to distribute information quickly and broadly, even if that information is criticism of the medium itself, is a cunning notion indeed.
Book: Art of Two Germanys Cold War Cultures edited by Stephanie Barron and Sabine Eckmann, Abrams 2009
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