Ant Farm - Media Burn video here
"Media Burn" employs performance and spectacle in service of media critique, featuring the explosive collision of two of America's most potent cultural symbols: the automobile and television. On July 4, 1975, at San Francisco's Cow Palace, Ant Farm presented what they termed the "ultimate media event." In this alternative Bicentennial celebration, a "Phantom Dream Car"—a reconstructed 1959 El Dorado Cadillac convertible—was driven through a wall of burning TV sets. The spectacle of the Cadillac crashing through the burning TV sets became a visual manifesto of the early alternative video movement, an emblem of an oppositional and irreverent stance against the political and cultural imperatives promoted by television and the passivity of TV viewing. "Media Burn" appears courtesy Electronic Art Intermix. http://www.eai.org/index.htm Ant Farm: Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Curtis Schreier, Uncle Buddie Artist-President: Doug Hall Executive Producer: Tom Weinberg Editors: Chip Lord, Skip Blumberg, Doug Michels, Tom Weinberg Interviews directed and edited by Peter Kirby
I think this very deep artwork. I don't think I got the point at first time but after I watched several times, I can embrace the message slowly. I'm not sure I got the message, still, I can tell that Ant Farm express the feelings which against to the media in artistic way. Ant Farm shows the collapse, and corruption of the media by crashing the TV, I think.
ReplyDeleteMedia Burn is maybe not like some of the other pieces we have studied that are outright activist and where they are advocating for a specific social change or responding to a specific event or geographical location. So I think it is natural to keep thinking and wondering about it. One significant idea in the work was to use the TV news coverage to carry a critical message against television to a mass audience. In absence of social media and internet it was one of the most powerful ways (during that era) to communicate with a mass audience (and to use the YV itself was not lost on many viewers at home).
DeleteI thought this piece was very interesting as Sean suggested I look into Ant Farm's "Media Burn" for my concepts about planned obsolescence. Though this piece doesn't inherently touch on the idea of planned obsolescence and not functional technology, the equipment and objects they used were considered relevant and new when this piece was filmed. I really enjoyed how they were able to capture an interesting and engaging form by stacking the TVs on top of each other. The imagery of the space themed car crashing through the TVs and the "JFK" speech were very strong connections that tied to the commentary of media culture.
ReplyDeleteYes. I believe it was in response to the idea of artists using obsolete technology. The TV's were gathered and probably broken or discarded... so... But maybe the hope of the project was to convice the public to make TV itself obsolete.
DeleteThe video was very mesmerizing in watching the collision between these two large commercial items. I think the performance aspect was incredibly strong as it allowed you to visually see the destruction of the media. Media and commercialism are concepts greatly used in art but I have never seen it used in this way.
ReplyDeleteI like that you write about it in terms of commercial products. The prized dream car striking the television screens and being documented for the news to exist on more TV screens (at home for viewers).
DeleteThis is an event I wish I could have seen and experienced in person. There was so much intensity for the collision and crowd. I enjoyed how they created passes and tickets for the events and drew together a pretty large crowd. The futuristic/altered design of the car itself was like something out of a retro sci fi and the sets burning in flames emphasized the potency of both symbols colliding. All the audience could do was stand back and watch it the set as it’s engulfed.
ReplyDeleteYes. One thing I always wonder about Ant Farm and Chip Lord's work is whether it is utopian or dis-topian or apocalyptic... I think it swings back and forth between optimism for the future and strong social critique.
Delete