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Turn me on
This is not a celebration of poor images. Nor is it a defense propped up in favour of one who is unable to adjust the 'idiot box' to ensure clear, uninterrupted transmission. The terrible reception has nothing to impart to any avid TV fan, whose craving for images and information still awaits close and contextual interpretation. However, we know for sure that the intermittent technological malfunctions are short-lived and they only meddle with his/her moments of enjoyment, and can assume that it makes one want more of the usual clear and cogent stream of images.
Though not really comparable to the reverence hagiographic images once used to command, the love for media images, as we all know, is also quite strong – albeit it is a realm where icons are without iconic significance, but somehow has the power to draw almost an equal degree of attention. The religious ramifications of the former is absent in the latter, so are the cultural-historical references; still, faith or pseudo-faith is here to keep desire afloat. Like a stream of consciousness narrative, the TV produces a relay of self-alienating texts in graphic as well as in linguistic narratives infecting all and sundry.
The landscape of the represented world is inhabited by people of 'unusual' capabilities. The word celebrity is a vacuum that attracts the eyes set primarily on revelatory features of a given site or programme. However, in order for celebration to continue, icons keep emerging and disappearing. Fame is short-lived as is attention span of viewers.
The culture industry demands a constant germination of images and imaginings; and if the latter's construction is dependent on the fetishization of photographic, journalistic or entertainment narrative, by wading through their apparent shallowness we become aware of some important flashpoints on the horizon of the information economy. Personalities with performative dimension sometimes thread into the regular stream of this constructed ecology only to provide an entertaining counterpoint, thereby often blurring the distinction between position and counter position, pseudo-discursive data and significant dialogue and discoursing.
-Depart Desk