Acconci response

Some of the points in this reading, particularly the idea of TV being “A rehearsal for the time when human beings no longer have bodies” and TVs injecting images and information into the viewer made me consider to what degree is my generation disillusioned with or desensitized to the effects of media like TV.  Some of these points and similar ones in the “Media Hot and Cold” reading seemed to be paranoid overreactions to me, but I wonder if this is an effect of the fact that these media are and pretty much always have been a part of my reality.  

Another point that I found interesting was Acconci’s ideas around TV’s as furniture in the 50s, so as to conceal their technology and make them a part of a domestic space.  This has since changed, considering TV’s are now mostly self-contained and can be mounted to a wall or placed on a table, taking up a relatively small footprint.  However, I do remember having a chunky plastic TV in the early 2000s that occupied a huge cabinet/console that the TV fit into and the adjoining cabinets housed DVDs and VHS tapes.  I think furniture like that, designed to contain a TV, served as a bridge between the furniture TVs of the 50s and the  completely freestanding flatscreens of today.

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