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dimension) is derived from more-or-less predefined manipulations of the set's electronics, in the four bottom sets the manipulation is such that external influences determine the picture: one of the four is connected to a pedal switch in front of it; if you press the switch, the short-circuits of the contact procedure bring about a fireworks of instantly disappearing points of light on the screen. another set is hooked up to a microphone; anyone who speaks into the mike sees an explosion of light dots similar to the other set, but a continuous one this time. the ‹kuba tv› is the most extreme; it is connected to a tape recorder that feeds music to the TV (and to us): parameters of the music determine parameters of the picture. finally (on the top storey) you have the ‹one point TV› that is connected to a radio; in the middle of its screen is a bright point whose size is governed by the current volume of the radio; the louder the radio, the larger the point, the quieter the radio, the smaller the point becomes.»[19] So the chaotic impression made by the TV ensemble is deceptive, insofar as the whole thing is more like a laboratory situation with various experiments set up in it than a classical

 

exhibition. Cage's ‹prepared piano› liberated and transformed the instrument of European musical tradition and symbol of the prosperous middle-class home. Paik's treatment of the television, which succeeded the piano in the 1960s as the most expensive piece of domestic furniture, is equally anarchic and liberating, but at the same time very differentiated and media-specific. Each of Paik's modifications shows various possible approaches that viewers can make to television, ranging from meditation objects («Zen for TV») to interactive objects. Even if artists do not start making television themselves, they can show models for new ways of handling the medium. Paik's idea of «participation TV»[20], which allows viewers to participate actively rather than remain passive consumers, anticipates current discussion about interactivity and multimedia as twenty-first century mass media.[21]

German public service television was not interested in this kind of suggestion about the future of the medium and ignored Paik's exhibition. But by coincidence shortly afterwards, on April 1, 1963, the second German television, ZDF, came on stream, thus

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