USA 1975, video, col, sound, 25:43 min
- realized by:
- Ant Farm, Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Curtis Schreier, Uncle Buddie
- keywords:
- film/video-performance
about TV, politics, humor, violence
- notes:
- Also credited as 23 min.
- cast&crew:
- editing:
- Tom Weinberg, Chip Lord, Skip Blumberg, Doug Michels
- production:
- Tom Weinberg
- available copies:
- Electronic Arts Intermix - EAI:
- available for rent
- Video Data Bank:
- available for rent
- Neuer Berliner Kunstverein e.V. - Video-Forum:
- available for view
- synopsis: Copyright Electronic Arts Intermix, New York. See the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work
- "Media Burn" integrates performance, spectacle and media critique, as Ant Farm stages an explosive collusion 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 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.
Footage of the actual event, much of which was shot from a closed-circuit video camera mounted inside a customized "tail-fin," is framed and juxtaposed with news coverage by the local television stations. Doug Hall, introduced as John F. Kennedy, assumes the ironic role of the Artist-President to deliver a speech about the impact of mass media monopolies on American life: "Who can deny that we are a nation addicted to television and the constant flow of media? Haven't you ever wanted to put your foot through your television?"
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.
Examining the impact of mass media in American culture, American culture, "Media Burn" exemplifies Ant Farm's fascination with the automobile and television as cultural artifacts, and their approach to social critique through spectacle and humor.
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