Our lives would be primitive. And beautifully so, in my opinion. The invention of the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) led to the widespread production of glass, plastic, and toxic materials used in the manufacturing and final production of the television set and computer monitor. If i could go back in time and prevent the television set from being invented, i would.

There is an art installation in downtown Chicago's Grant Park where approximately one hundred plastic shells belonging to old television sets and computer monitors are arranged in a dirt garden. It looks as if they were arranged and planted. I suppose it makes a statement about what we consider beautiful, or questions it. Or the installation says something about the products that dominate our lives today. And about trash, waste. There sure were a lot of tv's there. Makes you think.

Now after declaring my desire to rid the earth of television (that desire is a mutual hatred of the matrialistic nature of the CRT and of corrupt mass media, whose primary stage is television), i wish to state that a tv-less world is a world without video, computers, and the internet (luckily film exsisted before the CRT!). I use video, computers, or the internet on a daily basis. My life has been shaped by these things. So it is hard to say what my life would be like without the cathode ray tube. Certainly more natural and active. If we can figure out a way to make the world a more active place, where playstation, dvd's, and instant messenger were not dominating the lives of global-north citizens, then we might be on to something.

 

{30 may 2004 3:48pm}
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