Van Gogh TV's »Piazza Virtuale«: The Invention of Social Media at documenta IX in 1992

by Tilman Baumgärtel

Overview

Piazza virtuale by the group of artists known as Van Gogh TV was not only the biggest art project ever to appear on television, but from a contemporary point of view the project was also a forerunner of today's social media. The ground-breaking event that took place during the 100 days of documenta IX in 1992 was an early experiment with entirely user-created content. This is the first book-length study of this largely forgotten experiment: It documents the radicality of Piazza virtuale's approach, the novel programme ideas and the technical innovations. It also allows, via QR codes, direct access to videos from the show, which until now have been inaccessible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783837660661
Publication date:	12/27/2021
Series:	Media Studies
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.86(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tilman Baumgärtel (Dr.) is a writer and teaches media studies at Hochschule Mainz. Previously he was a professor at the University of the Philippines in Manila (2005-2009) and at the Department of Media and Communication at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (2009-2012). He has published on media culture, including internet art, computer games, the aesthetics of loops, GIF animation and the director Harun Farocki.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Introduction: "Hallo TV" 11
1 From subject to project: The intellectual and cultural environment of Piazza virtuale 19
2 Before and after Piazza virtuale 41
3 The making of Piazza virtuale 71
4 Piazza virtuale on air: 100 days, 600 hours of programming 99
5 "The show is as intelligent as its audience": The reception of Piazza virtuale 111
6 Conclusion: "Through the telephone lines a desire, formless and unaware of itself" 121
Appendix 1 The segments of Piazza virtuale 131
Appendix 2 The Piazzettas 167
Appendix 3 Technology 213
Acknowledgements 223
Bibliography 225

Editorial Reviews

"Eine spannende Quelle, ein Ansatzpunkt, um weiteren Spuren ins Silicon Valley zu folgen, Austauschbeziehungen mit Europa herauszuarbeiten oder den Interdependenzen von Internet- und Fernsehgeschichten im deutschsprachigen Raum weiter nachzugehen."

Stefan Udelhofen