John Menick Blog

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine, the artist Judi Werthein, asked me to participate in a book project she is organizing. The project involves, in her words, writing “a story you’ve been told about another artist’s work – a work that you yourself have not seen – anywhere in a composition book I’ll be sending you.” All of the contributions are going to be collected into a book due to be published next year. Mine follows. It’s a great project, but after writing my entry I really wanted to know: who made this artwork? If you know, contact me in the comments below. Here’s my entry:

Someone once told me about a work involving a video camera, a pirate VHF-UHF broadcaster, and a biplane. Maybe some high-power magnesium lamps were involved as well. The artist and a pilot (Maybe the same person?) would fly the said plane over a suburban neighborhood with the camera aimed at the houses below. I included the lamps in my own version because how else could the setup work at night, although I guess the artist may have only done it during the day.

Anyway, this was in the days of analogue broadcast television, when most people received their TV signal through set-top antenna (aka “rabbit ears”). The plane flew really low, I imagine dangerously low, and buzzed the roofs of the houses. The plane not only was videoing the houses, but was also broadcasting the live feed from the pirate VHF-UHF device. TV viewers, nestled into their couches, would first hear the plane real low in the distance. As the plane approached, the sound of the engines magnified, and suddenly the TV show was replaced by a moving image of the viewer’s house from above. The plane roared over, the perplexed viewer rubbed his or her eyes in disbelief, and then the miniature televisual house was replaced by The Price is Right or Johnny Carson or Tom and Jerry or whatever people watched when set-top receivers were the going thing. I’m not sure who did this insane intervention or who told me about it. I’m skeptical whether it would even work. But I wouldn’t mind trying it myself someday.

- John Menick 11/14/08