Entertainment Investigation #1

The main idea for this piece was based upon how the advent of television changed the way people lived their life. Many kids who once spent their weekends playing outside, all day, were suddenly hooked on saturday morning cartoons that were sponsored by junk food brands. The advent of television occurred after the tragedy of the second world war, and during a time of immense economic growth. The 1950's were a time of hopeless commercialism and unchecked pollution, where our food became pumped full of chemicals we now know to be horrible, and fear of communism ran deep. I think that the television is a symbol of this crazy time, a time of mass uniformity, of the father that went to work and the mother that stayed home a cooked, a Norman Rockwell-esque house of horror. The television was change to any household, the kids fought over, lounged in front of, and ate the cartoons displayed on it. The parents might have dinner in front of the new, shiny box, where they might watch a sitcom or something like that. The television was a box of wonder, holding everyone's attention. Looking back on this now, I guess the message of this piece kind of sounds like a lecture that I would get from my parents, and I think that the final product does not accurately show the ideas behind the piece.

For this piece, I used wire, paper, glue, and a red marker. I used the wire to create the angular lines that are created by a television, and I thought the use of metal directly connects to the chunky, heavy early televisions. I used paper to create the screen because it was readily available and easy to draw on.

This piece did not change that much as worked, mainly because my inexperience with wire lead to frustration and the inability to change something without having to cut off and start from scratch. I would have like to include more detail, but as the deadline loomed closer, I focused on making sure all of the joints were tight and adding the screen on. I do not like this piece at all, because I think it is crude, not detailed enough and the screen is badly glued on.