Tele Visions — Experimental TV Intervention
Welcome to Tele Visions, an experimental TV intervention of screen-based and commissioned live televisual art works devised specifically for and about TV. The project took the form of a 5-day, 24-hour pop-up channel broadcast through the final days of analog television in Australia, with artists occupying the spectrum to explore the cultural and technological phenomenon of TV.
About the Project
Devised by directors Emma Ramsay and Alex White, Tele Visions explored the imbalance of access to TV broadcasting between corporate and government entities and the public. The project asked what happens when artists are given the keys to the broadcast spectrum — even if only for a brief, final moment before the analog signal went dark.
Selected works from Tele Visions were later exhibited at the Experimenta: Recharge 6th International Biennial of Media Art in an interactive installation devised by Ramsay and White. The Tele Visions Afterlude touring program opened at RMIT Gallery in Melbourne on November 28, 2014, and traveled nationally across Australia.
Featured Works
The broadcast schedule included a diverse range of live and pre-recorded televisual artworks. Among the highlights was Box Set Live by Kate Blackmore and Frances Barrett, a durational performance that unfolded across the 24-hour channel. Other works included All Hail Pippin and Jackson, Robyn Backen's it's me…i'm here…where're you?, and Lucinda Barnett's For Future Reference.
Elliot Shields and Lewis Miles contributed a series of Time + Space TVC advertisements — memento mori of the late-night adult commercial, distilling chat-line ads to their most base use of sound, language, light, and innuendo.
Key Events
The Time Space Destroyer Screening took place on Friday, November 29, 2013, at Carriageworks, Track 8. This ticketed showcase featured works by Josephine Skinner, Dominic Kirkwood, Kym Maxwell, Stephan Groß, Nicola Morton, Elliot Shields & Lewis Miles, William Mansfield, Heath Franco, Katie Hare, and others.
Additional events included Talking Back to TV screenings at Carriageworks, the Box Set Sleepover with Kate Blackmore & Frances Barrett, and the Pattern Gestures Screening.
Reflections on the Broadcast
Writing about the project on December 5, 2013, an article titled Sofa, so good captured the mood of those final analog days. Contributors including Briohny Doyle, Jessie Scott, Kath Letch, and Dr Ben Byrne shared day-by-day reflections on watching Tele Visions unfold — from Larry Emdur's suit to the cockpit of pampered isolation. The project generated a body of critical writing that continues to inform discussion around televisual art and media transition.
Get in Touch
For inquiries about the project, contact: televisionsproject@televisionsproject.org
Follow on Twitter: @tele_visionsTV
The Tele Visions project emerged at a pivotal moment in broadcasting history, capturing the final transmissions of analog television in Australia through a concentrated program of experimental screen-based works. Over five continuous days, a dedicated pop-up channel offered a space for artists to intervene directly within the medium, repurposing the broadcast spectrum as a site for creative and critical engagement. The resulting works reflected on television as both a technological infrastructure and a cultural force, examining its rituals, its visual language, and its shifting place in everyday life. This short-lived channel became a living archive of televisual experimentation, marking the end of one era while inviting reflection on how the medium shaped collective memory and perception.