The beginning of a swindle
A video by Mario Raoli
Video Format: 1.78 - 16/9
Italy, 2013, HD, color, 3 min 53 sec
On 26 January 1926 the Scottish engineer John Logie Baird, in his workshop in London, gave a public demonstration of his invention: the electromechanical television based on the principle of the transmission.
The television intended as tool/machine, over the years, has undergone numerous technological developments: the original 3.5-inch screen consisting of 30 vertical lines is arrived to the current LED projection models for a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels; 3D technology is now also widely used for home use and will soon be marketed definition TVs 4K (3656 x 2664 pixels).
Even the modality of transmissions has undergone major transformations: the initial electric cable TV, which use to transfer the intensity of incoming light transforming it into electrical impulse, is now arrived to the transmission on the Internet, which is now the present and the future for television.
In a broader sense possible, but necessary to our discussion, we define "television" the technological units of shooting/transmission/reception that serves as a tool to convey the contents. We define "contents" whatever that is transmitted through the "television." Finally we define "broadcaster" as the corporate structure owning the infrastructure responsible for the creation, programming and trasmission of “contents”.
It would be easy to imagine that, over the years, there has been an improvement of the quality of "contents" transmitted in the same way of the enormous development of television’s technology.
This did not happen: the educative intent of the first radio and television transmissions has been quickly replaced by "contents" with the aim of the control and manipulation of the people that in the West capitalism caused the conforming of the consumption, the ghettoization of artistic expression and the trivialization of visual research. Moreover the "television" influenced in a negative way the sexual imaginary by playing on the woman's figure. It invented a strange form of unhappiness in people that, en masse, they want to adhere to the patterns they are receiving and accepting nomore as they really are. The people, because of the "television" are often frustrated, not fulfilled, less educated, less intelligent, less curious. From the comparison with a work of art people get richer; while from the comparison with the "television" often people are impoverished. They become afflicted: want to buy something and to satisfy materially their desires.
The "television" is just an interesting invention attributable, in fact, to the Scottish engineer John Logie Baird. The thing that makes it disgusting to me is linked to the "contents" that the Broadcasters decide to transmit: I trust in the creative process of content that should not stimulate primitive impulses, but that should enrich the imagination of people and communicate intelligent and sincere emotions.
I, though suffering, I live in this model of society and can not get out of it completely. I work, I travel, I buy, but I find my space of ultimate freedom in creating an image that encapsulates my thoughts. And this is done by hand with patience. Without speed. Thinking a lot, doing research and experimentation. In this way I feel to create a work of art designed to stimulate thinking and perception of the people who receive it. Therefore, "The beginning of a swindle" is a video dedicated to people who think.
This video has been shot with a Canon 650D (Lens Canon 50mm 2.1). For the creation of the shot has been used the exemplary of electromechanical television based at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan (rebuilt in agreement with the principles of the Baird TV by Alberto Dani in collaboration with Massimo Temporelli). The performer in the video is Angela Fiore. The director of photography of the video is Antonino Valvo.
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