Marc Lee
TV-Bot 1.0

TV-Bot 1.0 was – like its two current successors, TV-Bot 2.0 und 3.0 – a live-stream TV station that recombined current news stories in real time. Three short videos from the first version have been preserved using capture software.

The viewer can always refer to the embedded source codes indicating the location, date and time. Live streams from TV news and radio streams are mounted against a background of constantly changing, live Webcam images from around the globe in the same rapid sequence, together with the pure textual level of international news headlines in the center of the screen.

The four levels – background, overlaid news, sound and embedded headlines – thus create constantly changing random conglomerates of events occurring simultaneously around the world. The only thing they share is temporal coherence, while spatial and content coherence are interrupted so that the memory – which thrives on the linking of space and content – cannot remember the information flow, and does not achieve to bring it into a broader context with other events. The most current information becomes a flood of disinformation and is thus questioned ironically as the order of the day for news services.

(Text: Bettina Back)