Television Aesthetic Reflections

Television has been the subject of research in politics, culture, education, and economy, but very little has been said so far about its potential for creating new forms of art. Is television capable at all of creating serious art, or is it just a means of amusement and communication? This collection of articles discusses the aesthetic aspect of television, maintaining the claim that television bears its own unique artistic potentials. Examinations of various aspects and features of television in comparison to other forms of art, as well as analyses of specific television programs consolidate this claim. This book includes an introduction by the editor, Ruth Lorand, and articles by scholars from universities situated in different cultural and political settings: Germina Nagat, Alexander Nehamas, David Goldblatt, Eddy Zemach, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Andrew Ballantyne, Eran Guter, Rob van Gerwen, Katya Mandoki, Sally Banes, and Charles Leech. Contents: Ruth Lorand: The Aesthetic Aspects of Television--Germina Nagat: Aesthetics of the Image-Wired World--Alexander Nehamas: Serious Watching--David Goldblatt: Running Reruns, Vacillating Channels: Toward an Expanded Reception Theory of Television--Eddy M. Zemach: What Do We See on TV?--Kathleen Marie Higgins: Television, Realism, and the Distortion of Time--Andrew Ballantyne: Architectonics of « The Box: Television's Spatiality--Eran Guter: Anti-Mimesis Live--Rob van Gerwen: Television as an Art: On Humiliation-TV--Katya Mandoki: The Secret Door: Reception Aesthetics of Telenovela--Sally Banes: TV-Dancing Women: Music Videos, Camera-Choreography, and Feminist Theory--Charles Leech: The TV Trailer: Enigma, The Matrix, and the Aestheticsof Choral Violence.