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Television asserted a profound influence on mid-twentieth-century America, guiding popular culture, public taste, and the consumption of mass-produced goods. At the Unknown Museum, Mickey McGowan prominently featured the television, utilizing hollowed-out television sets as enclosures for many of his dioramas. He assembled stacks of televisions in various outdoor yard installations. At times, McGowan adjusted the signal of a working television placed in an indoor exhibit so all that appeared on the screen was a solitary horizontal line. He mixed jingles from early TV commercials onto audio tapes that played music and excerpts from movies, sitcoms, serials, and newscasts from the era. Audio volume rose and fell in a constant soundtrack; the “Perfect Moment” occurred when a direct connection was made—for example, if the Rice Krispies jingle randomly played while a visitor was looking at the ad characters Snap, Crackle, and Pop in the kitchen area of the museum. A very special thank you to Mickey McGowan for making this exhibition possible. See “Recollections… from the Unknown Museum” on display, post-security, in Terminal 2. https://bit.ly/UnknownMuseum
This image was posted on August 14, 2023.