Two standard-definition videos (black and white, silent; 30 min.); sound; live television broadcast; surveillance camera; nine cathode-ray tube monitors; custom-made video switcher, micro-controllers, and software; shelving
First exhibited in the landmark exhibition TV as a Creative Medium in New York in 1969, Wipe Cycle combines multiple image sources and invites viewer interaction. It mixes pre-recorded video, television broadcast, and live and delayed CCTV footage of visitors on a grid of nine monitors. Images on the screens are programmed to alternate at regular intervals; one screen is always empty, “wiping” the video content as it rotates counter-clockwise. The viewer sees themself at three separate points in time across multiple screens, making them both an active participant in the circulation of information and an object of surveillance.
The accompanying schematic diagram, originally published in the TV as a Creative Medium exhibition brochure, outlines the work’s various change cycles.
414: Wipe Cycle, 2026
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Wipe Cycle
Gallery 414In the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists responded to a world increasingly shaped by mass media and consumer culture.
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