Van Gogh TV

Background

Van Gogh TV was a collective of German and Austrian artists and hackers who started a pirate television channel in Germany in 1986. At that time, the channel would broadcast performance art on and off inconsistently. In 1990, preparation for the group's biggest project began, and in 1992, the group created "Piazza Virtuale", which has been called the very first live TV broadcast that allowed for direct viewer interaction, which was achieved using terminals, phones, computer modems and Minitels. Video telephones could be accessed by viewers to put their face and voice on the channel. Faxes could be sent to the channel, and a Minitel service line was available that allowed the audience to interact with the channel via telephone line terminals. The viewers could control a "robot camera" using telephone dial-tones. Piazza Virtuale was broadcast for 100 days during Documenta IX and was intended to connect continental Europe for that duration of time, allowing viewers from each country to have input.

1st Logo (1988)

Visuals: An image of Vincent Van Gogh in black over a blue background with a logo of "European Cinema And Television Year 1988" on his forehead, with the text "VAN GOGH TV KANAL 22 OSNABRUECK" in white flashes pink, now with the text "TAEGLICH AB 21.03 UHR VIA SATELITE DIREKT" for a moment before we see the logo of "European Cinema And Television Year 1988" over a grey background, which flashes blue for a moment, now with the text "SIND WIR NICHT DROGE GENUG? WIR VON VAN GOGH TV!!! WIR SIND DROGE GENUG!".

Technique: Computer graphics.

Audio: A loud, mechanical buzzing sound.

Availability: Seen at the start of their broadcast before "Yoshitaka Shimano - The Art and ways of Destroying a Television".

2nd Logo (1992)

Visuals: First, there is a metallic 3D white swan above a black swan on a blue background with the repeating text "PIAZZA VIRTUALE" which morphs into a coin with the top being white and bottom being black with the text "Piazza" in black and "Virtuale" in white and flips vertically, two hands reach in and tear it apart, a still image of a man holding two lime green mobile phones appears and moves slightly, then a black and white image of Vincent Van Gogh's head emerges as television antennas and satelite dishes pop out of his forehead on the green section of a distorted colour test pattern, then the text "VAN GOGH TV" in black comes out of his head and he submerges back into the test pattern.

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation.

Audio: A heroic fanfare and strange grunts.

Availability: Used throughout the "Piazza Virtuale" broadcast in 1992.