Sašo Sedlaček: Requiem for a Dying Medium

Video 2007, 9:43 min

‘Requiem for a Dying Medium’ shows the artist’s heroic climb from the electronic wasteland to Mt. Nanos – the central analogue TV transmitter in Slovenia. Equipped with a homemade mobile television transmitter, he set out on a quest to save the analogue frequencies from obsolesce. The video was presented in the context of guerrilla studio ‘Infocalypse Now!’ at Kapelica Gallery on 20 November 2007. ‘Infocalypse Now!’ was an initiative for the creation of an autonomous media zone in the 700 MHz spectrums, since the majority of this spectrum had become obsolete with the introduction of the digital TV signal in 2012. Sedlaček's initiative made an effort to to occupy this part of the spectrum by the civil sphere, and to establish a special kind of public space, which is not subject to the digital devide. Sedlaček states: “‘Requiem for a Dying Medium’ in some way honors the disappearance of the analog signal from the mass use. The room, which was for many years the field of various struggles, is now empty and unused. Laying flag next to the large antenna on the Nanos transmitter means occupying the abandoned space, the virtual occupation.” With the introduction of digital transmission of data in the mass media the electromagnetic hum, with which the Earth drew attention to its presence in the universe for more than half of century, will slowly become silent.

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Artist's web page: sasosedlacek.com