In June 2009, the United States added Dead Air to the acres of accumulated Dead Media, pulling the plug on analog television broadcasts. Subsequent waves of electronic waste followed as consumers junked their abruptly obsolete receivers in favor of HD-readied consoles Pre-empting this scheduled program of obsolescence, The Video Gentlemen presented BYOTV, offering a six-week season of special reports engaged with the techno-cultural turnover from analog to digital television. Transmitted from within the New American Art Union in Portland, Oregon, a variety of interdisciplinary artworks, live presentations, and free-form forays within the ether excited inquisitive constellations around topics including e-waste, surveillance, haunted media and media archeology.

Low-wattage transmissions emanated from an array of re-configured electronic detritus distributed around the gallery. Telecommunications, and the distance implicit in this operation was countered by a physical proximity prescribed by the limited range of the BYOTV transmissions. Visitors were encouraged to “bring their own TV,” or borrow one from the gallery, intercepting transmissions from their immediate air space. Scrutinizing the premise of obsolescence, BYOTV tuned into an alternative agenda; encouraging new modes of cultural production, collaboration and exchange.

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