This is sickening!

[Eric H]

http://www.panix.com/~fluxus/FluX/ESH.html

[roundscreen]

I do aggree with you on this. It would be better if thay turned the sets into fish tanks.
People have no respect for vintage electronics at all. First we see the nut bags burning vintage tvs and now this. I don't want to know what is next. A holes

[Sandy G]

Well,<sigh>, it is a little better than having 'em tossed in a landfill...but not by much.-Sandy G.

[polaraman]

I would suppose the justification is that the televisions did not work. I saw a few I would want.


polaraman

[compucat]

Originally Posted by polaraman

I would suppose the justification is that the televisions did not work. I saw a few I would want.


polaraman

Many people think that just because something doesn't work it must be junk. Maybe that's why there is such a sense of awe when you show someone a restored vintage TV or radio.

In one of those photos, I saw the wood cabinet to a Motorola 9VT1. I would love to have that as mine is rather beat up. What a waste.

[Dave S]

Nam June Paik has been an internationally famous artist specializing in video sculptures for decades. I first became aware of his work back in the early seventies, well before I became a television collector, and I have to confess that I found his work intriguing. Maybe it was just the seeds of the appreciation for the technology that have grown to become the full-bore pathological television collecting the consumes me today. Although I don't remember seeing any classic sets in his earlier sculptures, that may be just because I wasn't tuned into the subject. Now, although I have great respect for this artist, I wholeheartedly agree that seeing some desirable collectibles turned into raw materials for a sculpture doesn't leave me with a good feeling. Perhaps he simply needs to be brought up to speed on the subject. I've been utterly charmed by his sculptures using contemporary or recent-vintage material. Perhaps he will respond to a thoughtful pleas from the collecting community to forgoe using vintage sets as raw material. Then he has his art and we have our sets and we all win!

[mg196]

I don't think he junked that stuff at all. He created some pretty cool art! Sure, I'd be a bit peeved that he used working sets to create his sculptures, but are the sellers supposed to check his background or quiz him on what he intends to do with them?

Perhaps the fact that he is bringing these old sets into the public eye may cause more people to dig out their old sets or drag 'em up from their basements.

I collect a lot of stuff, but I don't think I could ever get too upset at someone like this. It isn't like he is needlessly smashing them. And who's to say he didn't rescue many of them from dumps?

Just my 4 kopeks.

Oh, on a similar note, has anyone checked if any of the TV's used in The Plasmatics video for "Children of the Damned" were vintage? I'd say a bus smashing into a wall of TV's is NOT art!!

[Sandy G]

Then you've never seen the "Media Burn' by the Ant Farm...Took a '59 Caddy, ran it thru a wall of flaming TV sets. Even tho ruining perfectly good '59 Caddys & working old TVs is a BIG no-no w/me, it still was kewl as hell...-Sandy G.

[andy]

...

[Charlie]

Man... seems that person has too much time on his hands! There were alot of Motorola 7" sets in that tree! I would have liked at least a couple of them.

[maxm]

At the Modern Art museum here in Chicago there was a recent "installation" where an artist acquired a whole collection of vintage electronics from the University of Chicago. Lots of tubes, scopes, meters, resistors, and other parts I would have loved to have. It was laid out in a big room, with everything arranged in a certain way. I think the artist was there when I was looking at it, but I didn't talk to him. I would like to know what happened to all that stuff when they dismantled it. I saw some valuable tubes there.

[Jonathan]

Thats the problem today, everyone thinks that if some electronic device is broke that you just throw it out and buy a new one. This is why electronics tecnicians like myself have so much trouble finding work. Damn silly fools know absolutely nothing about electronics and this is why these silly bastards do this. So many vintage TVs get tossed away because people have no brains what so ever. I have no simpathy for people like this. When I restored my prewar RCA 95T5 radio, most everyone looked at me as if I wasted my time and money, but these idiots don't know much anyway. It's up to us to keep these vintage electronics from going to the trash bin. So many people don't realize just how damn good they work when restored. This radio works better than any modern AM radio.

[H2s04]