Wolfgang Staehle, «Fernsehturm (TV Tower)», 2004(Edit)

Live webcam feed, flat panel screen

Fernsehturm continues Wolfgang Staehle's exploration of the aesthetic implications of the "live" image. The screen displays a live feed of a view monitoring the TV tower in Berlin — a painting in motion. Fernsehturm suggests a constantly evolving photographic image that becomes a continuous record of minute changes in light and every aspect of the environment. It is a highly ephemeral, time-based document that cannot and won’t ever be repeated (except as an archived version). Encountering this type of image on the wall of a gallery or museum, constitutes a radical change of context that poses essential questions about representation and the nature of the art object itself. Does the "live" image supersede previous art forms such as photography? What role do the aesthetics of processing and mediation play in our perception of an artwork ?