Media Burn

On America’s Independence Day, 1975, Ant Farm staged the literal collision of a car and a stack of televisions—two key symbols of American culture. In this performance examining the power and effects of the media, the “artist president” announces that the action is intended to free America from its television addiction. The national anthem is played with celebratory pomp as the two “artist-dummies,” looking like astronauts, climb aboard the “Phantom Dream Car”—a futuristically modified Cadillac—before driving through a wall of burning television sets. This “ultimate media event” attracted hundreds of journalists, ensuring that the media did its part in multiplying the critical message. Ant Farm began their own documentary video of the event with the reports from local television stations. The final stage of the media transformation process was the publication of photographs of the car driving through a wall of television sets in art magazines and as popular postcards.