Big Brother

Media such as television, radio etc. appear in two forms: as news and as commodities (e.g. film, television set). The two forms of appearance are mutually dependent. As news carriers, the media are immensely powerful, both in an enlightening and in a manipulative function. As a commodity, the device creates and fulfils ever new desires in terms of the technical quality of the message and the convenience of its design. With "Big Brother", Hans-Jürgen and Helga Lannoch have attempted to portray this dual character in its contradictory nature. The power of the medium is presented through the phallic form. It grows dominantly out of a housing form that feigns objectivity and represents the television as a commodity. The contradictions between the two manifestations are made visible in the interpenetration of dynamic-organic and static-orthogonal systems of form.