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call "off TV."  Dr. Videovich makes this point quite well in promoting a full line of video-kitsch -- television set replicas which are permanently "off."  Such "off" toy televisions are emblems or mascots of "The Live! Show" and as such resist the metaphysics of "on-ness."  In this way the little plastic TVs help us deal with what Dr. Videovich calls our television obsession, since, being "off," they are the antidote to a medium that requires us to "be there" when something is "on."  As semblances of "real" TV, the plastic televisions ironically are taking place on the order of phantasma, as if they were the phantasma of phantasma.  At the same time they are themselves rather icastic.  And as kitsch objects they have the presence of the everyday commodity.  Is it possible to turn television off even by substituting these little plastic replicas which are incapable of being turned on?  Dr. Videovich's example is purposely inconclusive.

Perhaps nowhere on "The Live! Show" is thinking about the question of television as an "off" and "on" medium thought about as deeply as in a piece called the "The Gap" which begins with a shot of a neon sign in which the word ART flashes on and off. At one point "we" observe Davidovich watching just the flashing last letter, T. This suggests that not just art, but (T)elevision has to be considered in terns of "on-ness" or "off-ness." To emphasize the point, while we look at the ART sign, Davidovich records the "on" and "off" dialogue of an interviewee who both wants and doesn't want to define video art. "I don't want to get into this," the man finally says after being pushed to consider some basic questions. Along the same lines, in a Long Beach shopping mall there is something strangely "off" and "on" about what Davidovich is allowed to videotape. He makes a point of asking the rules for taping from a security guard. The rules seem rather arbitrary, but they show to what extent a public space is inherently divided into "on" and "safe" space for taping, Davidovich's camera will focus on a half-price off sale on art. Besides the obvious economic sense, what does it mean for art to be "off" in such a way? What else does "off" mean here and, particularly, in relation to shopping mall (read bad) art? 

By now, the limits of "on" and "off" suddenly begin to take on multiple dimensions, suggesting that such simple notions are key to a reorientation of our understanding of not only video but of its relation to the arts generally. One of the main