Proposal for QUBE

1978, 10:02 min, b&w and color, sound

In Proposal for QUBE, which was designed as a video installation, d'Agostino comments on the dangers of "unchecked mass communication," and the manipulation inherent in television. He conceived of a theoretical model for an interactive video cablecast for the TWO-WAY QUBE cable television system in Columbus, Ohio, in which subscribers to the QUBE system could "talk back" to their televisions by punching in viewing selections and responses. As he demonstrates, that selection process was carefully controlled, rather than participatory. D'Agostino ironically quotes the president of the QUBE system ("The name QUBE doesn't stand for anything.") to underline his assertion that a monolithic media does not represent the public interest.