"I have nothing to say / and I am saying it / and that is poetry / as I needed it", or, Enjoy The Silence.

It's time now to look at a different view of the idea of reality TV. I am aware that many people love this sort of entertainment, and enjoy nothing more than sitting in front of the television, staring vacantly at a bunch of (occasionally) attractive people trying to manipulate one another in order to win some sort of prize, usually a reasonable amount of money and/or temporary Z-list celebrity status, assuming they don't have that already as is often the case. Admittedly it can be amusing and even interesting to watch at times, and ratings remain high enough for it to constitute entertainment. But what of the notion of life, simple, uneventful, daily life, whether in the Australian outback or not, not only as entertainment, but as a form of art?

Would John Cage please come to the Diary Room.

Primary a composer and theorist, Cage believed that life itself was the highest and most beautiful form of art. He wanted to capture sounds not normally considered to be music, believing that the sounds of everyday life were far more beautiful than any designed music could be. From this came his famous performance art piece, “4:33”, a piece which may appear to be just over four and a half minutes of silence, but in fact consists of the sounds of the environment in which the piece is performed. He believed the same was true of performance art – life was the most beautiful thing, so to create a performance all that was needed was to place a frame around life. What would actually happen within that space and time was left up to chance, as is the case in life. Remind you of anything? Although some might argue that the structure of reality TV shows is somewhat predetermined and participants are carefully selected in order to increase the chance of sex or fights, what actually happens in that house/island/jungle during that time frame is left up to chance.

In the same way that Cage would leave the outcome of his “Happenings” up to the performer, so too do the participants on these programs become part composer. They know they are being constantly filmed and can therefore contrive to portray themselves in a certain way in order to affect the perceptions of their fellow participants and the audience. As Cage’s audiences were part composer in that they had to piece ideas together for themselves, we too are not told what to think. We are simply shown the events of each day and requested to “vote off” one of the participants. We effectively control their fate. The composers (or in this case producers) become part audience in that they cannot have complete control over everything that happens in the house/island/jungle.
Perhaps, then whoever came up with the notion of reality TV (I believe it was the Dutch) was making a powerful statement about the outdated Aristotelian world view and the nature of art, and life as the highest form of art. Then again, they could have simply been trying to make money by appealing to a demographic of voyeuristic simpletons who will happily pay one pound a minute to get “that bitch Charley out.” I guess we’ll never know…