Dead Tree Alert: Viewing Outside the Box
Matthias Clamer for TIME
In this week's TIME magazine, I have an essay inspired by the magical week after Thanksgiving when my TiVo box crapped out on me and I found myself watching most of my TV on my laptop and my iPhone. Now that TV has dispersed from one machine in the center of your living room to a thousand tiny screens—on your laptop, on your phone, in the elevator, on the back of a taxi screen, etc.—what does it do to the experience and the medium? What does "watching TV" mean anymore?
You can read that story if you want to. But the best part, really, is the way cool composite photo (above) shot by photographer Matthias Clamer. You can't tell, but I'm sitting on a kitchen chair, in my living room, in front of a massive gray screen that stretched from one wall to the other. For a second photo—which superimposed me on a beach—I dug a lawn chair out of the snow in my backyard. You have to buy the print magazine to see that one, but you get to see my bare feet. Fortunately, it's very small.
The day after he shot me, Clamer flew to L.A. for the Grammys to shoot Clive Davis and a big group of recording artists that he had signed over the years. It was quite a comedown, I'm sure.
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1
That is a cool shot. I'll be sure to look for your feet in my print issue when it arrives. I hope you got paid a modeling fee...they do quite well.
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2
Nice work, although it's too bad you couldn't find a way to squeeze in Tim Kring's quote that only "saps and dipsh*ts" watch on-air TV. I came across it again in this Atlantic story (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/television) that also mentions Tuned In's classic advice to Kring: "Try, you know, not sucking."
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I love having all these different ways to watch my favorite shows past and present. But I have to wonder where the content is going to come from in the future, because TV shows just don't make money like used to. Lost will probably go down as the last great network drama; I don't see any networks making the investment in such an expensive and ambitious series. I guess premium and niche cable channels like HBO, Showtime and AMC continue to embrace quality over ratings, but it's not too difficult to imagine that in a few years all you'll see on network TV are reality shows, Jay Leno and spin-offs of The Mentalist. And that's going to suck no matter how you're watching.
- poniewozik Loved the season. Mrs Tuned In wd have put u on the main list RT @boredtodeath Thank u for incl us in Time's Top 10. We'll take hon mention. - 3 hours ago
- poniewozik @carr2n Virgin is the best, LAX-JFK - 4 hours ago
- poniewozik Did NPR interview abt multiscreen multitasking. After, automatically reached for iPhone in pocket. Like don draper wd have for cigarettes. - 5 hours ago
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