Remembering Television: The Beauty of Silence

42” x 32”

Wool, linen

In the 20th century, television stations stopped broadcasting at midnight and didn’t resume until 5:00 or 6:00 the next morning. If you turned on your television during the ‘off’ time, you would see this design on your TV screen, often accompanied by a continuous annoying beeping tone.

This test pattern was a signal used during times that the transmitter was active but no program was being broadcasted. It was also used to adjust the picture quality, grayscale in black-and-white TV, and camera focus by the TV station. In my version, I chose to use color and texture in the test pattern, and the weft overlays and texture foreshadow my highly textured basketry sculpture that came later.