General Motors (Excerpt)

A response to the inability of his local General Motors dealer to fix Morton's 1974 Chevy van to his satisfaction, this tape blends experimental image-processing techniques with documentation of the faulty vehicle. Morton states that he is upset primarily because General Motors "can't get their tech together," and as a video producer involved with using and maintaining high-tech equipment, this strikes Morton as expecially bothersome. The tape reads like a consumer's manifesto, and addresses the popular notion that video could be used to reconfigure power relations, for example, between manufactuers and consumers. Morton delivers his psychedelically-inflected performance with humor and the conviction of an embattled consumer. The tape was produced at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The original total running time for this piece is 1:00:00. An excerpt of this title (10:19) is only available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 2.