Towards a Better Television

L’impatto e il ruolo della TV nel design e nella critica sociale di Victor Papanek, 1954-1970

Abstract

In the 1950s and 1960s, a period marked by the dominance of audiovisual communication, television rapidly spreads, reshaping relational dynamics through its mediating role. However, in the United States, its use is largely directed towards fostering a nationalist civilisation and promoting a consumer culture, underpinned by a design aimed at mass commercialisation.
In this context, in contrast to such a trend and in line with contemporary reflections on television as a medium for alternative education and socialisation, television — both as a broadcast schedule and a physical device — becomes, in the hands of Victor Papanek, a tool for social critique.
Through a historiographical re-examination of classic media and design studies, which intersect in Papanek’s work, this paper analyses the educational television programme Design Dimensions (1959-1962) and the Ujamah television project for Africa as opportunities to promote a design culture aimed at social improvement, thereby reconfiguring the concept of a better television.