Cultivating the Wasteland by Kirsten Beck (review)

describingmystical or deep inner feelings, but falls short of clarifying issues when appliedto describing worldly phenomena. If the authors think about publishing a sequel to this book, I would strongly suggest they include a bibliography to guide the uninitiated reader who wants to explore, on a more rigorous intellectual level, some of the issues hinted at in the text, such as the origin of pattern in nature. These few reservations aside, this book contains some vivid painterly, poetic, and photographic images and should succeed in luring the reader to the nearest desert without delay! CULTIVATING THE WASTELAND by Kirsten Beck. American Council for the Arts, New York, 1983.249pp. Paperback , $14.95. ISBN 0-915400-34-0. Reviewed by Leon Tsao, Earth Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A. The advent of new technologies such as video cassette recorders (VCRs), satellite receivers and cable television is introducing new patterns for the distribution of culture. Each technology has its promoters, and cable TV is no exception. Because it is the only technology in the United States over which municipalities have substantial control, it has required promotion in a local, decentralized manner. Kirsten Beck cites examples of the activities by artists and promoters to establish access for artists on local CATV systems and reports the results of such access once it has been gained. While the situations she describes are strongly conditioned by the relationship between federal and local political power in the United States, foreign readers may glean some insight into the political economy of the U.S.A. in the communications and public utilities industries. The grassroots video movement in the United States of the early 1970s was spurred by two influences. The first was the (U.S.) Federal Communications Commission’s (F.C.C.)epoch rulemaking, which required all new cable TV systems to provide 20 channels’ worth of service for municipal, educational and public access. Nicholas Johnson, part of the liberal majority on the F.C.C. at the time, made sure that the activist public understood that something important was going on. This and the development of the portable video cassette recorder offered an amazing new frontier for CATV entrepreneurs, equipment manufacturers ,politicians, community activists and artists. The field has a large number of ‘bluesky ’ promoters who proudly claim that cable TV offers benefits that are as yet unforeseeable. Beck provides the amusing example of cable TV speculators bidding nonexistent services to win a municipal franchise. Nick Johnson envisioned and expressed the possibility of radical changes in political activities based on the new technologies. Beck echoes this possibility asapplied to the arts. Indeed,echoes make up a great deal of this book since it contains little original thinking and is repetitious. Cable TV consultants were saying these things 10 years before this book was published. For arts managers and community activists who are interested but not familiar with cable TV, this is still a useful guidebook.Beck givesan adequate general description of the cable TV franchising process. She offers a caveat to struggling arts groups in the form of this quote from an artist: “Cable franchising is a black hole into which all your energy disappears .” My specific recommendation is that arts groups do not get involved in the franchising process if they have not yet put on a live show, exhibit or discussion. Artists have been used by both commercial promoters and community activists to swell the ranks of crowds at city council hearings and write lettersof endorsement. Activists who do get involved should clearly identify the local political actors and their backers and know their reputations. Beck offers a number of anecdotes about cable system operators’,community organizations’ and program service companies’ efforts to put culture on CATV. Her uncritical approach to this material severely detracts from the value of the book. Beck ignores the significance of her own citation of the experience in East Lansing, Michigan where the Michigan State University ice hockey games had the largest share of audience on the local cable TV system. Shebelieves that cable TV will give exposure to the experimental edge of high culture so that it may spread wider. My...