ABSTRACT
The tension emerging between the televisual imaginary of ‘seeing at a distance’ and the device’s material reality and site-specificity was at the core of televisual displays. Drawing again upon the dispositif concept, the chapter unearths three spatial arrangements, which propose new spectatorial experiences. The reflexive, the live, and the daylight dispositif reveal television’s adaptability and elasticity allowing its smooth inclusion within the expositional space. They unveil how recurrent scenographic designs negotiated and, eventually, consolidated television’s specificity as a domestic and live media at the expense of alternative televisual uses and technologies. The chapter closes with an ‘intermission’; a short intermediate conclusion that emphasizes the importance of locating television in public space to understand how exhibition sites actively shaped the medium’s identity through scenography and discourse.
