Public Broadcast Spearfishing

Wikipedia Poem, No. 729

“At the John Weber gallery in New York, in 1972, on two separate occasions, [Hans] Haacke created a sociological study, collecting data from gallery visitors. He requested the visitors fill out a questionnaire with 20 questions ranging from their personal demographic background information to opinions on social and political issues. The results of the questionnaires were translated into pie charts and bar graphs that were presented in the gallery at a later date. They revealed, among other things, that most visitors were related in some way to the professions of art, art teaching, and museology, and most were politically liberal.” from the Wikipedia entry for Hans Haacke

“We have awaited the coming of a natural / phenomenon. Mystics and romantics, knowledgeable / workers / of the land. // But none has come. / (Repeat) / but none has come. / Will the machinegunners please step forward?” Amiri Baraka, from A Poem Some People Will Have to Understand

o!
     yes you did o! yes 
          you did
o! 
     yes you combine that o! and this  
          yes and what a good television broadcast 

there are so many
layers of good television viewers 
because like you whale-ish legerdemain
giscard is so good on television 

o!
     because viewers like you 
          what a good television vision viewer 
o!
     you that giscard wolfs 
          so many loose downy fish

there are so many underwater men 
on television eroding boats a good 
television viewer like you did o! yes you 
make it visible now and for good 

o!
     yes you make 
          good television viewers toothy
o!
     it’s because there are so many
          like you that a good television burns with soft fur

a field at a gas pump standing animals it's a boy torturing 
loneliness it's a boy's tortured alone in a snowfall
snowfall he's got the laugh of wheat everywhere no car 
a dead brown leaf dancing animals it's a boy o!

Sources:

• Baraka, Amiri. “A Poem Some People Will Have to Understand.” The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. Ed. William J. Harris. New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1991. pp. 210-211. Print.
• Binet, Laurent. “Seventh Function of Language.” S.l.: Picador, 2018. Print
• Fraser, Andrea. “From the Critique of Institutions to an
  Institution of Critique.” Artforum. New York: Sep 2005. Vol. 44, Issue 1; pp. 278-285.
• Wikipedia contributors. “Hans Haacke.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 Dec. 2017. Web. 19 Feb. 2018.