This is not new, but I don't know how I missed it before:
In this 2003 installation, from a broader series begun in 1997, 64 nights' worth of the major US late night talk shows have been aligned and averaged using basic transformations. The result is a triptych of video projections with soundtrack, presenting an amalgamation of monologues which reveals the ghosts of repetitious structure and nightly activity.
You must check out the 3.5 minute video -- I can't come up with a better way to describe it than, well, ethereal platonic essences.
The similarities are incredible -- not only in that the 64 shows are similar enough for a clear picture to emerge, but also in the similarities between the three shows. Their bodies occupy a nearly identical portion of the screen, their wardrobe hues average out to be about the same, and all three sets are lined at the bottom with a dark streak and at the top with a bright blue streak. The economics of this are fascinating -- is it that the three shows are copying each other, or have they settled at some sort of optimum? It's hard to believe that the shows receive enough viewer feedback to truly optimize all these decisions -- set layout, lighting, wardrobe, length of segments, camera angle and zoom, etc., etc. -- but maybe the market forces work in stronger and subtler ways than we can imagine!
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Related:
30 minute Documentary on Jason Salavon from the Columbus Museum of Art
