Test Build
plan b presents a short history of the Test Card
Taking inspiration from the do-it-yourself art programmes from their childhood, plan b recreated the images that have had more air-time than any other programme: Test Cards.
Considered by some as the most interesting programmes on television, Test Cards are broadcast to enable television engineers to check that their equipment is working properly. In times when programmes were scarce, Test Cards filled the empty hours of the day and night, often accompanied by music as were our recreations.
The first version of Test Build was part of Trampoline, a multi-media event commissioned by Podewil for 'Reich & Berühmt'. Carefully positioned in the stairwell, we allowed the audience several ways to view the work: from the landings above, through a suspended CCTV camera linked to a television and finally, the finished test card was projected on the wall of the main event space.
During the six-hour process we made the Test Cards from scratch using coloured paper and simple stationery. We made 6 test cards in all, from the very first, broadcast in the 1930s, a simple circle and line to the modern international test card that the German audience was familiar with and that British people remembered from ITV.
Test build web stream
On 28 June 2002, we streamed a four-hour version of "Test Build" from our friends' kitchen in Berlin. It was shown on the wall of the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham as part of Moonradio's short festival of nostalgia TV, "Rose Tinted TV".
Having four hours of media to edit has proved beyond the means of either plan b or Moonradio but there are some rough excerpts available here: (all files are Real Media).
Intro
The very beginning
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Test Card F part 1
The last test card we made, after four hours
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Test Card F part 2
The girl and clown play noughts and crosses
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