DailyHeights

Prospect Heights cartoonist and animator Nina Paley created the artwork and package design for TV-B-Gone, that little keychain device that turns off “virtually any television.” DAILY HEIGHTS got Nina to reflect on National TV Turnoff Week, which just ended (April 25 – May 2).

How did TV Turnoff Week go for you?
Like any other week – I don’t have TV reception at home. I do have a monitor on which I can watch DVDs, but last week I was too busy working on “Sita Sings the Blues.”

How did it come about that you did the artwork for the TV-B-Gone package?
I knew Mitch Altman, the inventor of TV-B-Gone, way back in my hometown of Urbana, Illinois. When Mitch moved to San Francisco, he sublet and then took over my beloved previous apartment, the “pentshack” on a roof in the Castro (the NYT wrote about it and made me nostalgic). Mitch brought up TV-B-Gone at least 10 years ago, and I said I wanted to do art for it if the opportunity ever arose. It finally did.

I read on “The Internet” that you had practically begged Mitch for the opportunity to illustrate the packaging. Why?
Isn’t it obvious? A device that turns off annoying televisions! TV intrudes more and more as time goes on. It’s in restaurants, bars, train stations, buses… I’m especially vulnerable to TV. For some reason, I find it extremely difficult to take my eyes off a flickering screen. And it’s bad enough if the sound is muted, but there’s no way I can shut my ears to it. In public spaces, where people socialize, TV is an overwhelming intrusion. It’s pollution, in fact.

Have you used TV-B-Gone in public? How did it go?
I’ve only used it a few times in public. Once at a bar that had about 15 screens all going at once. I turned off a few that were facing me. No one noticed! Another time, in a health club that had 3 giant screens showing sports. I turned one off, partly to impress a friend of mine who requested it. Again, no one noticed. No one misses TV in public.

How do you respond to critics who say “hey lady, just deal with it, and stop imposing your morality on me”?
No one’s said that to me. Regardless, it has nothing to do with morality. If someone litters, and I pick up their trash, am I “imposing morality”? No, I’m improving my environment, making it more liveable. I don’t give a damn how much TV people watch in their own environments. In a public environment, I want to interact with people, not TV.

TV Turnoff Week is over. Is it too late to kill your television?
It’s never too late. Although if you don’t like television, just don’t get one in the first place. Really, I don’t care how much TV people watch at home. It’s the public intrusion that bugs me. Until we can kill public televisions, we’ll just have to use TV-B-Gone.