Why Don't We Look at Television?

The television set was for many decades a ubiquitous household technology. Though omnipresent and designed to be watched, it has faded into the background of domesticity. The era of streaming and portable viewing devices questions the continuing need for a television set—an opportune moment to reconsider the materiality of this object technology in domestic life. Taking television's entry into British homes as a case study, this essay asks what the act of looking at—rather than watching—television means. It explores the paradox in television's design and function, both to be viewed and to disappear. The essay argues that its materiality became embedded in mediated debates about design and taste, while television owners appropriated the television set according to their domestic requirements and tastes—sometimes bypassing what manufacturers and designers intended.