TV Guide

THE OBSERVATION BOOTH

OP / ED & PHOTOS BY: ANDREA DIALECT

Well, hello, there, Observation Booth Heads. I couldn’t help myself, lol. Here is a heads-up. Today, the OB Editor’s intro space is on the loaner. 

I felt that Mr. Moveee’s wife, Kirby, would be a much better fit for such an interesting feature introduction as making such an acquaintance. The questions asked were as follows: What is it like to be married to an artist, and how does it feel to walk down the street holding hands with a TV? OBH, I give you Kirby… Now, shhh, I’m watching television!

Kirby: It’s always like a surprise with every encounter we encounter. I enjoy the stares and curiosity that’s given to both of us. Most of all, I love that we are comfortable and so confident that we can put on anything and never worry about what others think; I love that he expresses himself with art and that others can see that.

I truly enjoy walking down the street with a (TV) artist. To me, it’s normal, and to many others, it’s different. Many people always ask if I’m embarrassed or if it is weird. I have never felt that way. I love him and it. That’s what makes us eccentric and a powerful couple. I love it!!!!

TV HEAD

TV begins with a video camera. The camera records the pictures and sound of a TV program. It changes the pictures and sound into electric signals. A TV set receives the signals and turns them back into pictures and sound.

Cosplay is a performance art in which the participants dress in costumes and make-up, representing characters from anime, video games, television, and film. 

WAVELENGTH

Mr. Moveee: I didn’t watch television much when I was a child. I enjoyed buying comic books, cutting the characters out of them, making them into paper figures and stuff, and making storylines. I would buy tons of books and cut out Spiderman, Superman, and Batman to make my own stories up. As a TV Head, I have become the character.

There are hundreds of us. There are many TV Cosplayers, but most wear their heads at events, and then there’s me. I created the TV Head culture…Everybody has their own meaning for being a TV Head. Some just like the feeling of it. The whole mystique thing, some just like how it looks.

For me, it’s a little bit different because I gave it an actual purpose. I wear my TV Head because I want more people of color to be more open to cosplay and expressing their inner child personalities. I always tell people that as long as you handle your priorities, paying your taxes, paying your bills, and everything you have to do, nobody can judge you.

Plenty of adults are into cosplay, or they dress a certain way. But there are so many who don’t do it because they think they’ll be seen as immature. So, I show people differently, especially in Newark, because they need to see that.

Often when you think of people that express themselves in character, you think of New York. Usually, when people see me, they believe that I’m from New York because they don’t feel that a person like me would be coming from a city like Newark because of how the media portrays us. They don’t think that this cool guy would be walking around with a TV on his head here.

The meaning behind it is to be yourself. Be the program and don’t let people program you; be your own network, your own media outlet, and have your own mind. Control the way people see you no need to answer to nobody else because of it. 

SCREENSHOTS

See, when you’re watching TV, the TV is telling you what to do. It’s controlling you with advertisements, but when you actually go into the TV now you have control of everything. You own that takeaway. You think like the TV, and it opens your eyes where you can see racism and discrimination. You see how advertisers market certain things to specific groups of people to make money off of us. You can see when those eyes are peering back at you. It seems metaphoric, but it’s really a thing.

When I put on a TV, I see the world for what it is. Because people don’t do things around certain people because they think those people will see them for who they are. If people can do things without consequence, they’ll do it. People or this type of person do that because they know someone is watching. But as soon as they feel nobody’s going to know, that’s when their true colors come out.

I get to see the way people look at other people. I get to see the way they look at me… How people react to me is also a telltale sign. How they look at me when they feel I need to show them my face and that I must talk to them or take a picture shows me how obligated people feel.

Often people don’t use logic. They can see me walk down the street, and they will ask if I can see. How I see it is understandable. Those who use logic are like, duh, if he’s walking down the street, it’s obviously like wearing sunglasses or a tint. If I can see him, I’m pretty sure that he can see me. That’s the number one question I’m asked: “how can I see?” 

A human mind is a machine, and your brain will always help you adapt to your environment. For instance, if you walk into the dark, you’re not going to be able to see, but if you stay there long enough, your senses will kick in. You may not be able to see a lot, but you’re going to start being able to see because your eyes are adjusting to the dark, same difference. When a house is really quiet, your senses become heightened, you’re more alert now, and you’re more aware now. Now, you can hear the clock in the living room. You can hear a fly buzzing outside because your brain is telling your body to be more alert and calm.

The screen is similar to sunglasses. People can’t see your eyes, but you can see out of your sunglasses perfectly fine; people wear sunglasses in nightclubs all the time; People wear them in the dark all the time. I don’t pay much attention to negative reactions. I get more love and support. Yeah, that’s dope; let me get a picture. I rarely get that unless it’s someone trying to be sarcastic. But I can hold my own because I am also no punk. However, I’m a TV Head whose been born and raised in Newark. But, for the most part, it’s all love!

The TV Head culture I created is seen in everything I do. When I go to events, when doing photo shoots, interviews, podcast when creating dance videos, and being out there with the people. That’s the way I created this. There wasn’t any TV Heads doing that. They were doing Comic Cons and stuff like that. That’s why it seems that I’m the only TV Head. This is not a lifestyle for most of the other TV heads. It’s just something to do for a second. It’s like you have something to do for the moment. Like those who might wear a Spiderman costume only on Halloween.

But then you have people that put on the Spiderman costume and go to New York City all day and make money from it. They make videos and stuff. Even though there’s one hundred Spidermen, you only know of one because that Spiderman is always Spiderman. I took it to the next level.

But as far as knowing where TV heads originated from, nobody knows because this TV Heads stuff goes back to the 1990s. There’s footage of people. There are music videos. The last and latest that I’d seen was all black people who were TV Heads. Everybody in the video was wearing TV Heads, and they were all of us. 

BROADCASTING

Having my wife behind me, who has been 100% supportive of everything I do, is important. So, it’s not just about being myself. It’s also about having someone there who accepts me for being myself, and she does because she has to walk down the street with me with this TV on my head which is no biggie for her because my wife is really dope.

Pushing this TV Head art stuff is one of my main focuses; I’m doing more with the art form to get more people into doing more art so that people can see more art based around the TV Head culture. More so, Black people, my people, can see TV Head art. There are plenty of black-and-white TV Heads out there doing their thing, whatever it is. I respect that, but they’re not doing what I’m doing. Black TV Head art is still not where I want it to be. We need more of it, and I will see to it that they get it!

DID YA KNOW THAT

YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET BECAUSE…

TV begins with a video camera. The camera records the pictures and sound of a TV program. It changes the pictures and sound into electric signals. A TV set receives the signals and turns them back into pictures and sound.

The TV Signal

A standard TV camera changes the pictures into an electric signal called the video signal. The video signal carries the pictures in the form of tiny dots called pixels. The camera’s microphone changes the sound into another electric signal, called the audio signal. The video and audio signals together form the TV signal.

Digital TV, or DTV, is a newer way of handling TV signals. A digital TV signal carries pictures and sound as a number code, like a computer does. A digital signal can carry more information than a standard signal can, which creates better pictures and sound. High definition TV, or HDTV, is a high-quality form of digital TV.

A TV signal can reach a TV set in several ways. Local TV stations use antennas to send, or broadcast, signals through the air as radio waves. Cable TV stations send signals through underground cables. Satellites, or spacecraft, traveling high above Earth can send signals to special antennas called satellite dishes. A signal can also come from a VCR, DVD player, or DVR (digital video recorder) connected to the TV set. VCRs, DVRs, and some DVD players can record a TV signal coming into the TV and then play it back later.

Display

A standard TV set turns the video signal into beams of tiny particles called electrons. It shoots these beams at the back of the screen through a picture tube. The beams “paint” the pixels on the screen in a series of rows to form the picture. The TV set sends the audio signal to loudspeakers, which reproduce the sound.

LCD and plasma TVs form the picture differently. They do not use a picture tube and electron beams. Because they do not hold a picture tube, LCD and plasma TVs are much thinner and lighter than standard TVs. They can even hang on a wall.

LCD stands for liquid crystal display. Liquid crystal is a substance that flows like a liquid but has some tiny solid parts, too. The display sends light and electric current through the liquid crystal. The electric current causes the solid parts to move around. They block or let light through in a certain way to make the picture on the screen.

A plasma display has tiny colored lights containing a gas called plasma. Electric current sent through the plasma causes it to give off light, which makes the picture.

(kids.britannica.com)

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