“I should like to begin by asking Professor Meredith whether or not he would agree with the following statement: Most people don’t care about a ——.” This first line of dialogue sets in motion Michael Meredith’s 2006 video Alternate Ending 1: The Glimmering Noise.1 The word “architecture” is bleeped out as if it were profanity, as it will be for the remainder of the thirty-six-minute short. It follows a minute and a half of literal glimmering noise, shards of moving light containing no discernible pattern, followed by a television stage set as seen from the third row of a studio audience (Figure 1). There are two Saarinen Tulip chairs flanking a Tulip table, outfitted with two microphones and two glasses of water. Nearly two minutes in, the apparent host of the show, played by actor David Nordstrom, enters and warms up with a series of practiced...

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