Designed as a video installation, Proposal for QUBE critiques monolithic media and the concept of interactive television. Artist Peter d'Agostino proposes an interactive cablecast that would allow audience members to determine the sequence of a five-part video using Time Warner's QUBE, a cable technology launched in 1977 that enabled subscribers to "participate" in programs by pushing one of five response buttons. As d'Agostino's theoretical model demonstrates, the selection process is in fact carefully controlled, rather than participatory, and the prescribed choices do not empower decision-making.
