The April 2015 issue of Australian Book Review contained a lengthy essay by James McNamara questioning whether or not we are living in a golden age of television. It is a topic receiving much attention from critics and cultural commentators, not only because of technological and behavioural changes in how we watch television, but because of the growing sophistication of some of its output and the wider cultural impact this is having.

I thought about that essay and the debates it touched on as I visited the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) latest contemporary exhibition, Transmission: Legacies of the Television Age. Comprising thirty works by local and international artists, sourced from the NGV’s own extensive collection, Transmission explores the evolution of television from its analogue beginnings to the digital era. Among the themes it tackles is television as a global means of communication, a mediator of our emotions and perceptions, and a distributor of knowledge or, depending on your point of view, ignorance.