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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3002 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 5, 2023

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Miniscule level question of philosophical aesthetics: Is a television wall-mounting bracket more part of the wall, or part of the television?

I have a black TV set and a white wall, and I'm shopping for a bracket. The one I've chosen comes in black or white. In my mind the true-to-itself colour would be unpainted metal. I've flip-flopped a couple of times but I think I've made my choice. I'm interested to hear others' opinions and reasoning.

I hate hate hate semantical category games. "Dae hotdog or sandwich?!?!"

I don't know how philosophically rigorous it is, but when in doubt default to pragmatism. I would say it's part of the TV. If the TV moves, the TV rack moves with the TV. However a wall-mounted cloth hanger for example doesn't move with the clothes, so that would be a part of the wall.

Generally most mounts aren't visible once you put the TV on them, but anyway, it should be black, as the TV is. Making it the color of the wall would look weird and uncanny, as if the wall is reaching out. Like, I wouldn't mind having bionic walls that can grab stuff without me having to do anything, but I don't think our unconscious model of the world is ready for it yet.

Part of the television. Black is the way to go, especially as white-on-different-white will still clash. White brackets are for saturated walls, not light ones.

Agreed. Without the TV the bracket has no purpose and no business on the wall and so the colour makes more sense to match the purpose rather than the context.

Next question. Whether to swap out the power cable for a white one?

Don’t know about that, but I think televisions should be much further down on a wall than where people place them. The human gaze naturally looks down and it’s better for your eyes to look down at a tv as less of your eye is exposed to blue light.

This TV will be at roughly eye level when seated. It's not an issue here but a lot of TVs now are so big that often it's only elevated positions that are practical.

TBH it seems like white would be ugly no matter the color of the TV or the wall.

Why though? I think it would be okay if the TV was white too.

White TV on a white wall wouldn't look good I think. Unless you can make it absolutely seamless, like a window, but I think this would require special building, I only seen things like this in pictures of a very expensive houses.

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