Ant Farm’s Media Burn Tribute Tee

Designed and Printed June 2025

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Ant Farm’s unprecedented televisual event Media Burn, I created this tribute tee shirt. It uses both the original logo for the event, found on numerous pieces of merchandise for sale at Media Burn, on the front of the shirt alongside an original design on the back of the shirt.

Media Burn was Ant Farm’s successful attempt at creating a piece of art as a news story (or vice-versa?) when they corralled many television news teams in the Bay Area to report on their stunt at the Cow Palace, driving a heavily modified Cadillac through a pyramid of television sets. President John F. Kennedy made a rare public appearance in the 1970s to give a speech addressing the importance of the event.

Ant Farm’s project is one of my favorite pieces of video art by way of performance art by way of technology and iconography destruction. It only felt right to make something in honor of the 50th anniversary of the event, which just so happened to be a few weeks after we screened Media Burn at the From Below Microcinema as part of our “Ecstatic Television” program.