A summary of the recent Documenta 8 festival in Kassel, West Germany, where the theme was art with social consciousness. Special attention is paid to Nam June Paik's video homage to Joseph Beuys, which used music video techniques and mirrors to examine "the way popular television creates icons" (4). Videos that reference popular culture and the permeation of television into private life was a major theme, as was ironic critique using music video techniques. The author takes issue with the gallery presentation of non-installation works, given "video's troublesome status as an art" (4), and suggested that public television would have been a better forum.