Analog dreams — Echoes of the past — Reassembled for today
LOW FREQUENCY RELICS – Illuminated artifacts found between the channels
Low Frequency Relics features illuminated dioramas created from refurbished vintage CRT televisions, re-engineered into functional art pieces that celebrate analog nostalgia and handcrafted reuse. Each TV becomes a glowing display environment designed to frame personalized figurines selected by the buyer.
Figurines are sold separately. Images shown are for inspiration and visioning purposes only; final themes and characters are customized for each piece.
About the Artist – Craft, Process, Perspective
Working at the intersection of nostalgia, pop culture, and mid-century design, David populates these reimagined screens with figurines and statuettes drawn from a wide range of genres, including classic cartoons, animation, music, and cultural icons. The result is a series of curated “broadcasts” frozen in time—illuminated artifacts found between the channels.
Originally a hobbyist driven by curiosity and a love of analog technology, David approaches each piece with a maker’s sensibility, honoring the original object while elevating it into something both playful and refined. Clients are invited into the process, selecting themes and characters that personalize each work and deepen its nostalgic resonance.
Through Low Frequency Relics, Mike David explores how obsolete electronics can be reimagined not as waste, but as vessels for memory, whimsy, and renewed purpose. Objects once designed to transmit culture are reborn as culture themselves. They are a reminder that an object’s original purpose doesn’t have to be its final episode.
Select Your TV Shell
How It Works
Begin by choosing the vintage television that will become the foundation of your piece. Each restored TV includes LED interior lighting, finished display feet or supports, and a background insert.
Use the accordion listings below to explore the available televisions. Click the plus sign (+) beside each listing to reveal its history, features, dimensions, and other details.
The figurines pictured are examples only and are not included or offered for sale. You may provide your own collection or work with the artist to source figurines that reflect your interests, memories, or favorite bit of pop culture.
Standard background inserts are included. Custom backgrounds can also be designed in collaboration with the artist for an additional creative fee.
Learn About Your Art’s History
SAMPO anTVd the Portable-TV Era
Sampo began making black-and-white televisions in Taiwan in the early 1960s and later partnered with both Sony and Sharp as Taiwan became an important center of electronics manufacturing. This compact set comes from the late 1970s or early 1980s, when televisions were becoming small enough to move beyond the family living room and into kitchens, bedrooms, dorm rooms, and workshops.
Its rounded screen, telescoping antenna, chunky VHF and UHF dials, and “vertical hold” control recall a wonderfully hands-on era of television. Changing the channel meant getting up out of your chair to spin a dial and trying to get a clear picture often required patience, careful antenna positioning, and perhaps a strategically placed piece of aluminum foil. Most of the time, we just accepted a little bit of fuzz was going to happen.
NOTICE: The figurines pictured are examples only and are not included or offered for sale.
Specifications:
Diagonal – 12 in.
Opening – 10 in. wide x 8 in. height
Dimensions of artistic piece including legs – 14.5 in. wide x 18 in. height x 12 in. depth
CRT Model B-120BW, possibly 1983, based on an internet search of similar models
Learn About Your Art’s History
Admiral: Television Comes Down to Size
Once a familiar name in American homes, Admiral was one of the leading television and appliance manufacturers of the postwar era. Founded in Chicago in 1934, the company grew from radios and phonographs into a major producer of televisions during the 1940s and 1950s.
This 19-inch black-and-white portable set likely dates to the early 1960s, when television was beginning to leave the formal living room and find its way into bedrooms, kitchens, and family dens. Its built-in handle and antenna made it “portable”—at least by the wonderfully optimistic standards of the time.
With its rounded screen, bronze-toned cabinet, crown insignia, and unmistakable midcentury profile, this Admiral recalls an era when television was becoming more personal, more mobile, and firmly woven into everyday American life.
NOTICE: The figurines pictured are examples only and are not included or offered for sale.
Specifications:
Diagonal – 17.5 in.
Opening – 15.5 in. wide x 12 in. height
Dimensions of artistic piece including legs – 20 in. wide x 30 in. height x 13 in. depth
Learn About Your Art’s History
Magnavox Purple
Magnavox began with sound: its name means “great voice,” and the company was making televisions by the late 1940s. That makes the prominent speaker grille on this set a lovely reminder of where the brand started. If your interested in digging up more interesting information about this company, check out the Magnavox Historical Preservation Association
For this set, the antenna, channel dials, and broad gray frame recall a time when choosing a show meant rolling, scooting, or sometimes even walking over to TV and giving these dials a twist. The artist’s selection of purple-and-cream interior gives that unique rhombus silhouette a new purpose: a little stage for whatever story its owner wants to display.
NOTICE: The figurines pictured are examples only and are not included or offered for sale.
Specifications:
Diagonal – 11.5 in.
Opening – 10 in. wide x 7.5 in. height
Dimensions of artistic piece including legs – 14 in. wide x 16.5 in. height x 13 in. depth
MIKE DAVID
In a world that throws things away faster than we know how to live with them,
I take objects that once had a life and rebuild them for today.
Nostalgia lives in all of us, and sometimes the most striking, meaningful kind of beauty shows up
in act of remembering the things we thought no longer mattered.
Contact the Artist
Email:
captioncomic@gmail.com
Stacked Towers Series
Playful garden towers give rescued ceramics a second life. In this series of art pieces, Mike David stacks thrift-store, swap-meet, and garage-sale finds into colorful, one-of-a-kind sculptures.
Upcoming Events
Information forthcoming…
