The Value of Representation: Toward a Critique of Networked Television Performance

Authors

  • Aymar Jean Christian Northwestern University

Keywords:

television, new media, media industries, distribution, race, gender, sexuality, performance

Abstract

By changing the relations of production and exhibition, networked Internet (digital, peer-to-peer) distribution offers ways to experiment with representations different from legacy (linear, one-to-many) network distribution. To advance a theory of value in representation, I founded the platform Open TVbeta to develop queer, intersectional television in Chicago and online. I present a framework for assessing representational value through case studies of producing and exhibiting three local, queer, artist-driven pilots in Chicago. I argue that small-scale development processes restructure the politics of representation in television and art, allowing us to see value and innovation where it has historically been hidden in performances of cultures, organizations, and technologies of exhibition.

Author Biography

Aymar Jean Christian, Northwestern University

Aymar Jean Christian is assistant professor of communication at Northwestern University. His manuscript, Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood, forthcoming on New York University press, explores web series as a space of innovation independent of legacy television development. He has been published in Continuum, Cinema Journal, Transformative Works & Cultures, and Journal of Communication Inquiry, in addition to multiple edited collections. His current research project, Open TV (beta), is a platform for television by queer, trans, cis-women or artists of color. He has released three pilots and three series, receiving recognition by the Tribeca Film Festival, Gotham Awards and the City of Chicago, along with funding from Northwestern, University of Chicago, Propeller and Voqal Funds. He is an inaugural Peabody Fellow at the Media Center at Peabody. Dr. Christian has also served as a judge, curator and expert on video and web TV for the Peabody Awards, Tribeca Film Festival, Streamy Awards, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. He received his PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.

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Published

2017-04-14

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Articles

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