Wide Open TV

• In Event: Critical Karaoke

Abstract

This presentation explores “art television” in the digital age through episodes of an independent TV project, Wide Open. In Wide Open I am producing a series about and with artists exploring relationships ignored by traditional US television, which focuses on white, heterosexual, upper-class, married stories. Wide Open features the work of female, queer and of color artists in non-normative relationships. In my set, I’ll analyze the series’ first group of videos, “Vogua,” in which three Chicago-based artists – Kiam Junio, Erik Wallace and Saya Naomi —dance elements of voguing and yoga in instructional web/art videos. These videos--which will play as I speak-- will be uploaded to Vimeo for free public viewing and are the basis of the Wide Open pilot, currently titled “Nupita Obama Creates Vogua.” Reporting on our production and distribution practices, my presentation explores the politics of artists from the critical edge working together on a local television project.

Aymar Jean Christian is assistant professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. His manuscript, Open TV, explores the web series market as a space of innovation independent of traditional television production and distribution. His work has been published in Continuum, Cinema Journal, Transformative Works & Cultures, and Journal of Communication Inquiry. He regularly writes about and curates web series for Indiewire and the Tribeca Film Festival, among others. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

Author

• Aymar Jean Christian, Northwestern U