As part of the GEM Lab’s seminar on Video/Art/TV: Digital Aesthetics and Politics, we are holding a reading group and screening focused on seriality, narratives, and storytelling in video/art in the age of Internet television.
//Feb. 15, 2023
//5:00-7:00 PM
//GEM Lab
//1250 Guy St. FB 630.15
//Register on Eventbrite to access materials
Serial forms and strategies–segmentation, sequencing of events, repetition, etc.–have been present in literature, television, film, radio, and other media for centuries. How have serial forms and narrative strategies changed across a variety of media, such as TV series, video art, video games, or social media? What can contemporary forms of seriality tell us about our current media regime and its modes of narrative production and reception (and vice versa)? How have video artists approached episodic forms, duration, and other serial narrative components in the production, circulation, and distribution of their recent works?
We will be reading and discussing articles by film, media, or linguistics scholars Shane Denson, Sean O’Sullivan, and Ruth Page. We’ll also be watching some episodes of recent video/art series, such as by Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, Amelia Umuhire, and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. This event aims at fostering conversations about contemporary forms and functions of serial narratives in the age of Internet television, and participants are encouraged to bring questions and examples to the table.
Reading: We kindly ask attendees to read this selection of articles before the seminar to enrich our group discussion. Access to the readings will be sent to participants upon registration.
Denson, Shane. “Gaming and the ‘Parergodic’ Work of Seriality in Interactive Digital Environments.” Eludamos, Journal for Computer Game Culture 11, no. 1 (2020): 9–37.
Page, Ruth. “Seriality and Storytelling in Social Media.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 5 (2013): 31–54.
(Optional, only if you want to read more) O’Sullivan, Sean. “Broken on Purpose: Poetry, Serial Television, and the Season.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 1 (January 2010): 59–77.