project proposal....

Description of Artifact: “Broadcast Yourself” is the catch slogan of the widely popular YouTube website. Initially designed as a forum for amateur video producers, YouTube has become more of a search engine for image-related content (television programs, music videos, academic lectures...). However, its original intention is still being met by those who indeed “broadcast” themselves, their voices augmented by viewer feedback. Of particular interest are those videos where people confront their audiences directly, either discussing a single issue or representing a specific subculture. It has become, for many, an outlet for performing identity, often through cultural stereotypes, but for the most part with clear intentions of being “real.” The urgency by which they express and exhibit their identities, as if through necessity, gives these videos a quality quite similar to the confessional.

Other Attributes: The typical age group represented in these videos is around the late teens to early twenties. Topics vary, though sometimes there are several videos circulating around a single subject. They are primarily an exhibition of subjectivity, though they also seem to be means of attaining peer acceptance through (nearly anonymous) viewer comments. Topics are often suggested through viewer comments. The video is typically shot with a web-cam or a camcorder mounted near the self-subject’s workstation. The setting, therefore, is quite intimate, as it most likely mirrors the viewer’s own atmosphere. The “style” of the video could be informed by the “confession booth” segment typical of reality TV shows.

Potential: Videos which are more sophisticated (in a technical sense), reflexive, interactive, or essayistic. [What would my secondary sources suggest?]

Personal Investment in the Topic: The motive that underlies this inquiry is my profound interest in documentary films. In light of contemporary documentary modes of representation, these videos exemplify its current trends veering towards individual performance of subjectivity. The videos may be able to inform future documentary modes.

Primary Sources: Find at least three examples which exemplify this type of video. Also pay attention to viewer responses. [How does this change or subvert the video’s original intention? If the opinions of the video producer are intended by them to be subversive or controversial, how are institutional norms reestablished through viewer commentary?]

Secondary Sources:

1. Walter Benjamin – “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” What happens when the “masses” take technology into their own hands? The cult vs. the ritual object. Repercussions. [This source may work well to introduce the topic.]
2. Michael Renov – “Video Confessions” (published in The Subject of Documentary) Though Renov refers primarily to avant-garde video making, this source might be helpful in determining certain characteristics of the video confession. Ex: its therapeutic power. How does this relate or differ to video “confessions” on YouTube?
3. Michel Foucault – The History of Sexuality A sample excerpt: “(Confession is) a ritual that unfolds within a power relationship, for one does not confess without the presence (or virtual presence) of a partner who is not simply the interlocutor but the authority who requires the confession…”

[Of course, I’m open to any other suggestions.]