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Video Commentary - The Extended Family Series

THE EXTENDED FAMILY

“The Extended Family” is a video series that explores media as a participant in the family. Each piece represents a different role in the household: parent, babysitter, and mentor.

Click images below to view a sample of the videos.

THE OTHER PARENT	THE BABYSITTER	THE MENTOR

The Other Parent explores media’s dual parenting role in bringing up America’s children. By dual I mean parenting parents, through the proliferation of advice (guru industry), and by influencing children through an onslaught of TV, movie, music and advertising images. The TV-Guide-like video is an overload of information, sound and visual stimuli, replicating how varied media sources converge, numb and project messages. 3 mins	In The Babysitter TV plays the role of childcare provider. The video attempts to capture the relationship of the child to the TV and initiate questions about the impact of this bond. Adults in the video take on a ghostly form; inhabiting the same space, but not the connection. In addition, a hidden camera was used to capture footage, referencing the “nanny cam”; a tool used to watch/baby-sit the intended childcare giver. 5 mins	*The Mentor* places TV as a mentor/teacher in the household. I was galvanized by a recent study suggesting that TV may cause ADD even with as little watch time as an hour a day for children under 3. It is believed that the TV may rewire the rapidly developing brain. The video explores the impact of messages and the format presented, i.e. audio and visual (especially patterns of light and color). 2 mins

Babysitter Installation

"The Babysitter" is projected on to a wall, directly opposite is a TV also playing "The Babysitter". The child exist within the TV, watches the TV and is projected by the TV.

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Note: All videos require the QuickTime free plug-in to view. You can download the plug-in for free here.