Rutgers–Camden professor creates TELLMeTV
CAMDEN — Do you remember who shot J.R. on Dallas or how you felt when Jim and Pam tied the knot on The Office? Were you one of the millions who tuned in to see the final episode of M*A*S*H?From Archie Bunker to Homer Simpson, television has left an indelible mark on people throughout years of pop culture history, many of its most iconic and controversial moments ingrained in our memories.
Elizabeth Demaray, an assistant professor of fine arts at Rutgers–Camden, is creating an art project that considers the degree to which those memories may be the stories that Americans share as a culture. She is collecting the memories by videotaping people describing shows they saw on television and is calling the project “TELLMeTV.”
“I think of the project as a labor of love because when I look at my body of work, it’s a little bit of an anomaly,” says Demaray, a sculptor and conceptual artist. “I basically invite people to tell me the story of any television program they ever remember watching. What are the stories that stick with people and why?”
In the videos, the people are describing scenes from shows like Entourage and Saved by the Bell. In each video, they are sitting in front of a blank wall, drawing attention to the emotion in their faces as they recount the events from the show.
In many ways, the participants’ own accounts of the shows are even better than reliving the episodes by watching a rerun or a DVD because their facial expressions and hand gestures add to the story.
“The ones I really like don’t necessarily get the details right, which I think is even more wonderful because our memories of these shows are not as indelible as you might think,” Demaray says. “There’s a reason people remember what they remember.”
Demaray says a show might stay with someone because it was a childhood favorite. Another might have featured a particularly violent scene. One example she likes is a man who talks about the show Kung Fu, which starred David Carradine
“Once he recounted that Kung Fu episode, the man said he realized that might have been a reason he was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War,” Demaray says. “It was because of the ideas of nonviolence that were being shared on the show.”
The Rutgers–Camden professor says she took on the project because she is interested in American culture and the nature of commercial enterprise as it relates to our culture.
“I’m attempting to elevate television to its rightful place as our narrative art form,” Demaray says. “That’s kind of tongue-in-cheek because I’m also considering the fact that these stories that we watch were created by television networks, for the most part, that wanted to keep our attention to sell products. For better or worse, the stories we have are motivated by commercial interests. Also, I have a tendency to think that many of us are trying to figure out social norms and that might be a reason we’re paying attention to TV.”
Demaray’s project isn’t just limited to television comedies or dramas. Some of the participants have described local newscasts, TV coverage of historically significant events, like the 1969 moon landing, and even commercials.
“I don’t want them to tell me the name of the show or commercial because I want it to be like a story you tell over a campfire,” she says. “As an artist, I find art that resonates more with viewers when it is open to interpretation. There are a myriad of possibilities one can consider when watching a show.”
Demaray has filmed people for TELLMeTV in San Francisco, St. Louis, New York, and on the Rutgers–Camden campus. Her video clips are currently being shown at Incident Report, a viewing station for video projects in Hudson, New York.
Demaray plans to film for her TELLMeTV project on the Rutgers–Camden campus on Sept. 8. Those interested in participating can e-mail her at demaray@camden.rutgers.edu.
A sampling of the videos can be viewed at youtube.com/user/eademaray.
A Camden resident, Demaray was the recipient of the 2001-02 National Studio Award at the New York Museum of Modern Art and a 2005 New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellow in sculpture. She has shown her work in museums nationwide.
Media Contact: Ed Moorhouse
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E-mail: ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu