For this weeks video journal we were asked to actively watch television, and analyse any formal conventions at work. I decided to watch TV from my TV set rather than on my laptop. The physical aspect of a television is less of a ‘box’ to me, but more of a frame holding a moving image. I’ve wondered what would happen if you used a tv as a digital photo frame that never changes it’s image; would the image degenerate after burning through the LCD? Isn’t that what screensavers are for? Screensavers are also an interesting result of the constant stream that is television, as they didn’t exist until DVD. Even static is moving.

The TV sits in the corner of the living room in my sharehouse, covered in dust. We had a brief slew of watching the tennis earlier this year, but it’s main function is for background noise when my family comes to visit. Something about being in a living room with them without the tv in the background is awkward. What I focused on in my analysis was the adbreaks, more so the construction of an adbreak. I was watching channel seven at primetime when I noticed all of the adbreaks were bookended by a promotion for a network series. The sound during an adbreak was so engaging, as ads are intended to reengage the viewer who has momentarily broken their attention. I noticed that these breaks cater to our short attention spans and I wondered how many stories or how much information can we fit into a two minute adbreak? When does it become overwhelming?

Ads for me are so visceral, and the result is a huge wave of nostaliga for adbreaks from when I was a kid and actively participated in watching tv, which I no longer do. This adbreak from 2002, when I was seven, is an amazing example of the connection to tv I fondly remember but no longer experience. The ad with the butchers dancing at the end brought back a bunch of memories; the Persian carpet in our lounge room, the bulky television monitor. The same bookending conventions are at play even in the adbreak from 16 years ago.

Can we feel empathy with a television set? I think I get that feeling of when you finish a book and hold it to your chest. The book hold stories about characters you love. Do we feel the same about a television set? Holding the memories of our childhood? Are we the last generation to feel akin to a TV? Probably!