July 27, 2019
It has been almost a month since I arrived back in Sydney after my three months abroad, and I am adjusting back to the daily grind (by daily grind, I mean purchasing a delicious frothy soy latte that is infinitely superior to the coffee in Northern Europe). And with that comes the work I need to do to fund my expensive consumption habits, like coffee, coconut cider vinegar, tropical fruit and chia seeds. Most of that work, at the moment, is my thesis, but hopefully soon part-time work will kick off again and I’ll no longer burst into tears in front of my good friend who I’ll call B (partly because Joe’s best friend in Nymphomaniac is called B), declaring that I’ll never fulfill my destiny if I can’t find a job in Denmark, because I DEFINITELY won’t find one in Australia. There is a sense of satisfaction in being employed: it’s a form of citizenship and contributes to a feeling of belonging (even if you hate your job and don’t belong there). This is actually what I am writing my thesis on, but I won’t go into it here. I won’t spoil it for you. You’ll have to wait until the book comes out. I might title it: “All Aboard the Citizen Ship.” On second thoughts, I’d rather call it anything but that…
So, today I headed down to my local community kitchen where they hold workshops and activities in the upstairs open space. An authenticity workshop was running today, which might sound a little dubious or new-agey (is that meant to be an insult? Like, I feel like an actual new age would be a good thing right about now, given that the last few ages haven’t been wholly satisfying. I’m pretty done with the age of celebrity politicians, people getting married on TV for money, music made on laptops and school students needing iPads to complete their educations). It wasn’t at all dubious, though. We brainstormed what authenticity means to us, what the benefits of realising our authentic selves would be, and what barriers might exist that prevent us from being authentic all the time. Now, you might be thinking that being authentic is the same as being honest, truthful or persistently in the mode of “giving” to others. What came up in our discussions was related to truth and honesty, but also about compassion, self-love, awareness and understanding. That is, authenticity is as much about being aware of your own values, desires and priorities as much as communicating these to other people.
We each introduced ourselves to the group, and volunteered one or two activities that make us feel like our true selves: comfortable and satisfied. I mentioned drawing and writing, and included writing my PhD in that. Naturally, in the one-on-one chats we had later, my chat partner asked me about my PhD, which is on Danish film and television (this always happens… and then I usually answer the inevitable question of: “Oh, what made you choose Denmark?”). We chatted about why I particularly like Danish television and, more importantly (if you’re going to write a PhD, at least) what makes it a fascinating topic of study. And then something struck me: Danish television – particularly those series by DR that are most often picked up by international broadcasters – has been praised for being… authentic. And that really got me thinking about how to define this often-deployed but not-so-often-interrogated concept.
The topic of “What Makes Danish Television Travel?” is not only the personal question that motivated me to begin my PhD, it’s actually the question that researchers across Europe and other parts of the world also asked themselves (I had no idea about that when I started my research… great minds think alike?). In fact, it spawned the Aarhus University research project of the same name, and culminated in, amongst other things, a conference in June 2018. One of the themes that comes up in publications on Danish television from The Killing-era onwards is the authenticity of the characters, plot lines and aesthetic in Danish screen fiction. But what does it really mean for television to be authentic? That it simply resembles reality? That it’s honest and credible? That it’s sensitive, responsible and measured? Or that it’s simply the opposite of what we have grown accustomed to? That’s a topic for next time…
The Chaos Children 