I try hacks is a video series exploring the politics of expertise and reproduction of knowledge in hack videos from two Facebook video channel MetDaan Beauty.

The hack video is aesthetically reminiscent of a made-for-TV commercial and thematically reminiscent of an editorial beauty column. It aims to demonstrate use and share information. Unlike an editorial capitalizing on brand endorsement, or a commercial selling scrub brushes that stick to the floor of your shower, hack videos don't vend. While the identity of the editor or brand in traditional advertising plays an important role in the content's perceived value and veracity, it is often unclear where the knowledge shared in hack videos is coming from: the commercial structures underpinning content creation are difficult to trace, production is atemporal and aspatial, dialogue is voiced by a computer and dubbed over nondescript music, and the magnitude of videos with this production style make them seem less like discrete entities and more like exponentially reproducing cells.

The hack video form invites reproduction. It wants you to try.  MetDaan locates its purpose in inspiring creativity and empowering women to live their most confident lives through hack mastery. They do this at no charge to the viewer. They occupy an ambivalent virtual space of ownership in that they are both content production entities generating revenue from advertising, and vehicles of distribution for their influencer-parters who contract with the channel to share their content and grow their sphere of engagement. Rather than commodifying the knowledge shared in these videos, capital is generated via the data of everyone involved, blurring the boundaries of knowledge producer/knowledge manager/knowledge receiver or "viewer." Who owns cracking eggs in your hair or unclogging your sink with baking soda and vinegar? 

In I try hacks, I participate in this network of knowledge dissemination. I try to capture slow and rich depictions of place, to the end of creating media that is in practice the same as that which is imitating, but has been rendered unrecognizable by its sound, setting, and pace. Putting the practices and knowledges of the hack videos in this setting opens up avenues for engaging with the proliferation of this content and its meanings.