Netvideo Nonvideo Newvideo: Designing a multilinear nonnarrative form for interactive documentary (original) (raw)
Related papers
Interactive Documentary: setting the field
Studies in Documentary Film, 2012
This article articulates the authors' combined vision behind convening i-Docs, the first international symposia to focus exclusively on the rapidly evolving field of interactive documentary. In so doing, it provides a case study of practice-driven research, in which discussion around the act of developing and making interactive documentaries is seen as being a necessary prerequisite to subsequent theorizing in relation to their impact on the continuing evolution of the documentary genre. As an essentially interdisciplinary form of practice, the article provides a conceptual overview of what interactive documentaries (i-docs) are, where they come from and what they could become. The case is made that i-docs should not be seen as the uneventful evolution of documentaries in the digital realm but rather as a form of nonfiction narrative that uses action and choice, immersion and enacted perception as ways to construct the real, rather than to represent it. The relationship between authorship and agency within i-docs is also considered as being central to our understanding of possibilities within a rapidly evolving field of study.
Processes, Modes and Methodologies for the Analysis and Design of Interactive Documentaries
Recommended citation: Gifreu-Castells, A. (2015). Processes, modes and methodologies for the analysis and design of interactive documentaries. Visible Evidence XXII. 20-22 August 2015. University of Toronto, University of York and Ryerson University. ---------------- ABSTRACT ENG: Interactive digital media have had an impact on the logic of production, exhibition and reception of traditional audiovisual documentaries. In this emerging context, interactive documentaries are a new audiovisual form with specific characteristics of their own. In recent years we have been studying the interactive documentary as a new narrative expression form, developing some related projects (MetamentalDOC, 2011; interDOC, 2013, COME/IN/DOC, 2014) 1. We believe that in this area there is more production than theoretical reflection today, so on the basis of the construction of a complex, versatile model for categorisation and production of the format, we have developed an original conceptual framework to describe interactive documentaries as a specific audiovisual form, differentiating it from conventional forms of documentary and interactive non-fiction. In order to establish and define the conceptual framework precisely, we have developed two tools: a categorisation and production model. Regarding the first tool, we developed a proposal of categorisation of interactive documentary; in the second case, we have designed a model originated in the first proposal but focused on the production, from the enumeration and description of a set of processes, methods and methodologies. The proposed models are intended to be valid and useful for two main purposes: firstly, to facilitate the analysis of existing interactive documentaries, and their possible classification and, secondly, to contribute criteria for construction and production of this kind of innovative documentary. To create the models, we have proposed and justified a group of categories: "processes" (view-play-learn-share), "modes" (representation-navigation-interaction) and "methodologies" (production-distribution-exhibition).
New Forms of Documentary-Filmmaking within New Media
AVANCA|CINEMA 2012, International Conference (Proceedings), pp.1169-1175. , 2012
New technologies have always been a great potential for artists, who are seeking “new forms” in art. Today, so called “new media” has a great potential for filmmakers, especially for “non-fiction storytellers,” i.e. documentary filmmakers. With the development of new media, new documentary forms emerged on the Internet. These new forms are labeled such as webdocumentary (web-doc), interactive documentary, database-filmmaking, transmedia, non- linear documentary, etc. All of these new documentary forms are done by utilizing not only the computational and telecommunication capacities of the Internet through softwares and apps (applications), but the prevailing use of the Internet as one of the major medium of daily life as well. Today, more and more people are watching and following new forms of documentary on the Internet (especially young generations, who are born into new media). New media documentary, with its distinct features, not only enforce documentary filmmakers to think, imagine, design, and develop documentary projects within new forms, but also enable them to make documentary in different ways. In short, it offers new forms of representation and production for documentary filmmakers. In this paper, I will discuss the distinct features of new media documentary such as its openness to non-linearity in storytelling and interactivity in experience (watching and navigating in a web site); its capacity of a wider distribution; its potential for a more collaborative production. I will elaborate these features in a critical approach to understand what is really ‘new’ in new media documentary.
Actors involved in the consolidation of the interactive documentary
2018
The emergence of new formats sets out challenges for research, specially in an initial phase. The difficulty to map the early evolution of the incipient media places the studies in a delicate situation when not approaching a global vision, difficulting the classification, as well as its definition and analysis. This phenomenon is primarily visible in the areas of communication related to new storytelling and applications of technology, such as interactive documentary. This article presents a list of actors involved in the consolidation of the format in its production, distribution and circulation phases, prepared from an exploratory study from 2015 to 2018. The identification of repositories, festivals, awards, academic events, institutions, producers and other types of spaces that promote the interactive documentary will serve as a tool for the investigation of the object of study in the future. The set of initiatives around the interactive documentary allows us to understand the universal nature of its emergence and study one of the formats that narrate facts in the digital era.
Journal of Material Culture, 2013
This article offers an ethnographic exploration of the world of interactive documentaries (i-docs), suggesting how such a scrutiny opens up a new scenario for visual culture – one where the study of the visual field needs to be backed up with an increasing awareness of digital culture, interactivity and the functioning of Web 2.0. Incorporating the languages that dominate communication on social networks and image sharing platforms, i-docs are a window onto the changing meaning of images in the context of contemporary digital technologies. In such products, a variety of different kinds of materials (such as videos, photos, sounds, texts, etc.) converge, forcing us to rethink the very meaning of image beyond the field of vision. Fostering new forms of interpretation and exploration of audio-visual materials, these projects also generate new connections between life online and life offline. Informed by the principles of participation, sharing and relationality that inform contemporary...
This article offers an ethnographic exploration of the world of interactive documentaries (i-docs), suggesting how such a scrutiny opens up a new scenario for visual culture – one where the study of the visual field needs to be backed up with an increasing awareness of digital culture, interactivity and the functioning of Web 2.0. Incorporating the languages that dominate communication on social networks and image sharing platforms, i-docs are a window onto the changing meaning of images in the context of contemporary digital technologies. In such products, a variety of different kinds of materials (such as videos, photos, sounds, texts, etc.) converge, forcing us to rethink the very meaning of image beyond the field of vision. Fostering new forms of interpretation and exploration of audio-visual materials, these projects also generate new connections between life online and life offline. Informed by the principles of participation, sharing and relationality that inform contemporary social networks, i-docs seem to invite us to engage with the physicality and socialness of everyday life, in other words, to get our hands dirty (again).
Establishing methodologies for the analysis and development of interactive documentary
2013
This work explores the interactive documentary as a hybrid, emergent cultural form that has been shaped by the growth of digital interactive entertainment. Through investigation and analysis of the historical background of documentary, the research discusses the development of documentary film, examining the notions of truth, objectivity and authorship in factual media, and their relationship with existing understandings of interactivity. Critical parameters are then derived to objectify the process of deconstructing interactive and documentary media forms. An inclusive view is taken on the categorisation and classification of interactive documentary, informed by the fundamental constructs of both traditional documentary and interactive media. The constructs and structures of interaction and narrative are highlighted to facilitate the identification and examination of existing examples of factual interactive entertainment-from computer generated documentary games to navigable filmic forms. The thesis proposes a range of characterisation frameworks for the study of interactive documentary and these are applied towards case study analysis of sixteen interactive productions. The final work presented in this thesis proposes a theoretical framework for the analysis and development of immersive, interactive documentary experiences, encompassing the processes of content creation and consumption from the perspectives of both audience and director. v Table of Contents Declaration …………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Recommended citation: Gifreu-Castells A. (2022). Interactive Documentary as a Narrative Form of Expression. Towards a Second Birth and Institutionalization. En Á. Rocha, D. Barredo, P.C. López-López e I. Puentes-Rivera (eds), Communication and Smart Technologies. ICOMTA 2021. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 259 (pp. 424-434). Springer, Singapore. ISBN: 978-981-16-5791-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5792-4\_42 ---- ABSTRACT: This work analyses the evolution of the documentary genre in the new media by characterizing four periods: appearance, emergence and experimentation, consolidation and diversification. First, we define the range of new media applied to the documentary genre based on theories that propose certain important milestones in the evolution of digital interactive documentary. Second, we present an original proposal for a chronological evolution divided into four stages or specific periods, in which we outline the main elements that constitute each stage and that have made the next stage possible. We believe that this format is experiencing a second birth and moving towards institutionalisation with the aim of differentiating itself from its audiovisual counterpart and becoming a narrative form of expression with its own identity.
Database Narratives, Possibility Spaces: Shape-shifting and interactivity in digital documentary
DigiMag Journal, Issue 73, November 2012, the digicult's project journal ISSN:2037-2256 pp.77-92
"Working digitally allows the ‘conventional’ documentary narrative form to shift from temporal to spatial, from horizontal to vertical, from sequential to concurrent. Digitality also provides interactivity. With interactivity comes a potentially spontaneous, engaged and active audience able to choose how they receive the content. Yet, documentaries need to convey critical pieces of their narrative for their story to be comprehensible to their audience. The critical question for documentary makers, then, is how to incorporate these new digital technologies, with their potential for innovative narrative structures, and still make a factual story understandable to their audience. Identifying the Internet as the primary site that has opened up space for digital storytelling Lundby (2008, 3) says" "(The Internet) offered new options to share the ‘classical’ small-scale stories created in story circles at various corners of the globe. The World Wide Web also gave rise to new forms, Blogging, in text only or with video, as well as the social networking sites on the web offer new opportunities to share short personal stories". Examples of these online story spaces will be explored in this paper, along with early televisional forms, computer specific forms, gallery specific forms and performative forms. This selection of work illustrates the experimentation with digital form that Manovich in The Language of New Media (2001) terms ‘database narrative’ and Hayles (2005, 1-35) calls ‘possibility space’. Both terms help to define the territory in which the form of documentary is shape-shifting as a result of the revolution in digital technology."