Virtual reality is certainly the flavour of the month, year and by the looks of things, next year too. But with such a focus on the technology, is there a danger good storytelling can get lost? Much like the rest of the interactive documentary field, virtual reality is just another piece of technology and the medium must suit the message. This was …
Listen up: music, journalism and interactive storytelling
The ‘N’ Word, NSA Files: Decoded and Snowfall are all great examples of interactive journalism which have garnered a lot of attention over the last couple of years – but alongside this, there’s creative things happening within music journalism that should not be ignored. A couple of years ago I saw Pitchfork’s beautifully designed, in-depth interview with Bat for Lashes (aka Natasha …
IDFA DocLab: focus on digital reality
Last year, DocLab had “Interactive reality” in its title, this year it was “Immersive reality”. We shifted from interactive to immersive, what does this mean? Since our physical reality is already both immersive and interactive, I suppose the novelty here is to question how we want to understand the role of factual storytelling in the digital age tout court, especially …
A Short History of Interactivity: the revolution was coming for some time
Benjamin Hoguet (Racontr) published this originally on medium.com, it has been reposted with permission. This article belongs to a larger collection of resources about interactive and transmedia storytelling. Sign up here to receive one new article a week! Each day there are more of us interactive storytellers. Because we enjoy the freedom of creating with fewer boundaries, because we could not take …
News from the newsroom: an interview with Aron Pilhofer
More than half of The Guardian’s readership chooses the online experience (The Guardian, 2012). That makes more than 6 million monthly web readers, against less than 5 million print readers. What would you do if you had to secure a profitable future to such newspaper? I suppose you would start to look at the potential of media rich content with …
Learning, sharing and experiencing the “how” of Transmedia Storytelling
By Valentina Ciarapica and Suha Hazboun. This post originally appeared on Transmedia Storytelling Berlin and has been republished with permission. During October, the Conducttr conference took place in London attracting creators, technologists, academics, producers, and all kinds of professionals involved in designing and producing transmedia storytelling projects. “Interaction” is the keyword that better defines this one-day experience: the program consisted in a series of talks given by …
Strategies of interaction, questions of meaning: an audience study of the NFBs Bear 71
Kate Nash, Leeds University, is an academic working within the field of interactive documentary. Her research so far has delved deeply into the world of audience studies, looking at what drives interaction, how it can be assessed and what measure of impact can be derived. Following her keynote at i-Docs in March (the full paper is available here) – she has …
Assent: the power of virtual reality storytelling
Last Friday we had the pleasure of hosting Oscar Raby in the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol. As well as giving people the opportunity to watch his work Assent, on the Oculus Rift, he also gave a lunch time talk, outlining his journey towards producing a virtual reality documentary. In his talk, Oscar provided the context needed to understand what pushed him …
The Whiteness Project: confronting race through interactive documentary
It’s not often I will sit and watch everything within an interactive documentary project. I often skip sections, navigate past video or glance over text – this isn’t a criticism of the documentaries necessarily, it’s more the nature of the internet – sustaining attention for a long period of time on one site is not the norm. However, when I …
WiREDMŌV: is this the future of interactive documentary?
Although interactive documentaries are slowly gaining more recognition, their reach is often limited to academic circles, interactive documentary makers, or small communities already engaged with the field. Michael Blackledge is looking to change that with his new project WiREDMŌV; a platform that is intended to educate the public about interactive documentary and assist interactive documentary makers with distribution. Sandra Gaudenzi spoke …
What matters to you? A collective storytelling project about the emotional value of things
by Valentina Ciarapica and Alessia Rotondo What would we like to share with the people of the future about our personal lives? This question lies at the heart of a mysterious video which shows up online out of nowhere. Things That Matter has been selected by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt of Berlin in the framework of the Anthropocene …
Ingrid Kopp: A Field Guide to Interactive Storytelling
During the summer Ingrid Kopp, Director of Digital Initiatives at the Tribeca Film Institute, came to the Watershed, Bristol to give a talk on interactive storytelling. For members of the i-Docs community who weren’t able to attend, we’re pleased to be able to offer the full transcript, full of brilliant examples and analysis of these new forms of storytelling. Enjoy. Mandy Rose: …
i-Docs presents: multimedia designer and visual artist Oscar Raby
24th October 2014 1PM, Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol We’re pleased to announce that multimedia artist and interactive storyteller Oscar Raby is coming to Bristol to deliver a lunch time talk at the Pervasive Media Studio. Creator of the innovative and moving Assent project, Oscar is using virtual reality to tell the story of his father’s experiences in Chile during the …
Interactive documentary: articles, events & votes
There seems to be a lot happening in the world of interactive documentary this week! Incase you had missed our daily updates, In Media Res are currently curating a week of articles concentrated around the topic of interactive documentary. There have already been three pieces published, an opening provocation asking ‘Why interactive?‘; an examination of civic engagement and i-docs, focusing on …
Disaster Resilience Journal: interactive documentary on how we survive against natural disasters
Exciting news this week with the announcement of the Disaster Resilience Journal; an interactive documentary that examines how individuals, communities and countries around the world are building resilience in a landscape of climate change, and social, economic and cultural shifts. Funded by the European Commission’s Department for Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO), the project highlights its work with the International Federation …