Interactive Media Project Major 2

This week students will show their websites to the class for discussion and critique. This is an important opportunity to present the progress you have made to date and discuss any issues regrading the development of your work you may be having.

Still from Timecode, 2000

In this week’s class we will look at  a range of time-based works that explore the possibilities of narrative form. This will include a few recent feature films that have explored the role that structure can play in relation to storytelling as well as installtion based artworks.

Expanded Modes of Cinematic Storytelling

Spatial montage and concurrent narratives:

Timecode, Mike Figgis, 2000

Life Captured, Mike Figgis for Sony Erickson, 2008

Memory loops and the recursive frame:

Memento, Christopher Nolan, 2001

Existenz, David Cronenberg, 1999

Forking paths and negotiable choices:

Run Lola Run, Tom Tywker, 1999

Installation based works

Lev Manovich and Andreas Kratsky’s Soft Cinema project which explores how the database and narrative can work together.

Beyond Heirarchy, Jill Scott, 1999

Screen grab from Mari Soppela's Family Files

This week we will start the class by reviewing the group video projects students undertook in week 8.  Following this we will look at the way video is used in contemporary web-based projects.

Some Links to recent online interactive projects that use video as a central component:

SF Dok 360 Langstrasse  Zurich
Create an interactive street view with jQuery

propaganda3
armani code
beat mashine
Jazzownia
Ring Roger
B-Reel
Carlos
The Johnny Cash Project
TED
The Wilderness Downtown
Shanghai Berlin
Mark Bradford
Magnum Pleasure Hunt

In the remaining time we will look at a couple of readings that make distinct observations regarding the way that particular visual forms can contain and shape our experience of time. The first reading titled, Nostalgia for a Digital Object: Regrets on the Quickening of Quicktime by Vivian Sobchack, examines early Quicktime movies in relation to the memory process and the work of artist Joseph Cornell. In this context we will look at the 1998 CD Rom art work Family Files by Mari Soppela which engages Quicktime movies and the poetics of 8mm home movies to create a touching meditation on memory. The second reading, Time frames by Scott McCloud, from his book Understanding Comics examines the various ways that comics embody time.

To download a presentation of the Sobchack article click here

To view a Flash Based presentation of the key concepts of Time frames by McCloud click here

Timetable for remaining classes

Week 11: Experimenting With Narrative

Week 12: Final Draft Presentations

Week 13: Final Draft Presentations

This week students are to undertake self-directed research and development  for their major projects.

This week we will look at the second half of the student seminars for their major project.  Following this we will discuss the outcomes of the class exercise from week 5 regarding interactive narrative.

This week students will deliver the initial presentation for their major projects.

As way of exploring ideas surrounding interactive narrative students will work in groups to examine an interactive project selected from the film sites listed in the hi-res archive:

http://hi-res.net/archives.html

The findings of your investigation will then be presented to the class group in a brief presentation and posted in the comments section of this post.

The detailed guidelines for this exercise can be downloaded as a PDF file from here.

During the second part of the class I will consult with students regarding the drafts for their major project presentations which are happening next week.

This week we will look at ideas surrounding interactive narrative as outlined in the reading Interactive Narrative & Linear Narrative by Timothy Garrand. To view the lecture presentation click here.

During class I will speak to everyone individually to check on the progress of their major project development.