Archive for publications, July 2021

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[Commlist] New book: Interactive Documentary: Theory and Debate

Thu Jul 15 21:55:47 GMT 2021






New book -  Interactive Documentary: Theory and Debate

Exploring the dizzying collection of work at the intersection of documentary and digital media practice this new book explores key debates in the growing field of interactive documentary. The book is grounded in the analysis of multiple examples of recent (and not so recent) digital documentary work from documentary games to virtual reality, database, data visualisations and simulations. It is also grounded in a consideration of key debates: what are the implications of a turn toward non-narrative form for documentary? How helpful is empathy as a way of conceptualising the positioning of audiences in virtual reality experiences? and what does it mean to think about simulating the real? The book explores polyvocality, participation, and political voice as well as the sociality and performativity of digital documentary practice focusing inquiry on how our engagement with realities might be shifting (or not).

Chapter one considers the documentary database and nonlinearity and polyvocality which have been persistent, albeit marginal, desires in documentary history. Digital media, and particularly contemporary database documentary practice take these desires as a starting point for practice. Going beyond a simple celebration of the nonlinear, the chapter considers how contemporary database forms represent realities. Chapter two considers participation in interactive documentary and the ways in which knowledge claims are grounded in the social relationships interactive documentaries foster. The chapter aims to build a framework for thinking about participation as voice in documentary. Building on this, the third chapter considers participation through documentary, examining a number of projects to consider the different ways in which interactive documentary projects connect with political processes. From micro-documentary to more mainstream projects, the connection between documentary media and the spaces of politics is explored. Chapter four focuses on documentary games and the ways in which they might engage realities - playfully, per formatively and partially. Making connections with documentary practice - subjunctive documentary, re-enactment and staging - the chapter develops simulation as a term with currency for digital documentary scholarship. Building on this, chapter five considers virtual reality documentary as a form of first person media. In place of sweeping claims about the effects of VR technologies, the chapter explores the different ways in which viewers are positioned within experiences. Finally, the book considers data and documentary practice. Making connections with documentary history - both social science and the surrealism of Mass Observation - the chapter considers some of the different roles that data has come to play in interactive documentaries.

Kate Nash is Associate Professor in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds and Co-Editor of Studies in Documentary Film

More info here https://www.routledge.com/Interactive-Documentary-Theory-and-Debate/Nash/p/book/9781138631472 <https://www.routledge.com/Interactive-Documentary-Theory-and-Debate/Nash/p/book/9781138631472>

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