Starting from researched content ideas, participants developed a media format that involved one or more parallel new media channels. Included was the way in which different groups of users interact with the project at the intended moments of contact. For every participant, the workshop resulted in a working prototype.
Focus
In this workshop participants did a research on which new media tools worked best for their content ideas and thought out how best to incorporate them. But we also looked at the new media as source material for documentarists. Online is a world of events, developments and data that can reveal stories that cannot primarily be captured with the camera. There was a special focus in the workshop on using and visualizing new kinds of online data as a part of documentary practice.
How ?
The workshop kicked off with a keynote lecture by Cassian Harrison, director of several of the episodes of Britain from Above. Every following morning workshop had lessons and lectures on the roles of GPS, the roles of mash-ups and data visualization in the documentary practice, by guests that contribute to the IDFA festival as well as to the workshop. Every afternoon was dedicated to conceptualizing and producing a project prototype. All participants were assisted conceptually, technically and practically by lecturers, trainers, and assistants in realizing their workshop project. The workshop was completed with a final presentation in which some of the results were presented and discussed in the context of the IDFA festival.
This workshop was part of IDFA's DOCLAB, that explored the border areas of new media and the documentary practice. DOCLAB's theme of 2008 was the creative treatment of actuality using statistical data and new technological means.
Report by Juliane Henrich
The first workshop day started off with a keynote-lecture by Cassian Harrison about his work with the BBC-series "Britain from Above". The 5-part TV-series used GPS-data to visualize daily life in Britain. Harrison tracked just about anything from garbage trucks to school children and worked this data into beautiful footage shot from the aeroperspective. Read the rest of the report here.