Interactive CinemaWhat do you mean Interactive?What do you mean Cinema?

What is interactivity in this context ?

Complicated question with multiple answers:

1 Viewer can make narrative choices2 Often means “multimedia”3 More Information available outside image4 New narrative logics5 Deconstruction of cinema6 Gaming coming close to cinema7 New relationship between audience and producer8 New distribution channels – we are all producers

All the computers we are familiar with have GUI’s

Graphical User Interfaces

We Make Memories –Abbe Don 89-95

CD Rom

As my great-grandmother told stories, she weaved in and out of the past and present, the old country and America, English and Yiddish, business and family, changing voice from first person to direct address to third person. Each detail was part of the narrative continuum and potentially linked to several other stories or digressions, some of them new, some of which I had heard before. However, both content and meaning were affected by the context; the presence of other visitors, whether we were baking together, looking at photos in her scrapbook, or if I interrupted the flow of the story to ask for more details.

I have used my great-grandmother's storytelling style as a model of interactivity to reveal how our family history has been constructed and passed down matrilinearly from my great-grandmother, to my grandmother, to my mother, to me. A pictorial timeline of family photographs that date from 1890 to the present enables viewers to move through time on the Macintosh screen. Viewers can click on each photograph to hear a short description or story. In addition, by clicking on one of the head shots, viewers hear video stories from my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and me which juxtaposed, serve as a feminist and cultural critique of issues. These issues include the role of women in Jewish families, the impact of assimilation on cultural and religious practice, and the changing status of women's education.

We Make Memories is shown often in art galleries and museums as an interactive video installation. I recreate my great-grandmother's sitting room by placing framed, formal black and white portraits on the wall. The computer monitor and mouse rest atop an old wooden writing desk. The desk is covered with family snapshots tucked neatly under a piece of glass. The intimate family setting helps reinforce the warmth and intimacy of the stories.

Interactive Storytelling

1 Viewer can make narrative choices2 Often Implies “multimedia”3 More Information available outside image

Non-linear movie structure - Hypertext movie

Myst

Peeping Tom – Julie Myers – ‘96

http://www.julie9.org/peepingtom/

Peeping Tom is based on a floor plan of my own home and filled with the voices and conversations of my friends and family. The site is cluttered with letters, bills, lists, diary extracts, phone messages, and domestic objects. The visitor navigates around by rummaging through the drawers, deciding what to wear, raiding the fridge and listening to juicy bits of gossip.

Based on storytelling traditions, the site explores how we reveal ourselves, our histories and our desires via the internet, as both the observer and the observed.

" The exciting aspect of the internet for me is the opportunity for artist/audience exchange. Peeping Tom is about two years old now and I still get up every Sunday morning , make a cup of coffee and sit at my computer to read the new stories, pant problems and cocktail recipes from that week. It can make me laugh out loud for hours, or sometimes cry - its always inspiring and often moving to think of the diversity and generosity of the unknown audience. “

- Julie Myers

Whats new?

New relationship between audience and producer

People produce content for the website which fosters involvement and intimacy.

Telematic Dreaming -Paul Sermon ‘92

Telematic Dreaming

This work consisting of two double beds in different locations. One bed is within a blue-screen environment; the other, in a darkened space. Both beds have cameras above them and are surrounded by monitors; each bed has one person lying in it. The darkened bed has a digital projector above it that projects onto it a live video image of the person on the blue-screen bed. Thus, the camera above the darkened bed captures the image of both people on one bed, sending the image to the monitors in the blue-screen room. A further surreal twist is added by the addition of pre-recorded video mixed into the live projections, for example, when the bed surface is blended with an image of water in a swimming pool.

Telematic Dreaming, with its connotations of intimacy and dream states, extends telepresence beyond the screen to spatialize the site of interaction and transform it into a live theatrical event in which visitors are key performers. The work explores presence, absence and the psychology of human interaction within technologically mediated communications.

New narrative logics - Theatre

New relationship between audience and producer- We are physically in the piece

Paint-Cam - Daniel Rozin - 2003

http://www.smoothware.com/danny/newpaintcam.html

Paint-Cam - Daniel Rozin - 2003

Custom software running on a computer connected to the internet. Size - variable. Paint-Cam is similar in concept to Easel. The visitors are invited to create their own collage using various video sources. This time the video sources are not local but rather 50 web cameras from around the world. The web cameras are located in famous locations such as Eiffel Tower and Times Square, and also in private settings such as a barber-shop in Japan.

New narrative logics – maybe this is not cinema anymore but something else

New relationship between audience and producer. We are in control

How I Learned (1-4) - McCoy – 2002

How I Learned (1-4) - McCoy – 2002

How I Learned (1-4) - McCoy – 2002

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy have exhaustively catalogued all the individual shots from all of the episodes of the 1970s television show Kung Fu and recompiled the shots according to genres (see the artist's statement for a complete listing). The clips are exhibited on over 100 CDs which are colour-coded and from which the viewer can choose to watch lessons about “Nature and Society”, “Religion”, “Capitalism” and “Filmmaking”. Within these groupings, one can select discs with titles such as “How I learned to complain about my job” and “How to walk ceremoniously” among dozens of other categories.

HOW TO FEEL ANGUISHHOW TO SPEAK IN APHORISMSHOW TO APPRECIATE PEACEFUL MUSICHOW TO BE DISSAPPOINTEDHOW TO BE EVILHOW TO BE OBSERVANTHOW TO BOWHOW TO LIVE WITH CANDLESHOW TO CELEBRATEHOW TO COMFORTHOW TO COMMUNICATE INFORMATIONHOW TO CONCENTRATEHOW TO CORRECT A MISTAKEHOW TO DIEHOW TO DISCIPLINE THE BODYHOW TO DISCIPLINE THE MIND

HOW TO ENROLL IN SCHOOLHOW TO EXPERIENCE SOLITUDEHOW TO EXPRESS GOOD INTENTIONSHOW TO PERFORM FEATS OF STRENGTHHOW TO FEEL PAIN HOW TO FIGHT TRAININGHOW TO FIND THE PATH OF UNDERSTANDINGHOW TO GIVE WISE ADVICEHOW TO GREET IMPORTANT PEOPLEHOW TO GROOMING PRACTICESHOW TO INSPIREHOW TO LISTENHOW TO MAINTAIN COMPOSUREHOW TO MAKE A CHOICEHOW TO USE MEDICINAL PLANTSHOW TO MEDITATE

HOW TO MOVE GRACEFULLYHOW TO RECOUNT MYTHOLOGYHOW TO PERFORM A RITUALHOW TO PLAN A STRATEGYHOW TO PRACTICE BALANCEHOW TO PRAYHOW TO HAVE QUICK REACTIONSHOW TO REBEL AGAINST EVILHOW TO RECEIVE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTIONHOW TO REMAIN SILENTHOW TO REMAIN STILLHOW TO REMEMBER THE PASTHOW TO RESTHOW TO SHARPEN THE SENSESHOW TO SHOW RESPECT HOW TO SMILE

HOW TO SPEAK CALMLYHOW TO BE A SPIRITUAL GUIDEHOW TO SURRENDERHOW TO DRINK TEAHOW TO TEACH A LESSONHOW TO USE A TEMPLEHOW TO TURN THE OTHER CHEEKHOW TO USE SYMBOLSHOW TO WAITHOW TO WALK CEREMONIALLYHOW TO WALK PURPOSEFULLYHOW TO WALK SLOWLYHOW TO WATCHHOW TO WEAR ROBESHOW TO WITHSTAND THE ELEMENTSHOW TO WORK UNTIL EXHAUSTION

Viewer can make narrative choicesMore Information available outside imageNew relationship between audience and producer

Deconstruction of cinemaNew narrative logics

Database Cinema

Grafik Dynamo - Armstrong & Tippett 2005

http://turbulence.org/Works/dynamo/index.html

Grafik Dynamo is a net art work by Kate Armstrong & Michael Tippett that loads live images from blogs and news sources on the web into a live action comic strip. The work is currently using a feed from LiveJournal. The images are accompanied by narrative fragments that are dynamically loaded into speech and thought bubbles and randomly displayed. Animating the comic strip using dynamic web content opens up the genre in a new way: Together, the images and narrative serve to create a strange, dislocated notion of sense and expectation in the reader, as they are sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes perfectly in sync, and always moving and changing. The work takes an experimental approach to open ended narrative, positing a new hybrid between the flow of data animating the work and the formal parameter that comprises its structure.

New narrative logics

Database Cinema

Myst

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/

Photo Sharing service

Groups

Flickr - Camera Toss

http://www.flickr.com/groups/cameratoss/

http://cameratoss.blogspot.com/

This is a "technique" group, and the technique here is regarded by some as insanity. For we are the reckless folks on flickr that enjoy the abstract, chance, generative, physical photography that results from throwing our cameras into the air (most often at night in front of varied light sources).

It is about trading risk for reward in the pursuit of art. It is not about being a photographer, it is about enabling the photography that happens naturally when you let go of the process, give up control, and add a hell of a lot more variables. It is about physics, gravity, angular momentum, acceleration, direction, chaos, and timing... most of which you have tenuous control of at best!

Infinite Flickr

http://flickr.com/groups/infinite/

A picture of someone using flickr to see a picture of someone else using flickr to see a picture of someone else using flickr to see a picture of someone else using flick to see a ...... ad infinitum.

Flickr = Social software

DVblog.org

DVblog.org is a Vlog and platform for artists and scholars for presenting or publishing stand-alone and other quicktime works.

The site is also a resource and archive for digital video art, net cinema and experimental moving image projects.

New Global Vision

http://www.ngvision.org/

Close your eyes and imagine being a proud internet user with a DSL connection. Now imagine being a videomaker: you enjoy your handy consumer camera and edit short videos from your laptop. Now imagine being someone who cares about having interesting films and videos to watch: wouldn't it be nice to be part of a network that gives you the chance to upload your video productions, share your visions and download video and films that you can't see anywhere else?

New relationship between audience and producer

New distribution channels – we are all producers

What is Interactive Cinema?

1 Viewer can make narrative choices2 Often means “multimedia”3 More Information available outside image4 New narrative logics5 Deconstruction of cinema6 Gaming coming close to cinema7 New relationship between audience and producer8 New distribution channels – we are all producers

Qualities of New Media - (Manovich)

Numerical Representation and Manipulation- analogue audio and vision broken into discrete units (digitisation)

Modularity- individual media units that can be accessed independently i.e. pixels or ‘object orientated programming’

Automation- media becomes programmable for complex repetitive tasks

Variability- infinitely reconfigurable - liquid quality of new media

Cultural Transcoding- exchange of concepts between between culture and computing