iDocs – Symposium on Interactive Documentary

Call for Papers and Presentations

In an era of pervasive computing, social media and a networked ‘information society’, digital documentary is embracing new forms. Web-docs, docu-games, photo-reportages, trans-media projects and locative narratives are developing new languages of factual communication that challenge the established linear narrative of documentary.

i-Docs is the first lab/symposium to be dedicated to the rapidly evolving field of interactive documentary. The symposium will be a day-long event to showcase new projects and to discuss the artistic, economic and political implications of new forms of factual representation.

i-Docs is convened by Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi and Jonathan Dovey on behalf of the Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol. The event will be held at the Watershed Media Centre in central Bristol on Friday, 25th of March 2011.

Participants are invited to present their current projects and research. There will also be panel discussion, with a view to promoting debate between media practitioners, commissioning editors, artists and academics.

Proposals for both paper and project presentations should be sent to:

[email protected] by Monday, 15th of November 2010.

The proposal should clearly outline your intentions in no more than 300 words. Links to further visual materials can be provided, if appropriate.

Confirmed keynote presentations from: Upian (Prison Valley, Gaza/Sderot, Havana/Miami), Blast Theory (Rider Spoke, Desert Rain, A Machine To See With), Nick Cohen – BBC Multiplatform Commissioning Editor.

Suggested topics / themes:

• what is an interactive documentary?: possible classification methodologies for a field in constant development
• collaborative media and documentary making: objectivity, activism and shared authorship through the screens of mobile phones and web2.0
• user-generated content in documentary practice: the new role of the producer and possible models of collaboration
• crowd sourcing when documenting reality: possible ethical and political consequences
• docu-games and mixed-reality games: can games document the real?
• database documentaries: navigational strategies and new possibilities for representing multiple points of view
• the fine line between new media factual art, collaborative journalism and interactive          documentary
• what does the user think?: how do we user test, or evaluate user experience, of an i-doc?
• possible financial models for i-docs: who are the financial players and what do they want?
• case study presentation and/or analysis of specific i-doc projects

Selected papers will be published in the Journal of Media Practice. Several other publication possibilities are being considered.

The cost of attending this exciting event – including lunch – is £50. Some reductions are available for postgraduate researchers on a limited basis.

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