Transforming the Documentary

The traditional documentary offers the viewer an insight into a subject as he is led by the hand by the director. His research, filming and editing result in a meticulously balanced and all-round package of information. But just as the feature is influenced by the new media, the documentary is also susceptible to change. Reality can be captured in so many ways and how can a story about reality ever be finished? Transforming the Documentary looks at the potential of new documentary forms. This panel is a co-operative venture with Wiretap, a series of programmes by V2 about developments in digital media. Joachim Sauter & Dirk Lüsebrink Sauter and Lüsebrink of the German computer art collective ART + COM present The Invisible Shape of Things Past, an Internet database that is a virtual version of Berlin. Visitors can roam the city, but also provide a contribution by offering historical or real films that were taken at a specific spot in the city. In this way the web site offers a cinematographic, geographical and historic cross-section of Berlin. (http://www.artcom.de/projects/invisible_shape/welcome.en) Douglas Gayeton Multi-media artist and film-maker Douglas Gayeton - director and designer of e.g. Johnny Mnemonic (the interactive version) and Vanishing Point - gives a presentation of one of his latest projects: Waking Hours. This interactive online experience follows the linked lives of 24 teenagers through a period of 24 hours. The young people make their own web pages containing diary fragments, photos, animation, video and sound. Sawad Brooks Artist and software designer Sawad Brooks developed with Beth Stryker the web site/installation DissemiNETion, that will be on show during the festival in the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum. On this web site, visitors can leave their own personal stories, that together reflect a part of history. In this way Brooks and Stryker want to collect stories that would otherwise never live on, because they would fade from memory. (http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/wexner/thefold/disseminet)