About
Interactive Documentary
Ruth Sergel
Spring 2009
ruth.sergel@nyu.edu
Interactive Documentaries provide radical new possibilities for both community creation and active audience engagement. This class will explore the history of the documentary form through photography, oral history, film/video, performance and current hybrid projects. Interactive Documentary is a production class. Weekly experiments in creating documentaries will be supported by lectures, viewing of non-traditional works and learning the necessary audio/video tools. Assignments will focus on developing works whose creation mirrors the themes we are seeking to explore. In the past documentaries were created with an expectation of the audience operating as passive consumers. Interactive Documentaries enable us to dream new possibilities with audiences actively participating in the work.
Rules of the game
- You are expected to be in class & ready to work on time.
- No computers/phone/texting in class.
- Assignments are due by midnight Wednesday before class. Late assignments will not be accepted.
- Fail two assignments or the mid-term or final & you fail the class.
Assignments
The first half of the class will be devoted to weekly production assignments to build basic skills in different documentary forms. In addition there will be a small amount of reading/viewing required.
The midterm will be a 2 week group project. The midterm presentation is March 12.
The second half of the class will focus on experiments in choreographing the audiences experience of the work. The final project can be made by individuals or groups & will be presented to outside visitors in the final classes.
