Participation in interactive documentary is complex – ranging from 'clicking on the world' to commenting on content, crowd-sourcing projects or contributing material. Foremost, however, participation is a concept that cannot be thought of without bearing in mind its social and political dimension. In a conversation with Kate Nash, we unpack participation as a concept with both a long history in documentary theory and loaded with great expectations in emerging documentary cultures; we fathom the significance of interactive documentary in the achievement of citizenship, convening publics and community building; we explore the delicate balance between process and product in participatory media making; we discuss the sensitive issue of power relations; and – revisiting paradigmatic i-docs – we relate theories to actual practices, to finally fathom the potential of i-docs beyond interactivity as a highly fragile, volatile but thus the more so experimental and inspirational phenomenon of our current media culture.
Contact: podcast@avinus.de
Project website: DiD – Das Dokumentarische im Digitalen: did.avinus.org/
**Intro/ Outro **
Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Intro spoken by: Sarah Topfstädt
Host and Editor: PD Dr. Anna Wiehl
Logo: Anika Ch. R. Nöhre
License CC BY-NC-ND
Funded by the BMBF
Having come from a background in media production, specialising in documentary, Kate Nash's research is focused on the production, circulation and impacts of long-form factual media. Kate is a leading scholar in the field of interactive documentary, having contributed to understanding the ways in which digital media technologies and cultures are shaping (and are shaped by) documentary practices. As a Co-Editor of the documentary studies journal Studies in Documentary Film and author of seminal publications on interactive documentary, Kate brings together film and media studies, philosophy and political sciences. Currently, Kate is developing research in the area of health and environmental documentary, focusing particularly on engagement and impact.
Literature / Publications by Kate Nash:
Nash, Kate (2022). Interactive Documentary. Theory and Debate. Routledge.
Nash, Kate, and John Corner. "Strategic Impact Documentary: Contexts of Production and Social Intervention." European Journal of Communication, vol. 31, no. 3, 2016, pp. 227–42. doi:10.1177/0267323116635831.
Nash, Kate, et al., editors (2014). New Documentary Ecologies: Emerging Platforms, Practices and Discourses. Palgrave Macmillan.
**Projects mentioned in this episode **
Corona Haikus facebook group and Corona Haikus curated website (international, 2020-, A: Sandra Gaudenzi, Sandra Tabares-Duque)
Goa Hippy Tribe (A 2011, A: Devas, Darius et al.) Trailer on YouTube More information: MIT Open Documentary Lab docubase – Goa Hippy Tribe
18 Days in Egypt (USA 2011, A: Jigar Mehta, Yasmin Elayat et al.) Trailer on vimeo More information: MIT Open Documentary Lab docubase – 18 Days in Egypt
Fort McMoney (UK, D, F 2013, A: David Dufresne) Trailer on YouTube More information: MIT Open Documentary Lab docubase – Fort McMoney
Red Tales (UK 2015, A: David Green, Simon Bowen et al. ) More information on Creative Exchange.org – Red Tales and Red Tales Facebook group
The Quipu Project (UK, S, QUE 2015, A: Maria Court, Rosemarie Lerner) Trailer on vimeo More information: MIT Open Documentary Lab docubase – Quipu Project