Over the past year I've become intrigued by this idea that I might be able to use my knowledge of interactive technologies to extend the idea of a documentary out beyond the flat screen in a way that doesnt negate the truth of a non-fiction film.
The promise of interactive technologies is that they can make they can connect the participant to content in unique ways. I realize tinkering with this participant-content connection is a slippery slope - especially when it comes to non-fiction.
I feel strongly, though - if I'm careful - I can successfully find unexplored connections between participant and content.
I started exploring this concept while taking a year away from the studio and examining my previous work. Much of this work used interactive technologies to trick the viewer into doing something they wouldn't normally do. Such stunts included coaxing users into acts of racism, vigilantism, animal abuse, etc., then exposing the participant's behavior to the public. The goal was to force consideration of the consequences of their actions. Viewers, while often alarmed (even angered), reacted positively.
I knew I was getting a reaction, amusement and embarrassment for sure, but I wasn't sure I was making a true connection.
In effort to increase the viewer's understanding of my work, I have begun incorporating video, still photography, and audio field recordings of the research that inspires the work into the installations themselves. While it might be a stretch to call those elements documentary, it is meant to serve the same purpose - if not in style, then in spirit.
This new step for me has hugely affected how I comprehend my own work. It sounds obvious to say that now, but at the time I hadn't considered how important (or difficult) it would be to gain a deeper first-hand understanding of the broad themes that weave through my work and present them.
I hope you find the work as enjoying to interact with as I do to make.
- Rob