Moving through the Documentary. Bodily and Virtual Movement in Relation to Interactive Documentaries

Abstract
In web-based interactive documentaries, movement or bodily interaction is typically defined by a certain set of limited actions related to direct interaction with the computer. This paper asks what happens if the documentary leaves this setting to propose dispositifs calling for more interactive “exercise.” Recent years have seen discussion and experimentation on performativity and the role of bodily presence in interactive documentaries from various perspectives (e.g. Aston 2017, Nelson 2022).
This paper aims to explore a previously understudied aspect, namely the implications of installation settings where interaction involves movement to connect and activate different parts of the documentary. To achieve this goal, the analysis will examine examples proposing various instances of interactive movement that literally lead through the documentary. These examples include theatrical settings (e.g. Rimini Protokoll or Volumenexpress Kompanie), exhibition dispositifs (e.g. Eine Einstellung zur Arbeit (2015) by Farocki/Ehmann), and virtual experiences such as the Subterranean Imprint Archive (2021) by Lo-Def Film Factory. The analysis suggests exploring these examples as experimental settings from an interactive documentary perspective. In this sense, it will examine in what ways these settings experiment with and affect the defining parameters of interactive documentary. How does the interaction change in these settings? How are features such as collaboration and polyvocality orchestrated? And how is montage renegotiated when (bodily) movements define the selection and combination of images and sounds?

References
Aston, Judith (2017). “Interactive documentary and live performance: from embodied to emplaced
interaction.” Aston, Judith; Gaudenzi, Sandra; Rose, Mandy (eds.). i-docs. The Evolving Practices of
Interactive Documentary. London and New York: Wallflower Press, 222–236.
Nelson, Kim (2022). “The historian is present. Live interactive documentary as collaborative history.”
Rethinking History. The Journal of Theory and Practice, 26:3, 289–318. DOI:
10.1080/13642529.2022.2103618

Bio
Cornelia Lund, Dr. phil., Research Fellow at University of the Arts Bremen and curator. 2019/18 co-curator for Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion x Hair x Design (Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin); 2012 to 2018, Senior Research Fellow in the project “The History of German Documentary Cinema 1945–2005” at Universität Hamburg. Since 2004, co-director of fluctuating images (Berlin), an independent platform for media art and design. Fields of research: documentary film and practices, audiovisual artistic practices, design theory, de- and postcolonial theories.
More info: https://www.fluctuating-images.de/cornelia-lund-en/

More information: https://blog.hslu.ch/interdocs/interactive-documentary-laboratory-experiment/