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Welcome to the MIT Open Documentary Lab

The OpenDocLab brings technologists, storytellers, and scholars together to advance the new arts of documentary.
Virtually There: Documentary Meets Virtual Reality

Virtually There: Documentary Meets Virtual Reality

Our recent conference brought together scholars, technologists, and artists from around the globe to discuss the language, implications, and future of virtual reality and documentary. Watch the full livestream here. VR is capturing the imagination...
COME/IN/DOC - Documentary series launch on Open Doclab's website!

COME/IN/DOC – Documentary series launch on Open Doclab’s website!

  COME/IN/DOC – Collaborative Meta Interactive Documentary – is a transmedia meta-documentary that reflects on the interactive documentary. It consists of 3 interconnected parts: a documentary series, a multimedia platform and exhibitions. This is...
Charting Documentary’s Futures | An Interview with William Uricchio [Part Four]

Charting Documentary’s Futures | An Interview with William Uricchio [Part Four]

Originally published in Confessions of an Aca-Fan, the original Weblog of Henry Jenkins. Charting Documentary’s Futures: An Interview with William Uricchio [Part Four] The report’s focus on immersion as a dimension of news and...
Mapping the Intersection of Two Cultures: Interactive Documentary and Digital Journalism

Mapping the Intersection of Two Cultures: Interactive Documentary and Digital Journalism

Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The MIT Open Documentary Lab conducted an eight-month research project mapping and assessing the dynamics of an ongoing convergence between interactive and participatory documentary...
"Walden, a game," presented by Tracy Fullerton [Feb. 9th at the Open Doc Lab]

“Walden, a game,” presented by Tracy Fullerton [Feb. 9th at the Open Doc Lab]

“Walden, a game,” presented by the game’s designer Tracy Fullerton, Director of the USC Game Innovation Lab. Walden, a game, is an experiment in play about an experiment in living, simulating Thoreau’s experience living a...
Sandra Rodriguez | Rewriting Publics

Sandra Rodriguez | Rewriting Publics

_ReWriting publics, by MIT OpenDocLab Fellow Sandra Rodriguez, is a research-creation project that aims to rethink social change and public engagement through transmedia platforms. Interactive, participatory installations and webdocs are becoming part of our...
Latest entries
COME/IN/DOC | Interactivity Definition [Part 3]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactivity Definition [Part 3]

SEASON 2 – EPISODE 1 – PART 3: ‘INTERACTIVITY DEFINITION’ Here you can access the third part of the first episode (season 2):   SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Susanna Lotz (id w): There are so many ways of interacting…, interaction is really a key word. Samuel Bollendorf (Le Grand Incendie): For me it is the bridge between the image and the sound, and in the middle the imagination...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactivity Definition [Part 2]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactivity Definition [Part 2]

SEASON 2 – EPISODE 1 – PART 2: ‘INTERACTIVITY DEFINITION’ Here you can access the second part of the first episode:   SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Yasmin Elayat (18 Days in Egypt): You are reaching out or building instead of just broadcasting or showcasing something. You’re actually making the public become immersed, influencing them, how they interact with the world itself. ‘I’m sitting at the table with you...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactivity Definition [Part 1]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactivity Definition [Part 1]

SEASON 2 – EPISODE 1 – PART 1: ‘INTERACTIVITY DEFINITION’ Here you can access the first part of the first episode:   SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) David Dufresne (Film Director): Interactivity is a very old concept. Interactivity means interface. It could be considered as a ‘machine procedural storytelling system’. Matt Soar (Concordia University): The concept is close to human experience but I cannot see the meaning today and...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary - Other factors [Part 4]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary – Other factors [Part 4]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 5 – PART 4: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY – OTHER FACTORS INVOLVED’ Here you can access the fourth part of the fifth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Judith Aston (i-docs): Digital media is a game change offering new ways to communicate. As I have an anthropological background, to me another factor is the advances in cognitive science (studies in perception and what reality is) that ensure...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary - Other factors [Part 3]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary – Other factors [Part 3]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 5 – PART 3: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY – OTHER FACTORS INVOLVED’ Here you can access the third part of the fifth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Paul Levinson (Fordham University): The merge of documentary and the interactive medium is exactly what we have here, the documentary and the digital revolution merging together. Bjarke Myrthu (Blind Spot): In the last decades we have experienced a few...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary - Other factors [Part 2]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary – Other factors [Part 2]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 5 – PART 2: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY – OTHER FACTORS INVOLVED’ Here you can access the second part of the fifth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) PaulinaTervo (writethisdown): For me we can consider three basic factors: the fact that users can stream video online, the use of social networks and how people consume media. Christopher Allen (UnionDocs): In the past, with linear media, there has...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary - Other factors [Part 1]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary – Other factors [Part 1]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 5 – PART 1: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY – OTHER FACTORS INVOLVED’ Here you can access the first part of the fifth episode:   SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Andre Almeida (Film Director): The genre derives from the merge between digital media and documentary. It’s like when you make a cake: you use the same ingredients for the recipe but the result is different for each cake,...
Virtually There: Documentary Meets Virtual Reality

Virtually There: Documentary Meets Virtual Reality

Our recent conference brought together scholars, technologists, and artists from around the globe to discuss the language, implications, and future of virtual reality and documentary. Watch the full livestream here. VR is capturing the imagination of documentary storytellers, journalists, artists, technologists and investors all over the world. An industry is emerging. Yet for all of its enthusiasts, VR has its skeptics. For all it is talked about, VR can be deeply...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 4]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 4]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 4 – PART 4: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY FEATURES’ Here you can access the fourth part of the fourth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Cindy Poremba (Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning): Interactive documentary does have this explicit engagement on the part of the audience so they can do different things. Hugues Sweeney (National Film Board of Canada): The first feature is that the...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 3]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 3]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 4 – PART 3: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY FEATURES’ Here you can access the third part of the fourth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Yasmin Elayat (18 Days in Egypt): Audience engagement is number one for me as a feature; number two I would say would be embracing technology to shape the form of the story; number three would be being open to nonlinear environments. Nonny...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 2]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 2]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 4 – PART 2: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY FEATURES’ Here you can access the second part of the fourth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Andre Almeida (Film Director): The main difference is that linear documentary is consumed passively and the interactive documentary has more interaction from the audience, although there are different levels of interaction. Christopher Allen (UnionDocs): a linear documentary produces meaning just through the positioning...
COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 1]

COME/IN/DOC | Interactive Documentary Features [Part 1]

SEASON 1 – EPISODE 4 – PART 1: ‘INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY FEATURES’ Here you can access the first part of the fourth episode: SELECTION OF KEY IDEAS (DIRECTOR’S CONTRIBUTION) Jonathan Harris (Number 27): One key difference is that interactive documentaries try to make the experience with the viewer somehow as an active participant in the story, as in life, the choices we make end up affecting the outcome of our living experience. Mandy...