research

I found a perfect example of an interactive website and a non-linear narrative, where people can share their stories.
Also a example of what Lev Manovich explains in his essay 'Import/Export' about the great advantages that the new media
provides today.

The Block: Stories From a Meeting Place is a virtual time capsule that explores the history and significance of Redfern’s Indigenous-owned housing precinct, ‘the Block’.
The production began in late 2010, not long after the Block’s 41 remaining residents received notice to vacate their homes – ending an era of struggle, community and self-determination that had lasted nearly 40 years.
Located on land traditionally inhabited by the Gadigal people, the Block was established in 1973. It soon became known as a meeting place amongst the Indigenous community; a place where people converge to share their stories and to release their pain. For the Stolen Generations in particular, it is a place to reconnect with long lost family members.
For decades, the Block has been plagued by stories of drugs, crime and tragedy, but there have been other, richer stories as well. The goal of this production was to capture the heart and spirit of a place that cannot be summed up by one story or one narrative, but many.
The interviews were mostly shot on location on the Block using Canon 5D cameras and the footage was edited with Final Cut Pro. The site was designed in Photoshop and Illustrator, and built in Flash.
Other features of the project include a timeline of events using rare material from the SBS archives, an ambient soundscape crafted by Xavier Fijac and innovative panoramic photography by Peter Murphy. The 15 interviews have been sub-titled in Chinese, Arabic, French and English. Audiences can also listen to the interviews in Dharug, the language group from which Gadigal derives.
The documentary is non-linear in its narrative structure, and ambient in its visual and audio approach. We invite you to take a virtual tour around the precinct to truly explore the diversity of the Block and its community.

The Block: Stories of a Meeting Place

To explore the site use the link below.

Interactive Water Light Graffiti

A installation wall created by Antonin Fourneau in Digitalarti ArtLab. The "Water Light Graffiti" is a surface made of thousands of LED illuminated by the contact of water. You can use a paintbrush, a water atomizer, your fingers or anything damp to sketch a brightness message or just to draw. Water Light Graffiti is a wall for ephemeral messages in the urban space without deterioration. A wall to communicate and share magically in the city.

To find more info here:

San Diego, Jan. 9, 2009 -- High-performance computing and the humanities are connecting at the University of California, San Diego - with a little matchmaking help from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The two agencies have awarded 330,000 hours of time on DOE supercomputers to UC San Diegos Software Studies Initiative (softwarestudies.com) to explore the full potential of cultural analytics in a project on Visualizing Patterns in Databases of Cultural Images and Video. The grant is one of three inaugural awards from a new Humanities High Performance Computing Program established jointly by DOE and NEH.

In this Video Professor Lev Manovich of the Department of Visual Arts at UC San Diego discusses his research and the award.

UC San Diego - Software Studies Initiative - Lev Manovich