Robert Lang, President and Executive Producer at Kensington, returned from the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam last week with plenty of inspiration for new interactive projects here at Kensington. Having attended the Interactive Reality Conference by IDFA’s DOCLab, Robert and other attendees were treated to talks by accomplished interactive producers who represented their work and the range of interactive multi-platform work being done today.
When Robert came back to meet with the team in Toronto there were three speakers who he talked about, each with their own very interesting projects that demonstrate a commitment to storytelling that’s platform agnostic. And if you’re wondering what platform agnosticism is, check out this article.
1) Vincent Morisset’s hugely successful experimental interactive music videos
He dubs himself as a ‘web-friendly director’ and he’s known best for his recent project, justareflektor.com, an interactive short film on the web that explores Arcade Fire’s song “Reflektor” and its themes through interactions between the computer and a user’s smart phone. Vincent and his team worked on the project with Google’s Creative Lab to achieve some groundbreaking results.
For much of his work to date he has worked with the acclaimed Canadian band Arcade Fire, and he has won awards such as the Webby for Net Art, SXSW Interactive Champion, Festival du Nouveau Cinema Innovation Award, Best of the digital decade nominee and Prix Gémeaux, among others. He has spoken around the world to inspire other creative types at conferences such as IDFA, SXSW, Pop Montreal, NXNE, FITC, Rotterdam Film Festival, OFFF Barcelona, Click San Francisco and Click New York.
To learn more about his work, watch this short web documentary from the Creator’s Project.
2) Jonathan Harris’ creative challenge to himself to keep trying something new
Jonathan’s viral web project ‘Today” started on his 30th birthday when he set out to document his life for 440 days with a photo and a short story each day. With this project he reimagined how humans relate to technology and to each other and it was seen around the world by many people when it caught fire on high-traffic blogs and news media sites. At IDFA he talked about challenging himself to try new things, to innovate and not repeat what he had done well before.
Here’s a video about “Today.”
3) Brent Hoff’s Emotional Arcade: moving from the digital to the physical realm
Brent Hoff has created a new project called the Emotional Arcade, in which he conducts a high-tech experiment at the intersection of science, human emotion and documentary storytelling. The IDFA interactive installation included modified EEG headsets and biometric sensors, props and a series of “emotional competitions.”
Here’s Robert’s photo from the IDFA interactive art installation:
In Brent’s video from IDFA that’s below, you’ll see contestants competing to fill balloons with their emotions of rage, bliss or love – It’s a commentary on the fact that even our most intimate emotions are mediated through technology today.
All in all, these speakers were inspiring because of their drive to innovate and tell stories on multiple platforms with exciting results. With a tradition in cross-platform storytelling at Kensington since the 1990’s, we look forward to continue telling stories using a range of technologies and techniques across the many platforms available today.
Stay Tuned!
-Amanda @kensingtontv.com (Social Media Lead)