The aesthetics of reality media

Engberg, Maria; Bolter, Jay David

doi:10.1177/1470412920906264

Cited by 32 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…This study also viewed articles on various aspects of documentary cinema: technologies VR (Engberg et al, 2020), conceptual video (Sheehan, 2019, travel films (Courtney, 2018). Of interest were also publications devoted to different film directors' styles in creating a documentaries in the context of the national aspect: Latin America, Pan-American Union (Fox, 2018), Galicia (Spain) (Amago, 2018), Japan (Jesty, 2019;Miyao, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation Features of Historical Truth in Fiction and Documentary Cinematography, TV Reporter’s Skills

2021

Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie)

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The article analyses the representation of historical and current issues in fiction and documentary cinematography. The author outlines the general complexity of the historical genre, often accompanied by criticism of the society, power structures, and institutions of the church. A dramaturgy analysis of films, as well as expressive directing and camera means and techniques, sound direction have been carried out. Special attention is paid to the analysis of methods of gathering information in documentary films: observation, working with documents, interviews, etc., inherent in the work of a TV reporter. The participatory and poetic modes of documentary are examined in detail. It was revealed that documentary films are more independent than fiction films, primarily from the budget issues and critical acclaim, therefore a store of issues covered in documentary films is much wider. The documentary cinematography is also richer by expressive means. The authors of modern historical drama create documentary-style films, unjustifiably transforming films from feature ones into a chronicle displaying a series of changing facts from the plot of the script. Suggestions have been made to revise the principles of work on the historical genre, enabling to reach a new level of development of feature films.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation Features of Historical Truth in Fiction and Documentary Cinematography, TV Reporter’s Skills

2021

Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie)

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“…I have labelled both artworks as experimental documentaries. They are non-fiction pieces that align with the field of i-docs in their approach to combining documentary and interactivity (Aston, Gaudenzi, and Rose, 2017), and also relates to immersive journalism (De la Peña et al, 2010;Uricchio et al, 2015) and the wider context in which interactive VR draws from many previous media experiences (Engberg and Bolter 2020;Murray 2020).…”

Section: Vr Experimental Documentarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Scripting, space design and user movement in room-scale VR: Storytelling strategies to direct gesture and gaze.

Soler-Adillón

2023

Body, Space &Amp; Technology

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This text draws on the experience of developing and exhibiting two room-scale VR artworks in order to discuss the relationship between scripting, virtual space design, and interactive design with the audience’s movements and expected position in the VR and physical space. Different design and scripting strategies allow or impede to anticipate the specific position of the audience at every given time, and this anticipation is key to articulate the virtual elements in a way that responds to not just the gaze but also the overall movement of the person wearing the headset. Both artworks present different approaches from this point of view. In comparing them, two main design choices are shown to particularly affect this possibility of anticipation: simplicity vs. complexity of visual and interactive elements, and sequencing vs. simultaneity. While none of the design strategies is more desirable than the other per se, these conclusions shed some light on how to script and design for VR experiences in terms of deciding how much the artist wants to control, or anticipate, the body movements of their audience when experiencing their piece. 

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“…Key features of VR include immersion (various properties of the VR experience such as visuals, sound, compelling narrative, and haptics that create a sense of deep engagement with the virtual world) and presence (the user’s subjective sense of ‘being there’ in the virtual environment) (Bailenson, 2018; Evans, 2019). These features are said to make VR films superior in cultivating empathy, compared with other types of media like literature or television shows (Engberg and Bolter, 2020). VR experiences are therefore not only visual but visceral.…”

Section: Virtual Reality: ‘Felt Truth’ Beyond Visualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The limits of humanisation: ‘ideal’ figures of the refugee and depoliticisation of displacement in virtual reality filmClouds Over Sidra

Suzuki

2022

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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The enthusiastic embrace of virtual reality films as ‘the ultimate empathy machine’ by humanitarian organisations and technology companies can be positioned as an attempt to change attitudes towards refugees through a strategy of ‘humanisation’. This article offers a critique of humanising approaches to displacement as they manifest in the United Nations’ first-ever virtual reality film Clouds Over Sidra (2015), targeted at policy makers, donors, and the general public in the Global North. Through an experiential and textual analysis of the film, I analyse two strategies of humanisation in Clouds Over Sidra: reproduction of ‘ideal’ figures of the refugee through the depiction of daily life in Za’atari camp and overrepresentation of children, and depoliticisation of displacement via technological disembodiment in the film. The former results in a never-ending search for purity, and the latter depoliticises displacement through an erasure of differential exposure to colonial and racial regimes of im/mobility. I argue that humanising approaches based on a logic of inclusion ultimately affirm the colonial and racial hierarchy of humanity as they leave unquestioned the already colonial and racial nature of ‘the human’. This article provides an original contribution to debates about VR technology, empathy, and displacement by going beyond a generalised critique of VR films to foreground a critique of humanising approaches to displacement. I conclude by asking what it might mean to think about displacement relationally, an approach that is grounded in a politics of location and global relations of power.

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The aesthetics of reality media

Cited by 32 publications

References 13 publications

Representation Features of Historical Truth in Fiction and Documentary Cinematography, TV Reporter’s Skills

Representation Features of Historical Truth in Fiction and Documentary Cinematography, TV Reporter’s Skills

Scripting, space design and user movement in room-scale VR: Storytelling strategies to direct gesture and gaze.

The limits of humanisation: ‘ideal’ figures of the refugee and depoliticisation of displacement in virtual reality filmClouds Over Sidra

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