Getting our hands dirty (again): Interactive documentaries and the meaning of images in the digital age

Abstract

This article offers an ethnographic exploration of the world of interactive documentaries (i-docs), suggesting how such a scrutiny opens up a new scenario for visual culture – one where the study of the visual field needs to be backed up with an increasing awareness of digital culture, interactivity and the functioning of Web 2.0. Incorporating the languages that dominate communication on social networks and image sharing platforms, i-docs are a window onto the changing meaning of images in the context of contemporary digital technologies. In such products, a variety of different kinds of materials (such as videos, photos, sounds, texts, etc.) converge, forcing us to rethink the very meaning of image beyond the field of vision. Fostering new forms of interpretation and exploration of audio-visual materials, these projects also generate new connections between life online and life offline. Informed by the principles of participation, sharing and relationality that inform contemporary social networks, i-docs seem to invite us to engage with the physicality and socialness of everyday life, in other words, to get our hands dirty (again).

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