[ISEA2002] Poster: Andrea Zapp – Networked Dramatic Environments

Poster Statement

poster session Sound and Installation

New narrative forms are constantly redefining the relationship between the creators of content and their audiences, who increasingly are becoming the co producers of meaning. These and the following issues of theory and practice are further illustrated in my recent book and DVD publication New Screen Media, Cinema/Art/Narrative, coedited with Martin Rieser and published by The British Film Institute (BFI), London in cooperation with the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) Karlsruhe, in January 2002.
In this context, my own artistic practice and research involves designing narrative models as creative and interactive environments for the user. As an extension of my studies in “traditional” film and media, I try to break from the linear plot line by actively integrating the viewer into the process of structuring the content. The open structure of the Internet offers the most appropriate configuration to play with audience participation as an alternative form that could enrich our concept of media. I am trying to discuss and critically examine issues of interactivity and virtual forms of representations, of the observer themselves and parallel of a dramatic model. Interactive platforms based on a real time networked infrastructure can be designed as accessible environments for the viewer. Content systems can be set up that are actively shaped and further developed through the influence and contributions of participants from various remote locations.
The general idea is therefore to constitute a seamless portal to the net itself as the main source material, making the borders between the individual and the theatrical room less obvious.

  •  Andrea Zapp, Research Fellow, Manchester Institute for Research & Innovation in Art & Design, MIRIAD, The Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

Full text (PDF) p. 184