präsentation im Rahmen der Game studies section der Swpaca konferenz (Southwest Popular/American Culture Association) in albuquerque, new mexico
abstract:
The interactive documentary ‚Pregoneros de Medellín“ (Carabalí/Durand 2015) introduces the viewers to five of Medellíns street vendors via a scroll story with a Google Street View inspired aesthetic. The viewers can scroll through a defined number of streets of Medellín’s touristic city center where they repeatedly encounter street vendors that they can select and thus get to know their stories in three short video clips each.
The film works with an extensive interface which includes elements such as a map and the display of already discovered stories (out of 15) which give the project a game-like aesthetic. Another element is the suggested ‚unlocking of stories‘ when they’re found on the map, by uncovering icons in the interface that were initially covered with a lock.
Where these stories can be found is shown to the viewer from the beginning on said map. Also, no matter where the vendors are found, their three assorted clips will be shown in the same order. The project therefore suggests a game-like freedom of choice to the viewers, which is, however, very limited.
The game aesthetics employed here serve mostly a rhetorical function and help to connect images in a particular way, which is why I understand them as an element and a strategy of an interactive montage.
Through the encouragement to ‚keep looking‘ and the suggestion of immediacy of seemingly random encounters they establish the basis of a particular documentary truth narrative. The question I ask is how this game aesthetic adds to the truth narrative and the meaning making practice of Pregoneros de Medellín – How does this practice deal with fragmentations or ideas of completeness of knowledge? And what does it mean to understand game aesthetics as a montage strategy in interactive documentary?