A Research on Storytelling of Interactive Documentary: Towards a New Storytelling Theory Model

Interactive documentary is a new genre that narrates the real and enables audience interact with reality through interactive digital technologies. This genre has grown with the development of interactive digital technology and documentary practice. It indicates a need to understand the various new perceptions of interactive documentary storytelling not only for theoretical value but also for practical guide use. However, relatively, existed studies are not comprehensive in this field, even the definition and boundary of this category are still blurry. Interactive documentary, as a wide and independent genre, demands its own storytelling system and philosophy to break through the fog and remedy the gap. My doctoral research divides this wide genre into two streams: interactive documentary film (I-Doc Film) and interactive documentation, offering some important insights into storytelling of these two compositions and aiming to build new systematic theory. Currently, my research seeks to address questions in two preliminary directions: (1) The current storytelling features and system of western and eastern I-Doc film practice; (2) The storytelling of interactive documentation as curating method and digital heritage. Based on literature review in relevant field and case studies of representative artworks and projects, a series of interviews from related artists, scholars, research group and practitioners in the industry, as well as empirical study will be conducted to enrich this research.