This document discusses multimedia and emerging forms of digital storytelling. It defines multimedia as combining various artistic mediums, and notes the increasing use of nonlinear and interactive formats. Examples of linear and nonlinear multimedia are provided. The development of hypertext and hypermedia are discussed. Cross-platform storytelling is explored through the work of photographer Tim Hetherington. New forms of visual storytelling using virtual reality, social media platforms, and interactive web documentaries are mentioned through the work of Zackary Canepari on Flint, Michigan.

1. Contextual Studies: New emerging Industries
02 Nov 2017

2. WHAT IS MULTIMEDIA?
Multimedia is an attempt to define the multi-disciplinary practice that has
developed through the intertwining of multiple artistic languages and disciplines
such as Film, photography, journalism, computers and design (amongst
others).
The use of presenting work via multiple mediums, mixing mediums or multiple
platforms is becoming the norm.
We will consider how different disciplines have approached the use of
technology and multimedia.

3. DEFINITION
Multimedia might include a combination of;
Text
Audio
Performance
Still images
Animation
Video
Computers
Interactive forms

4. HYPERTEXT & HYPERMEDIA
The term hypertext was coined in 1965 by Ted Nelson
He described it as ‘non-sequential writing - text that
branches and allows choices to the reader’
Hypermedia refers to the use of media in the same non-
sequential terms

5. Linear multimedia
Atype of multimedia designed to be presented in a sequential manner.
Distinct beginning and end.
Passive multimedia - Little interaction or participation from the audience.
The creator of the multimedia is in control.
Aims to entertain, to transmit knowledge
Examples: APowerPoint presentation, Anarrative film

6. Non-linear multimedia
Non-sequential type of multimedia
Necessitates audience participation
Interaction via the media enables a degree of control for the user over the
experience
The media also interact with one another
User is given a range of options that, according to his own preferences, will lead
him to new information.
Examples: a website, a search engine, a menu screen, a YouTube channel,
some computer games

7. Creator of the World Wide Web
TIM BERNERS-LEE

8. WORLD WIDE WEB
In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, a young British engineer working at CERN, the particle
physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, circulated a proposal for an in-house
on-line document sharing system which he described modestly as "a 'web' of notes
with links."
Berners-Lee named this system the world wide web.
‘The web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much
bigger than the past’.

9. CROSS PLATFORM STORYTELLING

10. Cross –platform storytelling
Increasingly traditional linear stories are being developed across different media
and presented on different or multiple platforms
.
Cross platform storytelling is becoming increasingly popular with documentary
filmmakers, journalists, artists and photographers.

11. Tim Hetherington Sleeping Soldiers
CROSS PLATFORM STORYTELLING

12. Cross – platform storytelling
Tim Hetherington photographed sleeping soldiers inAfghanistan in 2008
He photographed the experience of war from the perspective of the individual,
mostly in WestAfrica and the middle east.
His film Restrepo, which he co-directed with Sebastian Junger about a platoon of
soldiers inAfghanistan, was awarded the grand jury prize at the 2010 Sundance
film festival and was nominated for an academy award in 2011.
OnApril 20, 2011, while covering the conflict in Libya, Hetherington was killed by
Libyan forces in a mortar attack on the besieged city of Misrata.
Play clip

13. Tim Hetherington Sleeping Soldiers
CROSS PLATFORM STORYTELLING

14. Trans-media
As well as a series of large scale photographs. The video was presented as a three
screen video work.
He also produced a book (Infidel) and film on the subject.

15. PHOTOGRAPHY TODAY
The continued evolution of digital technology has allowed artists
including photojournalists to explore new methods of presenting their
projects.
Where the traditional photo essay was a product of industrialisation,
digital technology provides us with opportunities of using new forms
of media to reach wider audiences.

16. (2016 -) Web series, Photography series, Photography book, pop-up exhibition,
social media www.Flintisaplace.Com
ZACKARY CANEPARI - THIS IS FLINT

17. FLINT MICHIGAN, BACKGROUND
• Since the late 1960s, Flint has faced several crises.
• General Motors significantly downsized its workforce in the area from a 1978 high of
80,000 to under 8,000 by 2010.
• From 1960 to 2010, the population of the city nearly halved from 196,940 to 102,434.
• In the mid-2000s, Flint became known for its high crime rates and has repeatedly
been ranked among the most dangerous cities in the United States.
• The city was under a state of financial emergency from 2002–2004 and again from
2011–2015.
• Since 2014, the city has faced a major public health emergency due to lead
poisoning in the local water supply that has affected thousands of residents.

18. BACKGROUND
Zackary Canepari spent four years in Flint Michigan and produced a series
of projects using different types of Media in an attempt to tell the multiple
stories of the residents of the City.
Canepari’s first project was a feature documentary, “T-Rex,” about the two-
time Olympic gold medal boxer Claressa Shields, who was a native of Flint.
He is now producing an episodic documentary on Flint Michigan’s Police
Department.

19. Multimedia Vs Transmedia
“We’ve been rolling out ‘Flint is a Place’ for a few months now in a very unorthodox
way, with elements of the series appearing in various media outlets and physical
places before the project is actually finished and launched as an interactive web
documentary”
“The term ‘multimedia’ is still circulating in the context of photography and editorial
media market, even if the term had lost its meaning a while ago in film or art
contexts, for example. Multimedia means literally a combination of media – text,
audio, images and so forth. Which could be anything really. Transmedia, as
interpreted today, means telling a story across multiple platforms (and specifically
splitting the narrative between platforms), usually involving digital technologies”.
Producer Liza Faktor (co-founder of Screen)

23. Flint is a Place Social Media Platforms

24. Discussion
How is the material presented in the project and how does this affect you as the viewer?
What are the positives and negatives of using digital technologies in Photography?
Consider the ‘static/linear’ nature of the analogue image/essay against the fluid possibilities of digital
technologies.
Do you think Flint is the Place is a good example of using digital technologies
and of ‘responsible’ documentary storytelling? How can digital technologies help us get near to a
‘photographic truth’
What responsibility do photographers have to their subjects/stories?
How involved should subjects be in the finished work?
Many media organisations such as Time Magazine have also expanded
stories from the traditional photo essay to include video, sound and interactive
elements. Is there still a place for more traditional formats such as the photo essay?

25. SHORTHAND
Shorthand is a storytelling platformused by the BBC, guardian amongst othersto tell stories across
multimedia.
VISUAL STORYTELLING PLATFORMS

26. Touring VR exhibition
BJORK DIGITAL

27. Touring VR exhibition
BJORK DIGITAL

28. Touring VR exhibition
BJORK DIGITAL

29. Bjork Digital
Björk Digital is an immersive VR exhibition by musician and
artist Björk which premiered as part of Vivid Sydney at
Carriageworks in 2016 and at Somerset House in England
It features four VR music videos/films including
Bjork’s 360 video Stonemilker
https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=gqeyezu7g20

30. http://tommills.co.uk/portfolio/
VIRTUAL TOURS

31. SECOND LIFE/SANSAR

32. FILMING VR

33. FILMING VR
kodak

34. EDITING VR
kodak
Load Adobe Premier sample https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-to/vr-
video.html

35. Independent research
Do some independent research into new platforms and technologies affecting the
Media. Summarise and find examples of the following in a media sector (Film,
Photography, journalism etc) that you are interested in:
Cross platform or transmedia storytelling
VR Technology
What are your thoughts on these technologies?
Mention the difference between linear and non-linear media
Will these techniques/technologies completely replace linear/physical media? (The
newspaper, film, physical photograph)

36. Further Research
www.Facebook.Com/flintisaplace/
www.Flintisaplace.Com
www.Instagram.Com/canepari_til_i_die/
Canepari, Zackary, Rex Contrasto,2016
Jenkins,Henry Convergence Culture NYU Press,2008
Phillips,Andrea ACreators Guide to Transmedia Storytelling Mcgraw Hill, 2012
Pierre Levy, Collective Intelligence: mankind's emerging world in cyberspaceCambridge: Perseus, 1997
NewYork Times http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek