Camera Interactiva programme consists of two parts: the training programme and a competition. During the period of 10 months participants of Camera Interactiva – 6 teams each consisting of one academic student and one student from the arts or young professional – will be trained by academics, artists and creative makers to develop their interactive story. The stories will then be pitched to a jury that will distribute seed money (5000 EUR in total) to three most promising teams to develop their final project. The three final interactive stories will be screened in April 2016 to a broad audience, and will receive a Young Creative Talent Award.

See the full list of participants here

Timeline

September 28, 2015

Time: 14:00 – 16:00 h

Location: Postkantoor Neude, Kleine Zaal, Utrecht, NFF Industry Programme

Mini-symposium: Technologies of Narration: How Stories Are Made

Het vertellen van digitale verhalen, zoals een interactief boek, een game, of een interactieve documentaire, biedt ten opzichte van traditionele vertelvormen veel nieuwe mogelijkheden. Door de veelzijdigheid van nieuwe media kunnen verhalen vanuit meerdere perspectieven, op verschillende manieren (cross-mediaal) en door meerdere auteurs verteld worden. Maar hoe ga je met deze verschillende lagen van informatie om? Welke informatie wordt verteld en op welke manier? En wat gebeurt er als je de kracht van technologie, collectieve verhalen, en affect centraal stelt in het herinneren en vertellen van verhalen?

Dit mini-symposium besteedt aandacht aan hoe voorwerpen, herinneringen, en zintuigen effect hebben op de verhalen die wij vertellen. Vier sprekers, vanuit verschillende disciplines, geven hun antwoord op deze vragen. In korte optredens zullen de vragen benaderd worden vanuit memory studies,  immersive storytelling en spoken word. De sprekers op het symposium zijn o.a. Quinsy Gario (kunstenaar/theatermaker), Wander Eikelboom (Avans Hogeschool Breda) en Susanne Knittel (Universiteit Utrecht), met Janina Pigaht als moderator.

Voertaal: Nederlands (met uitzondering van S. Knittel)

September 29 & 30: NFF Industry Programme events

Camera Interactiva participants will have a possibility to attend several events during the Dutch Film Festival (NFF) Industry Programme. Participants will attend pitches of most promising film makers as well as Digital Storytelling Competition.

October 5 – October 9, 2015: Intensive Training Week

Intensive 5 Day workshop on academic research, artistic process, design, citizenship & impact. The days are spilt into two parts. In the mornings Lectures by an Academic speaker, and a speaker from the field, and feedback as well as practical sessions in the afternoon. We would also like to extend a special thanks to the Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD) department at the Avans Hogeschool in Breda for hosting one of the days of this training week.

Teachers

Rafe Copeland is a digital artist. In his current work which he will talk about in this session, he is trying to unlock a new mode of vision, a new set of images, which will allow us to experience a world which is all around us but invisible: that of wireless communication. The point is to trigger a reevaluation of our relationship to the technology that we use, the cities that we build, and perhaps a touch of terror at the enormity of these systems we create and don’t fully appreciate.

Rick Dolphijn teaches and does research at Utrecht University (Media and Culture Studies).  He published two books, being Foodscapes, Towards a Deleuzian Ethics of Consumption (Eburon/University of Chicago Press 2004) and (with Iris van der Tuin) New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies(Open Humanities Press 2012). Besides that, he has written on new materialism, ecology/ecosophy and art and has great interest in the developements in continental philosophy and speculative thought. He works in-between art and thought, writes an ‘activist philosophy’ that always already has to have multiple resonances with the contemporary world.

Quinsy Gario is most known for his art project “Zwarte Piet is Racisme”, with which he unleashed harsh debates on racism in the Netherlands. The project got national and international recognition for which Quinsy has been interviewed on numerous occasions for (amongst others) The New York Times, The New Yorker, Slate.com, CNN, BBC, TRT, ZDF, Deutsche Welle, ITV, EuroNews and ARTE.  Quinsy holds a bachelor in Film and Television studies at Utrecht University and a pre-master in Gender Studies. As performer and Poet, he has performed in several National and International Poetry slams. He also set-up the online critical platform “Roet in het Eten” which discusses issues of gender diversity, cultural diversity, sustainability, food, adoption. Since 2012 he is a member of the Pan-European collective Black Europe Body Politics. From September 2015 onwards Quinsy presents a weekly talk-show to be aired by RTV-7.

Ernst van den Hemel is a scholar of religious studies and literature. Completed his PhD on literary dimensions in the work of John Calvin in 2011. From January 2013 onwards he is a research Fellow at the Centre for the Humanities at University of Utrecht, where, from April 2015 onwards, he will lecture at the Religious Studies department. Starting in April 2014, he is the secretary/researcher for the foresight committee Theology and Religious Studies of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Ernst often works between academia and activism not least as a teacher at the ‘We Are Here Academy’, an unofficial academy for undocumented migrants in the Netherlands.

Wander Eikelboom (1973) is a writer and cultural critic with an interest in continental philosophy, participatory media cultures, and the visceral experiences of interactive media. He also lectures mediastudies at Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD) Breda. Wander has a master in Language and Culture Studies from Utrecht University. In recent years he has published several (international) articles on the medium specific characteristics of interactive media and theoretical questions of time, historicity and memory. Wander is also an editor of a bi-annual magazine Void (), as well as a researcher, writer, editor and director of the Sense of Smell project. The innovative applications concerning. smell, communications, media and interaction design that were developed within this project are published in the Sense of Smell book. He is also co-creator of the internationally award-winning Famous Deaths installation.

Nienke Huitenga is a digital culture vulture, lecturer at Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD) at Avans University (Breda), transmedia producer for Floris Kaayk and cofounder & experiment designer at Hackastory.com.

Bernadette Kuiper used to work as a consultant, where she advised clients on how to create a great customer experience. Here is where she experiences the power of moving image first hand. In 2012, she took the step towards documentaries by working the campaign of “Dementia, then what?” directed by Ireen van Ditshuyzen and produced by IDTV Docs. From January 2015 she works as an independent Impact producer.

Corine Meijers is an interactive producer at the Submarine Channel. Submarine Channel explores the narrative possibilities of new and emerging genres such as the interactive documentary, the motion comic, and transmedia storytelling. The future of storytelling is now… Free Your Screen! Submarine Channel is part of the multiple award-winning production outfit Submarine, founded in 2000 by Bruno Felix and Femke Wolting, both pioneers in the Dutch (new) media world. Corine has been developing a wide variety of projects, including Who Are The Champions?, Bistro In Vitro, the Alzheimer Buddy and De Pont.

Hasse van Nunen is a producer in her own company ‘Een van de jongens’. As one of the youngest and most successful Dutch Documentary Producers, she manages to navigate the difficult line between supporting the creative process of the filmmaker and the ‘business’ that is making films. In her earlier work, she set up the now very successful student platform Breaking Ground and worked for production company KeyFilm/KeyDocs and broadcaster HUMAN.

Mirko Tobias Schäfer is an Assistant Professor for New Media & Digital Culture at the University of Utrecht and director of the Utrecht Data School. Mirko studied theater, film and media studies and communication studies at Vienna University (A) and digital culture at Utrecht University (NL). Mirko’s research interest revolves around the socio- political impact of media technology. His publications cover user participation in cultural production, hacking communities, politics of software design and communication in social media.

December 10, 2015: THE PITCH

The Camera Interactiva seed money will be awarded to 3 most exceptional interactive story ideas, which may include but are not limited to, web-based films, data-driven art, mobile apps, narrative games, multimedia installations, augmented reality experiences, virtual reality, and other multi-platform projects. The seed money will consist of 5000 Euros, the distribution of which among the 3 short-listed teams will be decided by the jury. Submissions will be judged based on the following criteria:

• Quality of academic research
• Story-driven content: communication of the narrative
• Quality of user experience
• Design: innovativeness, originality and craftsmanship

The jury will consist of 4 professionals from film, university, Municipality of Utrecht and business industry or NGO sector.

Follow-up in 2016

The 3 short-listed teams will be expected to develop and implement their project fully during the months of January-February 2016. The final 3 projects will be presented during a public event as part of Utrecht University Lustrum celebrations in April 2016 and receive awards: 1^st place – 1500 EUR Young Creative Talent Award; two runners-up – 500 EUR per team and an additional prize of 500 EUR for the ‘public’s favourite’. The winning stories will further serve as starting-points for discussion on citizenship-related topics via 3 Creativity Labs, organised after the premiere: events for broad audiences with the aim to look for new and alternative solutions for pressing socio-political questions.