Take the F Train

I was introduced to this from jill.txt. I love it when theory and practice mesh in such a sophisticated way. I played with this piece in conjunction with Janet Murray's chapter on story and plot in interactive media: 'The Cyberbard and the Multiform Plot'. It all makes so much sense now.

I love Hanne-Lovise Skarstein’s interactive documentary from the F-train in New York. Hanne-Lovise has been working on interactive documentaries here in Bergen for a few years now, but moved to Brooklyn last year. Take the F-train is a beautiful little documentary which combines video of the place with audio interviews and animations of the characters in the piece. You put the characters you want to ride with into the train, and then you can listen to their stories by mousing over them while inside. Most of their stories are about being from elsewhere and yet being at home in New York City. At least most of the ones in languages I can understand were. I was particularly happy to find Hanne-Lovise herself as one of the characters in her own story. There’s an interview with her discussing the piece too, in Norwegian. From Jill.txt