In class today, we learnt how to create and experiment with creating interactive films using specific programs. The idea of an interactive film is to have the viewer guide themselves through the story, picking what they watch next, and how they experience the project overall. I found it really interesting how simple the tool we actually used to create the interactive films Korsakow was! While the interface is a little dated, and the software itself isn’t scaled to the right resolution on my computer, I’ve really enjoyed messing around with the software, and creating patterns and rhythms of videos for viewers to navigate their way through.

The feature I find most interesting is the way you can create tags, and link pieces of media together through these tags to create an algorithm that suggests the next videos to watch based off the similar tags. Alternatively, you could have a completely random process, but the calculated and formulated tagging method is really unique to the Korsakow program. We experimented with both the randomized and calculated tagging in class, and while I struggled to formulate a neat layout I liked, it was exciting to see such little programming equate to such endless possibilities!

I was inspired and experimented with Hannah’s method of grouping and linking videos together, and had four tags in my calculated linking test using Korsakow. These included; water, industry, stillness and movement. While I need to work on my theming skills, these four tags allowed me to link all the videos together to at least two degrees of separation so that you couldn’t get stuck in a loop of the same looping videos. Furthermore, I’ve been having troubles setting layouts for the videos, as the layout is always a couple changes behind my newest version, and I cannot really get it to update without creating a new project.

These are all minor issues that can be ironed out over time, nevertheless, and I am excited to continue to use Korsakow in the future for my final audio-visual piece for Assignment 4