Sketch Essay – Dreamcatcher

“We no longer watch watch films or TV; we watch databases…” (Lovink, 2008) As Geert Lovink has written, I find this quote very relatable to Korsakow, a program that creates interactive, non-linear, database-driven narratives. As I have only been recently introduced to this new format of web-based media, my grasp of its framework is still fairly ambiguous. Nevertheless, as a student of media and communications, it is my duty to assimilate with new forms of media as use of web-based media is substantial and is expanding. (Hart, 2012)

 

The Korsakow film, or more commonly known as K-film, that I have chosen, is ‘Dreamcatcher’, produced by Jess Hallay, Michael Serratore, and Damien Gould in 2011. After numerous attempts, I realized that this K-film explores the different perspectives of dreams and the states that encompass the full process of a dream, from being wide awake to deep sleep. I, as the user, start off with people talking about their dreams, and as time progresses, I would “fall asleep”, experience an ample amount of dreamscapes and eventually, end up being awake again. I particularly enjoyed the different types of narratives and its approaches, which from what I understand what a K-film is supposed to propose and incorporate.

 

As opposed to the confines of media with fixed chain of events and sequence, the composition of narratives in K-films are not just determined by the developer, but also by the user. (Sawhney et. al. 1996, p.5) I often have similar dreams, or ‘repetitive’ dreams, but they all are all ‘different’ in a way. Much like how dreams work, Dreamcatcher’s framework implements repetition and familiarity. Once I have visited a ‘dream’ enough times, I find myself making more conscious decisions, clicking only the thumbnails that I have not watched yet and progressively work my way towards the end. I find this pattern interesting as it potentially opens up more options and allows me to discover more alternative options.  As Marsha Kinder says, ‘through a mix of design, choice and chance (Kinder 2009: 60), narratives are open to creative interpretations by contributors as diverse as media artists, cultural historians or lay persons intent on crafting their story from the archive resources provided. (Hart, 2012)

 

Hart proposes that it is through a juxtaposition of shots that sequences are built. This applies well to the interface of Dreamcatcher because of the variable nature of dreams, as well as Korsakow. The interface depicts a main screen with 3 accompanying thumbnails, which I think is the optimal set-up for every K-film. The interface allows me to enter a series of color-coded dreamscapes, to which I assume signifies different states of dreaming. The abstraction of each clip was well balanced and pivotal in adding a sense of both surrealism and reality. The catch here is the objectivity, and like all dreams, its subtext is entirely dependent on the perception of the user. Even through repetition, the constant shift in dynamics in each consecutive clip provided me an understanding of the bizarreness of dreams and how temperamental they can be.

 

The very nature of Korsakow as an irregular medium of expression is just like how dreams function – inconstant and erratic. I think that the interface of Dreamcatcher fits well in accordance to the different stages of dreaming. Although the interface offers you a seemingly limited number of choices of prospect, it is in fact a generous amount to avoid confusion and to further amplify the presence of its content. Overall, the work offers sufficient and imperative amount of control over a topic that speaks a language that is very subjective. From what I understand, this is much like what Korsakow is supposed to be.

 

References

• Hart, C 2012, ‘Database Documentary: From Authorship to Authoring in Remediated/Remixed Documentary’, Culture Unbound, vol. 4, pp 328-46

• Kinder, Marsha (2008), “The Conceptual Power of On-Line Video: Five Easy Pieces”, Geert Lovink & Sadine Niederer (eds): Video Vortex Reader: Responses to Youtube, Amsterdam: INC. 53-62

• Miles, Adrian, (2008): “Programmatic Statements for a Facetted Videography”, Geert Lovink & Sabine Niederer (eds): Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, Amsterdam: INC. 223- 230

• Sawhney, N, Balcom, D & Smith, I 1996, ‘HyperCafe: Narrative and Aesthetic Properties of Hypervideo’, in Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Hypertext, Hypertext ’96 (New York, NY, USA: ACM), pp. 1-10