Iterative Loops

Abstract

This scholarly essay is about research-creation in interactive, immersive and digital non-fiction storytelling. It seeks to shed light and update this research approach and to identify ways in which it can be rendered more accessible to both practitioners and researchers. The essay revisits two recent factual narratives—the web-documentary Field Trip (2019) and VR experience Myriad (2021), projects in which the authors were directly involved as practitioners. Then, it positions these two digital practices in the body of literature on media innovations before qualifying them as interactive and immersive documentaries (i-docs). Field Trip is a browser-based 92-minute documentary taking a deep dive into the history and social struggles around the Tempelhof Field, Berlin’s former airport turned public park. Myriad is a 32-minute immersive VR experience narrated from the perspective of globally migrating animals, sensitizing the audience to the interplay and interrelationship of all life forms. The authors explain how these projects have, in their separate and singular ways, opened spaces for iterative loops between creative practice and theory. Field Trip exemplifies how triangulation can be applied to creative media practice. This method, albeit a relatively classic in research, continues to be a challenge for practitioners. The case of Myriad, in turn, discusses two additional methods: core to audience and interdisciplinary iteration in experimental aesthetics. While these two methods in format development and artistic enquiry might sound familiar to practitioners, they are promising for closing some gaps in academic research design. The two case studies speak to the diversity of research-creation approaches, methods and formats while illustrating how research-creation, as a research mindset, can facilitate the output of two things at once: a more ‘educated’ artistic expression and more grounded academic knowledge. The essay further identifies the need to systematize and offer continuous support to researchers-creators. It argues that this fits the mandate of higher education art and design schools, which should be understood as research-creation competence centers. The paper ends with five learnings meant to encourage digital media practitioners to develop an enquiry reflex and media scholars to “get their hands dirty” in partaking in innovative, creative media projects.