Non-Linear Documentary and Museum Exhibition Design: Interdisciplinary Inspirations

Abstract

An Internet connected, data and software driven, computerized environment dominates contemporary media production, distribution, exhibition and consumption (Murray, 16). Given the non-linear and interactive affordances of this ‘new media’, what disciplines can linear filmmakers look to, to work in this space? (Manovich, Software Takes Command 92/3) My paper interrogates the intersection of the representation of the real between documentary and museum exhibition. Museums share documentary’s claim to the representation of the real (Pearce, 12, Kidd, 121). But unlike linear documentary, museum representation takes place in a non-linear setting. I explore how museums represent the real in this spatial and nonlinear setting. Like filmmakers, those in the museum sector are also grappling with the effects on their practice of an increasingly interactive, participatory and digital media environment (Kidd, 2). This paper also interrogate how contemporary museum exhibition design includes the affordances of the digital medium into the representation of the real, and what of this theory and practice may assist in the design of non-linear and interactive documentary.