report Korsakow Workshop WWVF

To start the workshop participants were given an explanation of the software they are going to use to create their interactive videos: the Korsakow system. Here the teachers explored the possibilities and limitations of the system itself by showing various existing Korsakow projects. The theory of interactivity was treated in a few lectures on issues concerning interactive and non linear narration, in hope of explaining how interactivity is represented and exploited in the Korsakow System.

But by noon on the second day everyone was already trying to throw together his or her material into his or her own Korsakow project, without paying much heed to which ‘continuum of interactivity’ they happened to be using.

The material they brought in ranged from home videos to documentation of hidden villages in Eastern Europe to interviews about the true origins of punk. Even during the workshop videos of a slightly lunatic Korean artist whom no one could understand had been shot to extend the material being used. Unfortunately, not one of the multi talented people there could understand a word of Korean, so the poor man's story was translated to the whimsical fancy of who ever cared to take upon him the task, which resulted in a completely new interpretation of the images.

In the days that followed, the fifth floor of the Post CS building was the buzzing home of a containership called Malaysia, a gastarbeiter from Belgrade, and an old lady of whom we suspect had Alzheimer’s disease, and stayed open until 2 AM as the participants keyworded, linked, viewed and reviewed their projects.

One thing that all the Korsakow projects being made had in common however, was that they all had to be presented on Monday and 14:00 sharp. The last lunch of foamy white bread and chicken soup was left practically untouched as the participants struggled to perfect their stories.

From the internal final presentation three projects were selected to be presented to the WWVF public; Mari Soppela's Home recordings, a project about a fight she had with her husband, Pierre Larauza's Anime, a project about a girl in Hong Kong who is addicted to video games, and Anna Andersson's conglomeration of increasingly disturbing war videos and facts. In fact, Anna’s overwhelming presentation was beautifully ended as an employee from the neighboring restaurant ran in to force the sound technician to smother the show, illustrating Anna’s point about how unbearable war really is, and thereby ending the WWVF Korsakow workshop.

If you would like more information on the projects, upcoming workshops or Korsakow events, subscribe to our mailing list by sending an email to korsakow-announce-subscribe@mediamatic.net, or ask specific questions at korsakow@mediamatic.net. The projects have been published on DVD.

This workshop is made possible with the support of the MEDIA PLUS PROGRAMME of the European Community, OCW and the Mondriaan Foundation