Marina Hassapopoulou, "Interactive Cinema: The Ambiguous Ethics of Media Participation" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)
Jan 10, 2025
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Marina Hassapopoulou, an Assistant Professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, discusses her groundbreaking book on interactive cinema and the ethics of audience participation. She explores how socio-political crises inspire unconventional cinematic methods that redefine viewer engagement. The conversation delves into sensory experiences in film, contrasting traditional viewing with procedural spectatorship, and highlights innovative projects like ExpressiveAI.net. Hassapopoulou encourages a fusion of tradition and technology in film studies to engage new audiences.
Marina Hassapopoulou's exploration of interactive cinema emphasizes the need to redefine audience engagement through various unconventional approaches amid socio-political crises.
The book highlights the ethical implications of media participation, reflecting on how evolving definitions of interactivity influence our understanding of democracy and citizenship.
Deep dives
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Professor Marina Hassapopolo's Insights
Professor Marina Hassapopolo discusses her book 'Interactive Cinema: The Ambiguous Ethics of Media Participation,' emphasizing the evolution of audience engagement in cinema. The book explores various unconventional cinematic approaches that involve viewers in the production process, particularly during sociopolitical crises. Hassapopolo's work expands the definitions of both interactivity and cinema, highlighting how contemporary interpretations can shape our understanding of democracy and citizenship. Her extensive background in film studies and digital humanities informs this exploration of interactive media's historical significance.
Scavenger Hunt in Research
Hassapopolo describes her research process for the book as a 'scavenger hunt' where she dug deep into the archives to uncover ephemeral works of interactive cinema. She faced challenges due to the lack of documentation of many pre-digital forms of interactive cinema, which are often dismissed as insignificant. This journey led her to original sources, including direct contact with artists and extensive fieldwork, enriching her understanding of historical contexts. As a result, the final product is a rich tapestry of narratives that reflects diverse methodologies and interpretations.
Rethinking Interactivity and Cinema
The discussion emphasizes the need to redefine interactivity, moving beyond simple technical definitions to incorporate a broader range of audience experiences. Each chapter in Hassapopolo's book presents different facets of interactivity, from somatic and ecological to phenomenological dimensions. This nuanced approach acknowledges that cinema has always had participatory elements, which have become increasingly relevant in today's media landscape. By complicating the definitions of interactivity, the book aims to provoke deeper conversations around its ethical implications and the relationship between audiences and media.
Interactive Cinema: The Ambiguous Ethics of Media Participation(University of Minnesota Press, 2024) engages with a multitude of unconventional approaches throughout the history of motion pictures to offer insight into a range of largely ephemeral and site-specific projects that consciously assimilate viewers into their production. Through an exploration of radically inventive approaches to the medium, many of which emerged out of socio-political crises and periods of historical transition, Interactive Cinema works to by considering it in both technological and phenomenological terms.
Author Marina Hassapopoulou is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies, at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is also the interim director of NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. She is the founder of open-source and collaborative initiatives including: Interactive Media Archive, ExpressiveAI.net, and Weird Wave Archive.