The emergence of interactive 360° video technologies is frequently positioned as ‘new’ or ‘innovative’ – but is this really the case, and what might it mean for documentary practice in Aotearoa/ New Zealand? As an action researcher making a documentary project concerned with revealing the often hidden links between individuals and the creative communities they come from, to what extent can contemporary representational concerns be negotiated using interactive 360° video?
By asking participants to co-create a panoramic scene that acts as a representation for their practice, I hope to negotiate the often complex terrain found at the intersections between realist codes and conventions, and notions of documentary truth. Can the performances of both participants and the viewers who navigate the panoramic space, help facilitate a better understanding of participants’ creative practice? By asking participants to consider what connections could be made through the use of embedded mise-en-scene objects turned into hyperlinks, can participants begin to mediate how they, and their communities, might be encountered?