MIT Open Doc Lab – Docubase [2014/2016]

Luisina Pozzo Ardizzi – Open Doc Lab Research Affiliate / Docubase Content Developer

Open Doc Lab

Drawing on MIT’s legacy of media innovation and its deep commitment to open and accessible information, the MIT Open Documentary Lab brings storytellers, technologists and scholars together to explore new documentary storytelling with a particular focus on collaborative, interactive and immersive forms.  The lab is a center of documentary research at MIT and a space for reflection and experimentation.  Through courses, workshops, a fellows program, public lectures, experimental projects, and cutting-edge research, the lab educates and actively engages the MIT community and the larger public in a critical discourse about new documentary practices and encourages people to push the boundaries of non-fiction storytelling. By participating in Lab activities, visiting artists, journalists, and aspiring media makers not only explore the potential of new technologies, they collaborate with MIT researchers to shape the storytelling practices of the future.

William Uricchio | Principal Investigator

Sarah Wolozin | Director

Docubase is a curated database of the people, projects, and technologies transforming documentary in the digital age.

With any emerging medium comes fresh grammar, new styles, and novel processes. So, too, with webdocs, immersive docs, interactive and participatory docs and all the other names we attribute to these new types of documentaries. Which terms or styles will stick we don’t yet know. But for certain documentary is evolving.

• Docubase is a place of discovery where you can immerse yourself in the playlists and projects; unearth new work, explore new techniques, and find people who are pioneering new storytelling.
• Docubase opens up the digital storytelling process by providing production data about each project, behind-the-scenes materials, interviews, and case studies to demystify the process and encourage participation.
• Docubase is interactive. We invite you to participate and learn from this growing community of digital documentary makers. Comment. Suggest a project or a tag. Write a playlist.