Haiku is a highly formalized Japanese form of short poem. It describes phenomena within the space of a single breath, using our senses and our emotions. The instantaneous nature of haiku invites both reflection and imagination.
On the Internet, everything is fast. Very very very fast. We consume more and more shorter and shorter content. Snapchat, Twitter, Vine, the most-shared BuzzFeed lists – everything is designed to be rapidly ingested. But just because something is short doesn’t mean it can’t have depth. After all, there are plenty of powerful short films, web clips rich in content, poems filled with intensity, and haikus pregnant with meaning…
The National Film Board of Canada and ARTE hit on the idea of adapting the haiku formula to the digital age. Together, they sought submissions from creators who were up to the challenge of producing interactive explorations that met the following 10 criteria:
- The experience should be 60 seconds long.
- It should inspire us to see the world we live in differently.
- One interactive concept should be used.
- It should employ a full browser design with common NFB/ARTE header.
- No navigation menu should be used.
- It must include sound.
- It should be understandable and accessible to an international audience.
- Project creators must own or have released all rights.
- It must be computer and tablet friendly.
- It must break one of the creative rules.
Out of the 162 proposals received from around the world, 12 were selected. In addition to being short, the digital haikus they have created are surprising, moving and smart. Together, they form a collection of 12 interactive explorations.
The winning 12 interactive haiku proposals were chosen by an international jury made up of IDFA DocLab founder and curator Caspar Sonnen; OFFF Festival founder and programmer Héctor Ayuso; David Carzon, assistant editor at Libération; artist and computer engineer Jonathan Harris; NFB Interactive Studio head of production Marie-Pier Gauthier; ARTE web commissioning editor Alexander Knetig; and jury chair William Uricchio, professor of comparative media studies and principal investigator at the MIT Open Documentary Lab and the MIT Game Lab.
interactivehaiku.com
Cat’s Cradle (Canada)
Enter into the infinitely small, create ties with this Twister for your fingers and become gracefully familiar with the theory of everything.
Release: April 2
In 2007, Thibaut Duverneix became one of the co-founders and partners of Dpt.co (Departement), a creative studio based in Montreal, Canada. Until 2014, he worked as film and interactive director at the studio. Since then, his advertising and personal works have won various international prizes.
In 2012, he was named one of the New York Art Directors Club’s ‘Young Guns’, among the best creatives under 30 in the world. By bringing together his experience in music, photography, computer programming, animation and film, Thibaut’s practice is truly cross-disciplinary. An aggressive perfectionist with a big heart – albeit somewhat selective – Thibaut creates work that is funny, grotesque and sensual.
David Drury has been active in the fields of music and sonic arts for more than 15 years, working as a composer, sound designer, installation artist and consultant. David has written music for dance (Andrew Turner, Milan Gervais, among many), theatre (Wajdi Mouawad, Marie Brassard), television (series on TV5, TVA, V télé), film (Varial Studios, Antler Films, Bravo! Networks), and has composed for a large number of interactive and installation projects in collaboration with the NFB, Dpt, Daily Tous Les Jours, Decod.ca and Playmind Studios among others. His installations and interactive sound work have been featured in festivals ranging from the ICMC to Nuit blanche to Mutek, and his work has been recognized with numerous awards and honours including the Webby awards, Boomerang, Numix and Grafika.
Speech Success (Spain)
TThe crowd is huge, tightly packed, and merciless. All eyes are on you. Will you be cheered… or will you flame out
Release: April 2
Marcel Pié Barba (Barcelona, 1980)
Animation producer, designer and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Barcelona, and founding member of Estampa and L’Automàtica association. His interests are focused on audiovisual production and infographics. His works have been featured at various festivals and museums such as MACBA, Laboral, CCCB, CaixaForum, L’Alternativa and Animac.
Roc Albalat Gimeno (Barcelona, 1980)
Graphic designer, audiovisual producer, and founding member of Estampa and L’Automàtica association. He works on interactive audiovisual projects, experimental animation, editorial design, letterpress printing and interface research. He has been working in collaboration with institutions such as CCCB, Máster Documental Creativo UAB, CaixaForum, FEC Festival, and Animac.
Pau Artigas Vidal (Barcelona, 1978)
Web developer, interested in infographics and new ways of interaction and data visualization on the web. Computer Engineer from the Barcelona School of Informatics of the UPC. His work in visual arts includes the websites vosedoc.com, webdocsolos.com, and sombrasdelprogreso.com.
Jorge Caballero
Jorge Caballero earned a degree in Telecommunications Engineering and Audiovisual Communication Studies. Amongst many other occupations in the media, he is a producer and director of GusanoFilms, a company based in Barcelona and Bogotá. He was awarded at prestigious festivals such as BAFICI, FICG Guadalajara, Alternative Barcelona, and Tribeca Film Festival. He has won the National Award for Documentary Colombia twice. He develops interactive and transmedia projects like Borders.
Life is short (France)
From your first words to your last, it all goes too fast. Replay key moments of your life within seconds.
Release: April 2
Newly graduated from HEAR (Strasbourg) as an illustrator, Florian Veltman specializes in the direction of interactive experiences. He completed his university studies with a project that studied a new form of reading designed for the screen. The experience takes the form of an application and offers an allegory of the act of reading as a short story that combines short story, short film, comics and video games. Today, he works as an independent developer and experiments with new forms of interactive storytelling through video games.
Music is the Key of Life (Sweden)
Everyday objects all contain a melody. Scan everything around you, and let the music begin!
Release: April 2
Theodor Twetman
Theodor Twetman completed a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden and at the City University of Hong Kong. He also obtained a Bachelor’s degree with focus on algorithms and algorithm design. He is presently completing his Master’s thesis in computer vision on mobile phones. Over the last couple of years, he has implemented several web projects – the latest being one as sole creator and developer of the app trip4cast.com.
Viktor Lanneld
Viktor Lanneld recently graduated from Linköping University in Norrköping, Sweden, with a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and Communication. In a published thesis about responsive web design of the product navigation menu for e-commerce, he focuses on graphic design and interaction design.
Facing the Nameless (USA)
No longer is it possible to die without ever worshiping the virtual personality cult. Uncover the deceased from their anonymity.
Release: April 7
Ziv Schneider is a visual artist and experienced designer from Israel now living in New York. She previously studied visual communications and is currently a Masters candidate at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch NYU. Her work explores the usage of emerging technologies within art and design, searching for new forms of interaction and aesthetics. This project was created during an artist residency at Specular Projects.
Datum (Canada)
Datum is a creature faced with a series of options, of mountains to climb and of rivers to cross. Together, let’s ensure Datsum growth.
Release: April 9
Ben Swinden and Hamish Lambert are an experimental game making duo based in Montreal. Ben is a printmaking programmer while Hamish specializes in animation. Their games are goalless and playful experiments that range from point and click exploration games to miniature cosmos projected inside a tent that are controlled with a blanket. Their work has been exhibited internationally at festivals such as Indiecade, Gamercamp, and Vector.
Z… (France)
Slide the zipper. It will take you on a journey within yourself… and your screen.
Release: April 9
Collectif Lab212
Since 2008, Lab212 is a multidisciplinary artist collective with a tangible, delicate, and poetic approach.
Cyril Diagne
His accomplishments explore digital technologies to technical processes and unusual places, in order to materialize poetic interactive experiences. Cyril likes to get involved in the technical issues raised by innovative projects. His favourite tools are C++ programming, web technologies, CAD software, and electronics.
Béatrice Lartigue
Through a poetic and humanistic approach, Béatrice loves to design projects for people from different worlds. She conveys her work through a global lens. Her sensitivity to architecture allows for a dialogue between the project, its context during implementation, and its visitors interacting with it. Béatrice teaches at Gobelins, Paris.
Famograph (France)
The Internet soaks up and distributes your personal data. Take this test and find out what your friends really think of you.
Release: April 16
Pierre Jullian de la Fuente is an artist and digital design research engineer. Since 2007, he has worked on creative projects related to new technologies, integrating interactive features and innovative interfaces. He is particularly interested in the mapping of information and knowledge. He develops projects at the boundaries of research (médialab Sciences Po Paris) and creation (CiTu – Universités Paris I & VIII), significantly affected by the problems regarding access and usage of new media.
The Seasonal Stroller (France)
It is the rainy season, the harvest, the mating, the frost. Move slowly; it is the only way to enjoy the landscape.
Release: April 20
Théo Le Du Fuentes, interactive designer living in Paris, has been interested for several years now in new narrative forms. Having gained his experience with historical web documentaries of the Raspouteam collective (Journal Illustré de la Commune de Paris, 17.10.61), he looked to contribute to the independent gaming scene by creating innovative experiences bordering on gaming and documentary. His first project, typographic video game Type:Rider was a resounding success during its launch in October 2013 with over 400,000 copies sold worldwide. Today, at the head of the Cosmografik Studio, Théo continues to explore the playful realms, whether digital or tangible, and is currently developing his next project about The Vandals’ street art.
Barbara Govin is an illustrator and graphic designer for youth and publishing. Following her studies at École Estienne de Paris, she traveled to Strasbourg to pursue visual didactics at the Haute School Arts Du Rhin (Hear) Strasbourg. Since 2002, she’s been living and working in Paris as a freelancer.
Grand Bruit (Canada)
In the village of Grand Bruit, every ripple of your voice leaves a footprint. What mark do you want to leave?
Release: April 23
The Grand Bruit collective created by Étienne Desprès, Marc Larivière, Martin Rodriguez, and Simon Emmanuel Roux, examines interactive experiences questioning conventions and genres. In addition to their eponymous project, they are working on the design of a puzzle game in the second person, create false sets for the stage, and anticipate achieving the first adaptation of a Quebec theatre work as a video game.
Yogacara (Japan)
Do not move, relax and contemplate what lies before you. Only then will you experience your haiku.
Release: April 27
Yuichi Minamiguchi is a director, designer, and editor. He was born in Wakayama and now resides in Tokyo. He studied the history of Japanese ideas and Chinese philosophies at Reitaku University in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. He worked in a publishing company as an editor for ten years prior to becoming a freelance image director and designer in April 2011. In 2014, he directed the documentary film Night Train, to be released in 2015.
Phi (France)
Lost in the continuous flow of images? Take 3 minutes to rediscover their magic.
Release: April 30
Charles Ayats holds a Masters in Interactive Digital Experience from École des Gobelins/ENJMIN and CNAM of Paris. Interactivity and video game designer on web documentary projects and independent games, he designed interactive and participatory experiences, often enhanced with gaming technicalities to facilitate the transmission of knowledge. In 2013, he co-directed Type:Rider, a playful triptych on the history of typography. He works on other meaningful and innovative mediation projects for television and interactive agencies. His experience led him to explore the complementarities of media, music, image and video games to reach the narrative form of interactive video. His primary objective is to create a pleasant “game feeling”, focusing on the user experience by adapting the rules of interactive design and level design.