Now I’ll begin with the interactive internet project that I liked the least out of the list provided
http://www.sbs.com.au/goahippytribe/#/meet-the-tribe-introduction
Now the interactivity of the project was fairly accessible and well-done, with an interesting introduction to get you hooked on the upcoming interviews.
This definitely added to the story of the Goa Hippy Tribe; it made me engage and focus on what I was reading and doing a lot more than a passive video.
It even almost forces you to connect with the internet on this journey; but asking you to sign in to Facebook to ‘track’ your progress along the project… which was not something that I was comfortable with and subsequently declined.
The media used included video interviews, but which I found extensively boring and without enough context or mystery to keep me watching to the end. As well as text that you could scroll over at your leisure while watching the videos, although mostly it was a quote from the interview that you’re watching and thus redundant.
And I have no idea how the project creates an audience other than the SBS website, which I don’t think would attract enough attention, or either the ‘share to Facebook’ option which leaves the creation of the audience up to the level of effort or care that the viewer has at that point in time.
Overall, although a well-put together online interactivity; this was my least favourite project, mostly because the content was boring.
Now for my favourite project
http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/index.html
Now, despite it’s age, and fairly rudimentary interactivity, this project was my favourite simply because it was interesting.
The powerful images are the heart of this interactive online project about the horrific consequences upon the innocents surrounding Chernobyl.
The interactivity lies in the users ability to scroll over the images for text that supplies context and facts about the people pictured, or you may simply take in the words that image speaks to you.
The text definitely enhances the story, giving the information needed to understand the story, but it is done so that it does not automatically intrude upon the raw power of the image. We are allowed to take it in, untainted, until we wish to know more.
Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, this project has no interconnectivity with the web. Which is unsurprising considering its age, and also I believe that it doesn’t need all the connections to every other site, since it is mostly the one piece of work. Although I would have liked to directly-share this to Facebook, instead of having to go in a fairly roundabout way.
And as in the Goa Hippy Tribe piece, I have no idea how this project found its audience.
I just really enjoyed (was horrified) by the story it had to tell.
Tayla Bosley 