Dr Sandra Gaudenzi

Dr Sandra Gaudenzi is a world expert in interactive narratives. She has been consulting, mentoring, researching, lecturing, writing, speaking and blogging about interactive factual narratives for the last twenty years.  

She is Course co-leader of the new Digital and Interactive Storytelling LAB MA - a place to explore, experiment and excel in the storytelling forms of our digital culture.

She is a Visiting Fellow at the Digital Cultures Research Centre (UWE, UK) where she co-directs the i-Docs conference and with whom she co-edited her recent book “i-docs: the Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary”, Columbia University Press.

She has also created, designed and hosted  !F Lab (Interactive Factual Lab) – a Creative Europe training scheme for interactive documentary makers, where people incubated and prototyped their interactive projects between 2015 and 2018.

Dr Sandra Gaudenzi started her career as a factual television producer and has kept a commitment to important and experimental stories that matter.

Recent projects include Corona Haikus (2020, Sandelion Productions) [see a webcast about the project here] and Digital Me (2016, BBC Taster) [see a presentation about the production process of DigitalMe here]

> read her industry interviews and case studies @ MIT's  docubase.mit.edu

> read her i-Docs articles (and discover about the symposium, community and research work) @  www.i-docs.org 

> follow her personal blog @ www.interactivefactual.net

My research mainly focuses on modes of interaction, forms of interactive storytelling and processes for digital storytelling ideation.

For modes of interaction, please see my PhD - The Living Documentary:  from representing reality to co-creating reality in digital interactive documentary. (14000 downloads so far!).

For forms of interactive storytelling, have a look to the book that I recently co-edited and co-authored,  i-docs: the Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary, Columbia University Press.

For storytelling ideation: leading the !F Lab training workshops has allowed me to develop a methodology of work in the field of interactive narratives, the WHAT IF IT process. You can download booklet about it, The !F Lab Field Guide to Interactive Storytelling Ideation.

My own production includes being Co-initiator of the collaborative project Corona Haikus (Sandelion Productions), and Creative Director of the DigitalMe interactive experience (BBC Taster) in coproduction with Helios Design Labs and BBC Learning, iWonder.  

Indicative BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Gaudenzi, S. (2022). Reflexive and Evolutive Agency as a strategy for deep personal and community change. Interactive Film & Media Journal, 2(2).

Gaudenzi, S., Kermanchi, J. and Wiehl, A. (2021) Co-creation as im/mediate/d caring and sharing in times of crises: Reflections on collaborative interactive documentary as an agile response to community needs. NECSUS.

Gaudenzi, Sandra and Paz, Andre  (2019) eds. BUG : Interactive and Immersive Narratives. Rio de Janeiro : Oi Press.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2019)  Moving from story-telling to story-experiencing. Aplhaville : Journal of Film and Screen Media, n. 17/2019.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2019) The !F Lab Field Guide to Interactive Storytelling Ideation. Available at: www.iflab.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/the-F-Lab-Field-Guide.pdf.

Gantier, S. and Gaudenzi, S. (2018) Vers un canevas méthodologique pour le design d’œuvres  audiovisuelles interactives, Interfaces Numériques, Vol. 7 – n°3/2018.

Gaudenzi, Sandra; Aston, Judith; Rose, Mandy (2017) i-docs: the Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary. New York: Columbia University Press.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2015) Strategies of Participation: the Who, What and When of Collaborative Documentaries. In: New Documentary Ecologies, Emerging Platforms, Practices and Discourses, ed. Nash, K., Hight, C., Summerhayes, C. Palgrave Macmillan.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2015) To Hack or not to Hack: Interactive Storytelling in the 21st Century. In: TVX'15Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for TV and Online Video. New York: ACM.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2014) Interactive Documentary. In: Ryan, Marie-Laure ed. Johns Hopkins Guide to   Digital Media and Textuality. John Hopkins University Press.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2013) i-docs and the Art of Intimacy [Internet]. Available from: http://i-docs.org/i-docs-and-the-art-of-intimacy/

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2013) The interactive documentary as a Living Documentary. In: DOC On-Line, Digital Magazine on Documentary Cinema, Special edition Webdocumentary n.14 (08/2013).

Gaudenzi, Sandra and Aston, Judith (2012) Interactive Documentary: Setting the Field. In: Studies in Documentary Film, 6: 2.

Gaudenzi, Sandra; Aston, Judith and Dovey, Jonathan (2012) eds. I-Docs Special Edition, Studies in Documentary Film, 6: 2.

Gaudenzi, Sandra (2013) The Living Documentary:  from representing reality to co-creating reality in digital interactive documentary [PhD]. Available from: http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/7997/

Selection of PUBLIC TALKS:

2021/22

- The use of Augmented Reality in interactive factuals – Mediamorfosis, Valparaiso, Chile

- Evolutive and Reflexive agency -  i-docs, Crisis and Multi-perspectival Thinking, London, UK

- Agency in i-docs – Mediamorfosis Lab, Chile

- Augmenting Reality in times of crisis – FLEFF, Ithaca, USA

- Immersion beyond VR, ICIDS – Tallinn, Estonia

- Interrogating the "i" of i-docs - MIBDO - Bogota, Colombia

- Artificial Intelligence and human stupidity (in digital storytelling) – Montreal, Canada

2019/20

Corona Haikus, a collaborative project in times of pandemic -  Lodz Film School, Poland

Co-creating in times of Corona Pandemics - i-Docs/MIT, webcast

Corona Haikus, a collaborative project in times of pandemic -  Lodz Film School, Poland

Why are interactive stories relevant today? – Universitad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia

2018

Immersive trends in interactive narratives – Mostra Bug, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The WHAT IF IT methodology for story concept development – Prototype Booster, Gent, Belgium

Challenges and trends in interactive Factuals – Riga, Latvia

2017

Why do i-docs matter? – Digital Culture Conference, Warsaw, Poland

Present and future of interactive factual narrative – Universitad de Santiago de Chile, Chile

Genres, trends and challenges of interfactuals – Artevelde University of Gent, Belgium

VR for Change – Cinema du reel, Nyon, Switzerland

2016      

Interactive Factual Narrative in Europe, Cross Media Zen, Vilnius, Lithuania

Web-Dox 2016 – Leuven, Belgium

I_dw workshop – Cinema du reel, Nyon, Switzerland

i-Docs 2016 - Bristol

i-docs: what are they? - Centre for Investigative Journalism, London

2015

To hack or not to hack – ACM TVX2015, Brussels

Web-Dox 2015 -  Leuven

I_dw workshop – Cinema du reel – Nyon, Switzerland

Personalised storytelling – Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Digital Me, presenting work in progress – OpenDocLab, MIT, USA

2014

The Highrise Project - The Barbican Centre, London

StoryBooster Workshop – Ravensbourne College, London

i-docs: what are they? - Centre for Investigative Journalism, London

Web-Dox 2014 – Leuven, Belgium

i-Docs 2014 - Bristol

Interactive documentaries in space and location – FilmForum, Gorizia - Italy

2013

Du webdoc à l’i-doc comment penser l’expérience utilisateur? - Pictanouveau, Tourcoing - France

For a new generation of web-native storytellers - Mozilla Festival, London

The i-doc as a relational entity -  Documentary Now, London

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.