Dramatic Databases

Ross Gibson
Research Professor of New Media & Digital Culture
University of Technology, Sydney

Tuesday 13 May 2003 at 11am

Abstract

I will talk about my work with 'dramatic databases'.   I am trying to develop a new type of cultural form with which to propose 'models' or 'what if' scenarios in which users/viewers/researchers encounter plausible and historically rigorous worldviews that account for archival evidence.   Most of my work entails finding historical fragments in the aftermath of some cultural 'breakage' or violence and then offering narrative or dramatic 'backfill' to explain the existence of this evidence.  More and more, I am interested in how searchable databases, as well as linear storytelling, can be used for such imaginative rather than didactic experiences.   I will show portions of a dramatic database that I have developed in response to a crime scene archive licensed from the NSW Police.

Short resume

Ross Gibson is an artist and writer who also makes films and multimedia systems. His books include: THE DIMINISHING  PARADISE (1984); SOUTH OF THE WEST (1992); THE BOND STORE TALES (1996); EXCHANGES: CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC (1996 edited) and SEVEN VERSIONS OF AN AUSTRALIAN BADLAND (2002). 

He has written and directed award-winning films, including the internationally influential CAMERA NATURA (1985) and WILD (1993).  He has also curated several acclaimed exhibitions, including the record-breaking 'Crime Scene' installation at the Justice and Police Museum in Sydney in 1999 and 2000, and REMEMBRANCE + MOVING IMAGE at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in 2003. 

He also writes songs and performs improvised image+text with music groups, including the celebrated Australian band, The Necks.  His new-media work also entails the production of content and the design and delivery of architectural cohesion and IT-systems for museums, public spaces and large dynamic databases.  Examples include the Museum of Sydney where he was senior consultant producer between 1993 and 1996, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image where Gibson was Creative Director during the estabishment phase between 1999 and early 2002. He is currently  Research Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at UTS.