Linear versus Non-linear

The WHAT [of this experiment]:

Three unconnected themes, reflected in three sets of video rushes that should all 3 be played at the same time. Each theme offers the options to choose specific videos from a playlist. The questions of this experiment are:

• Can they make a story?
• Would you brain find that story or the elements of a story and take it in?
• Is this story interesting to watch and where the story lies? Try it.

Play concurrently

1. THE BEACH (7 rushes)

2. LDN RELATIONS (10 rushes)

3. ART LOVER (10 rushes)

The WHY [of this experiment]:

To liberate meaning and the hermeneutics of storytelling by showing non-linear narrative structures are more open-ended in regard to interpretation and signifiers, and so more life-like and less closed, reductionist and rigid in scope. To paraphrase Chekhov, as adapted by Hollywood: if a gun is shown in the opening of a movie we know that it is central to the action that would follow. In our experiment, a gun can appear at any time and again, not just at a certain key point. More so when the gun is present it may serve more than one function alone in relation to the whole story being told.

The ultimate relevance of non-linearity, simultaneity and juxtaposition is that of being strategies which could elevate one’s work to Bakhtin’s more rewarding dialogic. The point being to go beyond proving that closed narrative structure that generally are the (American) norm are limiting and limited to a number of ‘propagandist’ paradigms. The number of simultaneous themes – in this case, three – one should/could work with and how to refine, shift between, expand or limit the interactions is an interesting topic to explore further.