Updated 09/12/11 – 16:30: @sboneham pointed me towards this BBC Click podcast where they discuss the Highrise project. Section starts at around 4m 50s.
Hat tip to @theokk for this one. Highrise:1 Millionth Tower is an interactive documentary on how a community of high rise residents in Toronto see a possible future for their neghbourhood.
This project, according to the site…
… is a concrete result of a community collaboration between residents, architects, documentarians and animators to re-imagine the particular spaces around these particular highrises.
This innovative approach to documentary making uses HTML5 and WebGL (Web-based Graphics Library).
Rather than play the documentary as a linear video, you are placed in a dynamic 3d environment (the light and weather change based on live data from Toronto) where you are free to explore the different pieces of media. It requires a browser compatible with HTML and WebGL – worked well on Chrome for me.
It reminds me quite a bit of the ground breaking Inanimate Alice, an early use of interactive storytelling.
Image – Lilian Chan, Howie Shia and Kelly Sommerfield, courtesy of the NAtional Film Board of Canada
