idocs2011_2: artistry versus UeX?

Should artists have to user test?

The first breakaway panel at idocs2011 featured one of the leaders in the UeX field, Brigitte Kaltenbacher.  We had just sat through a tour of Alexandre Brachet's (@abrachet) Prison Valley idoc. Kaltenbacher praised Prison Valley but critised what had seemed to me only a few minutes before to be a clever digital storytelling tangibility tool.

Near the open of Prison Valley a form pops up, and has the new 'inmate' register. Kaltenbacher called it an "obstacle".

 Later, one of the organisers, Sandra Gaudenzi brought up user testing with Rodrick Coover, producer of the webdoc, Canyonlands.  He protested the idea.

One of the key features with social media interaction (let alone participation) is finding the 'in'-- relational identification, tangibility that makes the 'story' more real to the public. Kaltenbacher said (to paraphrase) 'people won't participate for the sake of participating, there has to be an identification point.' Mark Turner calls it 'small spatial stories.'

Tangibility comes in many forms, from a relational experiene you've had, to finding objects in gaming, to giving visitors at the Holocaust museum a passport card that details the personal history of a Holocaust victim. Tangibility is the key to a successful storytelling experience (games, social media, museum exhibits, etc), and vital to an interactive storytelling experience.

Tangibility can also be emotions provoked by scenes in films. Filmmakers use awkward angles, dark (or light) as storytelling techniques.  But to what extent can a storytelling technique become a barrier to a webdoc that it might not necessarily be if the webdoc weren't web-based?

Brachet could very easily have given an audience a prison form as they entered the cinema. What percentage would have filled it out?

He said that 25% of Prison Valley viewers are lost at the initial hotel room where there are a series of objects to explore (and the story behind their presense). This is near the beginning of the interactive experience. He also said that 25% make it to the end of Prison Valley, 9% to the end of one of his other webdocs, "Gaza Sderot".

Audiences in a cinema are captive-- they've paid money to be there. And if they don't like the film, they don't tend to get up and leave. They stay, even if they're made to feel uncomfortable or awkward. Audiences for a webdoc aren't captive: they are a click from an exit.

Images in films and certain storytelling techniques are used with purpose to make an audience feel awkward and uncomfortable.  Cannot those be used in a webdoc / idoc without the threat of losing the audience? Is that the case for user-testing what was once solely an artistic experience?