We recently attended the HASTAC Conference 2013 (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) at York University in Toronto organized by Caitlin Fisher and Maureen Engel. Florian, Matt, Midi, along with Mél Hogan (University of Colorado, Boulder) participated on the panel, The Korsakow System: Database Filmmaking for the Web. Florian introduced Money and the Greeks, his most recent Korsakow film, describing the ‘rating’ process he used for selecting the interviews, as well as recent screenings in Greece, Germany and Romania. Midi described her experience as a participant in the Canadian Forces Artist Program in Afghanistan, discussed the digital ‘toy cameras’ she brought with her, and shared her insight into making a K-film with limited footage. Mél Hogan presented her Dynamic Archiving project which she is currently developing with Eric Coomb using Korsakow as a tool for digital curation at the Brakhage Center for the Media Art/ s.

During the weekend, Phil, Midi and Concordia PhD student, M.E. Luka also presented their K-Films in-progress for feedback and discussion with the ARC team members. Florian’s presence was invaluable in addressing each filmmaker’s specific concerns and questions. Myriam Rafla a new PhD student in Communication Studies at Concordia was also introduced to the team. It proved to be a highly productive time.

On Saturday night, the D|N|A Anthology: Seven Interactive Essays on Digital Non-Linear Narratives edited by Monika Kin Gagnon and Matt Soar was launched at the Scott Library during the HASTAC reception. D|N|A was built using Scalar, a brand new content management system for ‘multimedia scholarship’ currently under development at USC. All the essays address various non-linear multimedia forms, offering a compendium of current projects, concepts and theorizing on the topic.

All in all, it was a constructive and inspirational couple of days!