In all modern cultures, a dizzying amount of information is compiled by government bodies, market researchers and large companies like Google. In aggregate, this data offers an accurate if exhausting account of our collective daily comings and going. The amount of data available is gigantic, and it is becoming ever easier and more tempting to do something with it. We are seeing this particularly in the rise of the phenomenon of “data visualisation” among academics, web designers, media artists and, to an increasing extent, documentary makers.

Within Doclab, IDFA will examine how data visualisations reveal the most absurd, humbling, trivial and unexpected aspects of reality. The program, which is made up of films, web sites and interactive projects, will show a selection of those data visualisations from recent years that appeal the most to the imagination, and investigate how these relate to contemporary documentary cinema and cross media. Doclab 2008 is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Netherlands Cultural Broadcasting Fund (Stimuleringsfonds). For more information on this innovative multimedia program, visit the website: http://www.doclab.org/

Special attention will also be devoted to data visualisation within the five-day Any Media Documentary Workshop, led by MediaMatic and the IDFAcademy. The program features a Keynote Address by Cassian Harrisson, maker of the BBC project Britain From Above. On 27 November, a series of presentations will take place of projects that shed light on the relationship between documentary and data art manner. The presentation is moderated by Hans Maarten van den Brink (Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund)and will feature Yuri Engelhardt ( University of Amsterdam ), Serge van Schie (Microsoft Photosynth), David Mulder and Max Cohen de Lara (XML Architecture Research Urbanism) and Alexandre Brachet (Upian.com).

Sandy Mandelberger, IDFA Dailies Editor