New Experiences in “The Space We Hold”.
The narrative I have chosen is an interactive documentary called “ The Space We Hold,
This documentary tells the story of three women called “The Grandmas”, who were part of the estimated 200,00 young women and girls, known as “comfort women.”, who were kidnapped and enslaved by the Japanese imperial army during WWII. The documentary uses both video and text to move visitors through the site and the stories in the way of their choice. The form of this documentary provides an individualized experience to each of its visitors in a way that is unique to modern media by giving the visitor full control over if and how the story is told to them, providing variety in delivery of the narrative, and creating a space of inclusion .
From the very beginning, “The Space We Hold” acknowledges its visitors and is diverse in how the narrative is delivered. For example, the site begins by delivering some of its information in written form. Visitors enter the site and are presented with what looks like a star filled sky, where the word “we” in its title is replaced with the word “you”. When the title returns to its original state, visitors are instructed to “scroll” to the bottom of the page. Once there, the only role of the visitor is to watch and listen to a video, narrated by the creator of the documentary. The video which verbally explains the creator’s connection to the subject matter and provides us her back story, uses both verbal and written language.
On the page that follows, there is a gentle warning about the sensitive material to come. At this point, visitors are asked a question that gives them a role in how the narrative will move forward. “Would you like to listen to the Grandma’s stories?” precedes simple, “Yes” or “No” options that continues to acknowledge freedom of choice.
This element of the documentary’s form is not only how the creator gives space for the visitor to be still and process the sensitivity of the information to come, it also gives visitors a level of control over the progression of the narrative. Visitors are able to seriously consider if they would like to continue with the story when speech is replaced by a short-written history of the subject matter and an introduction to the stories to follow. No audio, no video, just space to consider and decide, which means nothing on the page changes and the story does not move in any direction one way or the other until the Visitor makes their selection. Respectfully, if the visitor makes the choice to not listen to the stories and selects option “No”, they are taken back to the star filled sky home screen where each of the stars represent a comment left by a visitor moved to do so, are now live clickable links. On the other hand, visitors who select option “yes” and would like to listen to the Grandma’s share their stories continue to be offered opportunities to dictate the direction of the story throughout its entirety.
This is unique to the form of modern media like this because typically internet audiences have to follow the story into its body before they are able to truly tell if they would like to continue. Typically, with other forms there are distractions in the form of music and various other kinds of audio and video that may serve as a distraction or temptation to its audience to progress through the story. In written form, by the time readers process and comprehend what they have read, it could already be too late for personal censorship while video form can often move so fast with moving pictures and sounds that by the time you find the “stop” button it is again too late.
Whether they listened to the stories or not, at the end of the documentary, every visitor is presented with the star filled sky page and encouraged to leave a comment of their choice. Inviting them to become participants in the written portion of the narrative is
one of the ways the site in its form attempts to foster an environment of inclusion between, creators, the women featured and, its visitors.
Print, video, and search engines have specific forms the affect the way we read their narratives. Because of these forms, most of us tend to have very similar experiences that are guided by that media’s creators to the designated ending in the expected amount of time. Today’s modern media has changed the way each of us take in their narratives by using forms that have the ability to reach audiences of all kinds and giving them control over how they receive the content. The Space We Hold, is an example of modern media that provides an individualized experience to each of its visitors in a way that is unique to modern media by giving the visitor full control over if and how the story is told to them, providing variety in delivery of the narrative, and creating a space of inclusion. Making space for everyone and giving visitors the option to say no, time to take in and process parts of its narrative by alternating between clicks of the mouse can help visitors understand the overall moral of the narrative to a deeper level than less multi-dimensional forms of the past.
