Interactive media as an alternative lifestyle

I think you understand 'Flow' perfectly. In fact, you're the first to pick it up, in relation to what I'm trying to do here, so quickly and with what seems to be a rich understanding of it. I like common ground :o)

It had not crossed my mind to draw parallels between interactive media and community/alternative living as you've done. Thanks for the insight. I get it, in order to live an alternative lifestyle as the UB were new rules had to be learnt, there were different challenges offered through UB living that weren't offered in the mainstream. The way I see it, the people that went off to join the UB had to be looking, searching for the joy of discovery. Mainstream culture wasn't giving them that so off they went to this new type of experience. They were referred to by the UB as 'seekers'. Perfect, as they were seekers of new life experiences. Perhaps in interactive doco we need to learn how to be seekers.

It is really interesting  to use this to understand more about interactive doco flow and to envisage a future for it.

I see that many of the aspects of UB life in 1978, things that were unique to these alternative lifestyles have now become an accepted part of mainstream living. Yoga, health & fitness in general, organic food, organic farming, meditation, eastern philosophy, ... the list could go on. I don't remember much about 1978 but I'm quite sure that none of these things were norms of mainstream living in Australia at that time. Fast forward 30 years, even 20 years, and look, all of these things are well accepted and even valued aspects of mainstream living in the 21st C. It is really interesting that you laughed (ok, we) - 'nazi youth camp' -  when we saw the vision of the UB people jogging around the property but when I drive to work each morning I see dozens of people jogging up and down the footpaths on Glynburn rd - why is this not so funny? Maybe it would be if we were part of a culture that didn't do that kind of thing.  Don't know. In terms of Flow, the UB culture had a 'rule' that health and fitness were good, our 21st C mainstream culture has the same 'rule' now.

Anyway this tells us that there's been a transferral from alternative to being mainstream over a period of time.  Although, not all aspects of UB life have become mainstream - I'm not sure anyone would be up for doing the Brotherhood Reel anytime soon :o/ ... even me.

If we return to the parallels you drew between interactive media and alternative living in your last posting then this tells us that while interactive media, documentary, at this point is alternative living. It offers different rules and challenges and requires different skills of both producers and audience (who must learn to become users or seekers). As you mentioned  - the UB & interactive media are disruptive systems to the norm. So we're sitting here in 'mainstream, traditional doco' land with all our rules and skills relevant to this and we look over there and wonder, how on earth can 'alternative/interactive doco' land ever Flow? What a funny place! Just like if you visited UB 1978 - you have different goals, skills, rules and are not into the challenges they were offering. Totally out of the flow.

Given this, will Interactive Doco Flow begin as we learn the new skills and rules required. Just like the UB seekers had to do? And what is it that would drive us to want to learn new skills and rules?

Csikszentmihalyi, in his book Creativity (1996) suggests that humans have two main tendencies - one toward entropy - the desire to rest, store energy - and another toward negentropy or creativity - the joy of discovery, growth, evolution. His study into creative people found that these people do what they do (paint, invent, research sell things, make things, whatever) for the joy of discovery. Not to finish it or for anything connected to the end result, but to engage in the process of discovery, learning, growing. He refers to this as an autotelic experience and identifies as key to Flow.

Contemporary society seems to have us geared toward entropy - can't wait for the weekend when i can rest, cant wait to finish this so I can rest, can't wait for my holidays etc. We're fast forwarding through life to get to the bits where we can rest. And of course, don't know about you but as soon as I do rest, I get bored and immediately want to get back into the creativity stream. It would also appear that the entire entertainment industry is all about feeding this desire to rest as well. Traditional media feeds our desire to rest doesn't it? Is this why Interactive media isn't flowing for us? If we could approach an interactive doco through our desire to be creative, learn, grow, evolve rather than our mindset of resting would the experience bring about Flow for us? Is this new skill required on the part of the audience? How can interactive doco get users into the state of the joy of discovery? Into that autotelic experience?

Documentary is particularly interesting. I've identified that, in terms of Flow, the goals of documentary are to learn or to know and to be entertained. Interesting. This genre appears to be attempting to feed both of our tendencies - sit back, rest and be entertained as well as pay attention and engage in the joy of discovering new things about this world. Interactive doco is perfect for allowing the creative aspect - to learn and know to be presented but doesn't follow the traditional rules of entertainment, especially suspension of disbelief. Doco commentator/author Bill Nichols disputes that suspension of disbelief happens in documentary, rather he calls it 'activation of belief' ... rubbish, it's the same thing as suspension of disbelief. And this is where Flow breaks down.

And this brings us nicely back to your question from last posting - Did the UB require suspension of disbelief to perpetuate flow? Yes. Although suspension of disbelief is brought through immersion, so that is also required. Flow requires that the outside world be dimmed so that the experience can overtake all of the senses and a loss of self awareness arises - i believe certain philosophies refer to this as 'being in the now'. Immersion in the experience is required. In filmic terms, immersion allows for the suspension of disbelief  Dark room separate from the ordinary world, loud sound, big screen ... all about shutting out the outside world. The UB lived separately from mainstream society, had big ideals and they all worked hard and were kept busy to keep the people in the Flow. hmm ... that description also works for the mainstream cult we all live in too, though.

Apologies for the extra long posting, so much to say!! I wonder if you can submit a PhD thesis by Blog?... this of course has discussed two streams of flow that my doco is trying to deal with - UB Flow and Documentary Flow. There is a third which I'll post about some other time, my Flow and where the UB and doco fit into that.

Thanks for listening. Writing this posting has brought me to some new insights ... and as a seeker of the joy of discovery that is awesome :o)