Research - MIT Open Documentary Lab

All
Courses
Documentaries
Publications
Theses
White Papers
Working Groups

Layers of Place: MIT Artfinity 2025

Augmented Reality, Location-Based

Embodiment, AI and the Perception of the Real – An IDFA MIT Research and Development Network Report 2024

Publications, White Papers

Video Game by Folly Feast Lab

Documentaries

What’s the Move?

Documentaries

Prototyping the Future: How Artists Reveal the Future of Media At IDFA DocLab – A Research Report

Publications, White Papers

Layers of Place: Expanded Documentary in Public Space Working Group

Working Groups

Access and Disability Innovation Working Group

Working Groups

Video Nation Redux by Mandy Rose

Documentaries

Seeing Food

Documentaries

People’s Republic of Letters by Ruoyun Chen

Documentaries

Immersive Network Research & Development Program 2023

Case Studies, Publications, White Papers

A screenshot of a news broadcast showing small figures holding their hands up as they walk away from a building. The words "The Innocence of Unknowing" are written in black text on top of the image.

The Innocence of Unknowing by Ryat Rezbick

Documentaries

A photo of two darkened hands cupped together to hold a coca leaf with sound waves coming out of it. The hands are in front of a green background. At the top, "A Hybrid Altar to Coca" is written in all-caps white text.

A Hybrid Altar to Coca by Diana Rico Muñoz

Documentaries

A wide photo of many small white houses on a green hill. Behind the hill is a mountain and some dark clouds. Text on the image says "Dr. Meghna Singh & Simon Wood" "Enacting Futures" "Occupying the Digital" on three separate lines.

Enacting Futures: Occupying the Digital by Meghna Singh and Simon Wood

Documentaries

An out-of-focus image of a mountain landscape with the words "Untitled Marjolaine Grappe Film" written on top in all-caps, white text.

An Untitled Project by Marjolaine Grappe

Documentaries

A computer-generated image of African figures in white clothng seated at a yellow table in front of a colorful background.

The Global Mapping of Dreams by Pierre-Christophe Gam

Documentaries

"Accessibility Resource List for Interactive and Immersive Media" written in all-caps on a green background.

Accessibility Resource List for Interactive and Immersive Media

Case Studies

The words "Immersive Archive" in all caps on a green background.

Immerse Archive

Publications

Becoming Schizophrenic:* Affective Storytelling with Generative AI by Sahar Sajadieh

Documentaries

A black-and-white, computer-generated image of a longhouse surrounded by trees under a cloudy sky.

Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa’kówa í:se Onkwehonwe by Jackson 2bears Leween

Documentaries, Interactive, Virtual Reality

Indigenous shapes and artwork carved into a mossy stone wall in Panama.

A Community Archive for the Seventh Generation by Louis Massiah

Documentaries

The text "Creating Community in Hybrid Festivals" on a green background.

Creating Community in Hybrid Festivals

Publications, White Papers

A title card reading "2022 - Fall Courses" on a red-orange background.

Fall 2022 Courses

Courses

Title card reading "IMMERSIVE NETWORK RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 2022" with green background.

Immersive Network Research & Development Program 2022

Publications

A still of a figure surrounded by smoke under blue lighting.

The Culture Archive

Artificial Intelligence, Documentaries

A poster for Moving Realities featuring a digitally-rendered figure standing in a colorful virtual performance space.

Moving Realities by Lori Landay

Augmented Reality, Documentaries, Performance, Virtual Reality

Jack Dappa Blues by Lamont Pearley

Documentaries, Interactive

Bunce Island: Through the Mirror by Max Musau

Collaborative, Documentaries, Interactive

A stylized image of three buffalo

WAVES OF BUFFALO by Tasha Hubbard and Jason Ryle

Augmented Reality, Documentaries, Installation, Virtual Reality

UNWRITTEN LAND by Natasha Blatsiou

Documentaries, Interactive

Bridging the Gap by Milad Mozari

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

A photo of an iPhone displaying content from John Craig Freeman's Climate Change Migration Stories.

Climate Change Migration Stories by John Craig Freeman

Augmented Reality, Documentaries

The Response by Mathieu Pradat

Documentaries

Spring 2022 Courses

Courses

The Museum of Black Joy by Andrea Walls

Documentaries, Installation, Interactive

Wa’Omoni Rising by Ngardy Conteh George

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Digitally rendered plant-life in 40-acres.

40-acres by Tamara Shogaolu

Documentaries, Installation, Interactive

to be changed by Shirin Anlen

Documentaries

Fall 2021 Courses

Courses

Immersive datascapes (and other modes of knowing) by Giulia Taurino

Documentaries

Mapping Blackness by Carla Bishop

Current Research, Documentaries, Research

How New VR Projects Are Exposing Social Injustices

Articles, Publications

Community Can Save Us: How Three New Media Works Spoke to the Challenges of Modern Times

Articles, Publications

I Come From Giants by Cindy Bishop

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Territories of Exclusion by Gabriel Vieira Posada

Documentaries, Participatory

Meshmemories by Fabiano Mixo

Augmented Reality, Current Research, Documentaries

How Black Storytellers Are Using XR and Afro-Futurism to Explore Ancestral Identity

Articles, Publications

1 to Infinity by Danny Goldfield

Documentaries

To Live 10,000 Years by Danny Goldfield

Documentaries

1 Earth City (aka NYChildren) by Danny Goldfield

Documentaries

2021 Spring Courses

Courses

Mindscapes: An Exploration of Audiovisual Mental Health Literacy

Articles, Current Research

Atomfa by Joanna Wright

Current Research, Documentaries, Participatory

Field Guide For a National Park by Joanna Wright

Augmented Reality, Documentaries

Immersive Experience Design: A Workbook for UX Designers, Filmmakers, Artists, and Content Creators

Current Research, Publications

The Broom by Nim Shapira

Current Research, Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Language Is Leaving Me by Ellen Pearlman

Current Research, Documentaries

Lanternology: The Magic Lantern and the Possibilities of the Projected Image

Books, Current Research, Publications

In Event of Moon Disaster by Halsey Burgund and Francesca Panetta

Artificial Intelligence, Current Research, Documentaries, Installation

Transeuntis Mundi by Gabriel Mário Velez

Current Research, Documentaries

Inverse Surveillance Project by Assia Boundaoui

Current Research, Documentaries

‘My Slave Wrecks Journey’ by Tara Roberts

Current Research, Documentaries

The Decolonizing Science Documentary Film Project by Kendall Moore

Current Research, Documentaries

The Chemistry of Racism by Penelope Jagessar Chaffer

Current Research, Documentaries

Compassion by Yucef Merhi

Current Research, Documentaries, Installation

Wampum.code by Amelia Winger-Bearskin

Current Research, Documentaries

A Father’s Lullaby by Rashin Fahandej

Current Research, Documentaries, Installation, Participatory

‘Chronicle of a Fall’ by Nadav Assor and Tirtza Even

Current Research, Documentaries, Installation

Last Days at the Duncan by Joshua Glick

Current Research, Documentaries

2020 Fall Courses

Courses

Sundance VR Programming Showcased Much More Than Movies in a Headset

Articles, Publications

Sundance VR Tackled Climate Change With Groundbreaking New Projects

Articles, Publications

2020 Spring Courses

Courses

Go Back Fetch It by Charity Everett

Augmented Reality, Documentaries

radiant drift by Rachel Devorah

Documentaries

Scales of Influence: Documentary, Democracy, and the Value of Reality

Books, Publications

Operational atmosphere: mediating policing in the “fight against crime” and “rural terrorism” in Chile

Theses

Casting the Vote by June Cross

Documentaries, Interactive, Live, Participatory, Performance

Arrival VR by Kathy Bisbee

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

A 39,000-Year History of Virtuality by Rus Gant

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

COLLECTIVE WISDOM: Co-Creating Media within Communities, across Disciplines and with Algorithms

White Papers

Chomsky Vs Chomsky by Sandra Rodriguez

Artificial Intelligence, Documentaries, Location-Based

MANIC VR by Kalina Bertin and Sandra Rodriguez

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Big Picture VR by Sandra Rodriguez and Karen Vanderborght

Documentaries

_ReWriting publics by Sandra Rodriguez

Documentaries

2019 Fall Courses

Courses

Mémoire by Rachel Devorah

Documentaries, Installation

orange drop by Rachel Devorah

Documentaries

50 year accumulation 2 day sale by Dahlia Elsayed & Andrew Demirjian

Documentaries

ANATTĀ by Andrew Demirjian

Documentaries

A ‘‘proper point of view’’: The panorama and some of its early media iterations

Articles, Books, Publications

Reassessing the Situation of the Text in the Algorithmic Age

Articles, Books, Publications

VR: between hope, hype, and humbug

Articles, Publications

Augmenting Reality: The Markers, Memories, and Meanings Behind Today’s AR

Articles, Publications

Cañi, Chile: A Sensory Engagement with the Question of Multiplicity in Forest Conservation

Articles, Publications

Media, Communication, and Intersectional Analysis: Ten Comments for the International Panel on Social Progress

Articles, Publications, Research

The Print that Binds: Local Journalism, Civic Life and the Public Sphere

Research, Theses

Design Justice, A.I., and Escape from the Matrix of Domination

Articles, Publications, Research

Sundance VR: The 2019 Festival Showed That the Future Is Not Passive Viewing

Articles, Publications, Research

A.I. as Auteur: Interactive ‘Frankenstein’ Experience Shows How Artificial Intelligence Could Be Storytelling’s Future

Articles, Publications, Research

Virtual Reality Gets Social: At Sundance, Proof that the Future of VR is Shared Experiences

Articles, Publications, Research

2019 Spring Courses

Courses, Research

2018 Fall Courses

Courses, Research

#OpenLetterInteractive by Eliza Capai

Documentaries, Interactive, Research

Marrow by Shirin Anlen

Artificial Intelligence, Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Limbic Lab, Narrative Engine & Media Machine by Heidi Boisvert

Artificial Intelligence, Documentaries, Performance

Walking Wounded by Heidi Boisvert

Documentaries, Generative, Performance, Sensors

Supporting Change with Immersive Documentaries by Carles Sora

Documentaries

Conversations by Anandana Kapur

Documentaries, Interactive, Research

2018 Spring Courses

Courses

The Enemy by Karim Ben Khelifa

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Things to Come: The Possible Futures of Documentary from a Historical Perspective

Articles, Publications, Research

Re-Enchanting Spaces: Location-based Media, Participatory Documentary, and Augmented Reality

Theses

Vavilov: The Correct Planting of Cabbage Seedlings by Callum Cooper

Documentaries, Installation, Live, Research

Land Marking by Halsey Burgund

Augmented Reality, Documentaries, Location-Based, Participatory

Radio Right Left by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Participatory, Research

Bog People by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Location-Based, Participatory

VR in the Real World: How an Emerging Technology Could Change the World

Articles, Publications, Research

Afrofuturist Virtual Reality Installation Reimagines the Future for Women Of Color

Articles, Publications, Research

Zeki Müren Hotline by Beyza Boyacioglu & Jeff Soyk

Documentaries, Interactive, Participatory

Embodied Montage: Reconsidering Immediacy in Virtual Reality

Theses

Virtually There: Documentary Meets Virtual Reality

Publications, Research, White Papers

Unreserved by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Location-Based, Participatory, Research

From the Mouths of Monkeys by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Installation, Location-Based, Research

Faint Earth Murmur by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Installation, Research

Hospital with one entrance and two exits by Deniz Tortum

Documentaries, Research, Virtual Reality

Inheritance by Jeff Soyk

Documentaries, Interactive

VRDoodler by Cindy Bishop

Documentaries, Virtual Reality

Invisible Monument by Lara Baladi and Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Installation, Location-Based

Tributaries by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Location-Based, Participatory

Interactive Data Narrative: Designing for Public Engagement

Theses

Staged Empathy: Empathy and Visual Perception in Virtual Reality Systems

Theses

Evaluating Interactive Documentaries: Audience, Impact and Innovation in Public Interest Media

Theses

re~verse by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Location-Based

How Virtual Reality Technology is Changing Documentary Filmmaking

Articles, Publications, Research

Live Action Virtual Reality: The Big Picture

Articles, Publications, Research

Universe Within by Kat Cizek

Collaborative, Documentaries, Interactive

Roundware by Halsey Burgund

Documentaries, Interactive, Location-Based, Participatory

Mapping the Intersection of Two Cultures: Interactive Documentary and Digital Journalism

Research, White Papers

Re-thinking the Social Documentary by William Uricchio

Articles, Publications, Research

To Create Live Treatments of Actuality: An Investigation of the Emerging Field of Live Documentary Practice

Theses

Offside by David Dufresne

Documentaries, Game

The Hidden Depths of ‘Coral: Rekindling Venus’

Articles, Publications, Research

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love ‘The World Brain’

Articles, Publications, Research

On Sundance’s Surprise Breakout Star: TV

Articles, Publications, Research

What Sundance’s New Frontier Is Building In (and Out) There

Articles, Publications, Research

How ‘The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film’ Demonstrates Crowdsourcing in Action

Articles, Publications, Research

An MIT Student At Sundance 2013

Articles, Publications, Research

‘Index’ Fingers at Sundance’s New Frontier

Articles, Publications