The research project «CineMinds» creates an online archive of craft knowledge in cinema, based on interviews with international filmmakers. «CineMinds UX» develops the user interface component in cooperation with staff and students at ZHdK. «CineMinds» is a cooperation between the Zurich University of the Arts and the University of Zurich in collaboration with the World Association of Film Schools CILECT funded by the Digitalization Initiative of the Zurich Higher Education Institutions DIZH and the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film IPF.
cineMINDS UX provides user interface development and research for the cineMINDS project through workshops with teachers, researchers and filmmakers at the ZHdK.
The research project cineMINDS develops an interactive audiovisual archive of cinematic knowledge collected through on-camera interviews and workshops with film practitioners. The structure of these conversations follows previously developed guidelines.
The filmed material is analyzed, segmented and annotated using the semi-automated video annotation software VIAN-DH. Our custom-built web interface will make the data searchable by keywords and thematic fields. The search results are enhanced with visual overlays of accompanying materials: excerpts from the films to which the interviewees refer, in-depth information on related film technology and references to existing specialist literature. Complex knowledge references thus become efficiently and intuitively explorable.
cineMINDS will develop new methods and perspectives for film education, the digital humanities and scholarship. We aim to create protocols for investigating tacit knowledge that can be applied to various domains. We see the online world as an opportunity to democratize and diversify artistic knowledge. We aim to demystify the elitist concept of «secret knowledge» that still surrounds cinematic practice and give film artists from all over the world a voice.
cineMINDS is a collaboration between the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the University of Zurich (UZH) led by Manuel Flurin Hendry (Department of Film FFI), PD Dr. Simon Spiegel (Department of Film Studies FiWi) and Prof. Dr. Noah Bubenhofer (Linguistic Research Infrastructure LiRi) with support from the Institute of the Performing Arts and Film (IPF), the International Association of Film and Television Schools (CILECT) and the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF).