Arnau Gifreu-Castells
Arnau Gifreu Castells is a Doctor in Communications (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2013; CAC Awards 2013) and has a Master’s Degree in Digital Arts (UPF, 2005). Accreditation obtained from ANECA and AQU (Spain). He has been a research affiliate at the Open Documentary Lab (MIT, 2013-2018) and part of the i-Docs group (University of the West of England). Member of the research group Medium (UPF). He has published various books and articles in his research area, interactive, transmedia and immersive non-fiction, and specifically on interactive documentaries. He has published in journals such as International Journal of Communication, Studies in Documentary Film, Curator: the Museum Journal, Collection and Curation, Museum Management and Curatorship or Lecture Notes on Computer Science, and in editorials such as Wiley-Blackwell, Columbia University Press, Penguin Random House, Síntesis, Tirant lo Blanch, etc.
He has worked as a producer at 25TV (2000-2004), collaborator at Televisió de Catalunya (Department of Learning Programs, 2013-2014), advisor and collaborator of RTVE.ES (Department of Interactive Media, ‘Somos Documentales’, 2014-2018) and creative and interactive producer at RTVCPlay (Colombia, 2020-2023). He has worked as a producer and director at Tasmania Films and Alexander Productions (2004-2006), and co-directed the production company Espill Media (2013-2017). He coordinated interDocsBarcelona, the interactive section of DocsBarcelona International Documentary Film Festival (2013-2018). He is part of the Mediamorfosis Festival coordinating the training area.
Since 2005, he has been involved in degrees at 15 universities and more than 25 postgraduate programs in countries such as Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, Romania and Greece. He is a lecturer at Autonomous University of Barcelona and invited teacher at EICTV (Cuba). Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) and the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), the Catedra Latinoamericana de Narrativas Transmedia (ICLA-Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina), Bug404 project (Brazil) and Alados (Colombia). He collaborates with the International Centre for New Media (European Youth Award, Austria). He has served as a scholarship evaluating jury for La Caixa (2018-2023) and a member of the ICIDS (International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 2019) conference committee.
Supervisors: Dr. Carlos A. Scolari and Dra. Glòria Jové Monclús
He has worked as a producer at 25TV (2000-2004), collaborator at Televisió de Catalunya (Department of Learning Programs, 2013-2014), advisor and collaborator of RTVE.ES (Department of Interactive Media, ‘Somos Documentales’, 2014-2018) and creative and interactive producer at RTVCPlay (Colombia, 2020-2023). He has worked as a producer and director at Tasmania Films and Alexander Productions (2004-2006), and co-directed the production company Espill Media (2013-2017). He coordinated interDocsBarcelona, the interactive section of DocsBarcelona International Documentary Film Festival (2013-2018). He is part of the Mediamorfosis Festival coordinating the training area.
Since 2005, he has been involved in degrees at 15 universities and more than 25 postgraduate programs in countries such as Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, Romania and Greece. He is a lecturer at Autonomous University of Barcelona and invited teacher at EICTV (Cuba). Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) and the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), the Catedra Latinoamericana de Narrativas Transmedia (ICLA-Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina), Bug404 project (Brazil) and Alados (Colombia). He collaborates with the International Centre for New Media (European Youth Award, Austria). He has served as a scholarship evaluating jury for La Caixa (2018-2023) and a member of the ICIDS (International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, 2019) conference committee.
Supervisors: Dr. Carlos A. Scolari and Dra. Glòria Jové Monclús
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Conference Presentations by Arnau Gifreu-Castells
--- Abstract: Increased access to Augmented Reality (AR) through social media applications has resulted in an emergent class of media practitioners. Many practitioners produce AR filters that alter a user's face or body. Researchers have shown that such filters can negatively impact self-perception and well-being (Eshiet, 2020; Kleemans et al., 2018; Tiggemann & Velissaris, 2020). Adolescents and young people are particularly susceptive to these harmful effects (Javornik et al., 2022). Current trends and future-oriented work imply that as AR and other immersive media become prevalent, discerning whether a representation is of non-augmented reality becomes more complex. Accordingly, from data privacy to neo-globalist exploitation, AR filter designers, developers, and distributors become complicit in a media ecosystem with immediate negative consequences. Further, the non-compensated production of these AR filters for platforms means social media gatekeepers exploit both designers and audiences. However, these two populations could work together toward a more ethical AR ecosystem. A recent study has demonstrated that AR filter's adverse effects are ameliorated when posts present side-by-side images-one image, un-augmented; one image augmented (Tiggemann & Anderberg, 2020). These posts are artifacts of the didactic "Instagram vs. Reality" movement. This movement's lessons and insights can inform what media literacy might look like for AR. Given the medium's psychological and epistemological impact, increased literacy helps to inform, empower, and protect individuals from misleading representations. This article proposes several interaction mechanisms for communicating when representations are augmented and when they are not by combining insights from documentary studies, immersive media design, and Instagram vs Reality movement.
---- Abstract: The history of the evolving field of new media work is pushing individuals to take a huge effort to preserve important artifacts and analyse projects. Extended Nonfiction is a project that promotes the study, training, production and preservation of audiovisual, interactive, transmedia and immersive nonfiction narratives. Extended Nonfiction is an informative, formative and productive proposal that places emphasis on the field of reality, on real stories; but not just any reality, on expanded and extended reality.
Online link: https://isea2022.isea-international.org/event/lightning-talk-collecting-and-preserving-expanded-extended-nonfiction/
---- Abstract: This work questions the ethical and moral limits of practicing realism in immersive non-fiction. To establish these practices, the non-fiction media ecosystem is analyzed from traditional to emerging immersive forms. Through the description and presentation of the immersive nonfiction area, a provisional set of elements, variables, indicators and parameters that impact practices and ethics of realism are presented. These compositional elements can be implemented in the design, development and production of experiences for audiences that respect social, cultural, political, physical, and material realities.