An Interview with Florian Thalhoffer, Media Artist and Documentary Maker

Abstract

While studying at the University of the Arts, Berlin in the 1990s Florian Thalhofer began exploring computerised storytelling. Approaching documentary computationally, he developed a structure that would allow the computer to become part of the storytelling process. The result was Korsakow a program for arranging video fragments into an interactive experience (the name references ‘Korsakoff’s Syndrome’ a condition associated with extreme alcoholism characterised by memory loss and compulsive storytelling). Since 2000, Thalhofer and others have created around 200 Korsakow films, many of which are web-documentaries. Links to many of these projects can be found at: http://korsakow.org/