CORPORATE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE VIDEOWALK FORMAT
1.1 Background and Context
1.2 Research Question
1.3 Objectives and Scope
1.4 Structure of the Thesis
2. Corporate Unconscious 2.1 Credits
2.2 Description
2.3 Video Documentation
2.4 Synopsis
2.5 Full Text
3. Theoretical framework 3.1 Videowalk: Exploring the Format
3.1.1. Walking as a type of art.3.1.2 Audiowalks
3.1.3 The emergence of Videowalk
3.1.4 Choosing the format3.2 Site-Specific Art and Spatial Narratives
3.3 Engaging Audiences in a Constructed Reality
3.3.1 Illusion and Engagement: The Rubber Hand Effect in Theater
3.3.2 We should invent reality before filming it
3.3.3 Simul Entertainment GmbH3.4 Meta-Score
4. Creative process 4.1 Concept Development
4.1.1 Synchronicity and simultaneity.
4.1.2 Corporate Language as a Narrative Tool4.2 Space research
4.3 Development of visual, auditory and performative identity
4.3.1 Corporate Identity
4.3.2 Art Direction and Stage Design
4.3.3 Performativity
4.3.4 Costumes
4.3.5 Music composition
4.3.6 Cinematography4.4 Dramaturgy and Script Development
4.4.1 Narrative Layers
4.4.2 Storytelling
4.4.3 Dramaturgical arc
4.4.4 Space Score and Timing4.5 Videowalk Production phases
4.5.1 Creation of Fake Historical Footage
4.5.2 Videowalk Filming
4.5.3 3D Modeling and Scanning of the Space
4.5.4 VFX Development and 3D Animated Scenes
4.5.5 Documentary Development4.6 Performance and Participation4.6.1 Installations & self-reflective moments
4.6.2 Leveled performances
4.6.3 Fake participants and recursive participation
4.6.4 Easter eggs4.7 Multimedia Techniques
4.7.1 LiDAR Scanning and As-build modeling
4.7.2 On-site shading and texturing
4.7.3 Character and animations
4.7.4 Camera tracking and VFX compositing
4.7.5 Virtual production and "inverse virtual production"
4.7.6 Video Game development
4.7.7 Spatial audio
4.7.8 AI text models
4.7.9 iOS playback app
5. Conclusion
6. Acknowledgments
7. References
Documenting realities as if they were real, is a technique that has been used widely by the genre of mockumentary. It invites us into a reflective dialogue on the nature of truth, fiction and how we read the world around us. Pierre Huyghe’s approach, underscores the necessity of constructing a world as the foundation of his projects. This methodology highlights the immersive nature of his practice but also the significance he places on the narrative and experiential dimensions of the worlds he makes.
In works like A Journey That Wasn't (2005) and Streamside Day (2003), Huyghe blends documentary elements with staged scenarios, leaving audiences questioning the existence of the subjects and events depicted. For instance, in A Journey That Wasn't, the line between the real expedition to find an albino penguin and the staged representation in Central Park is intentionally ambiguous. Similarly, Streamside Day documents a fabricated holiday in a small town, exploring how new myths and traditions can be created, accepted, and integrated into collective memory.
"Now we don’t know if I went there, if I saw this island, if I saw this white creature. Maybe I did, maybe is a special effect, people don’t know. What is important to me is to create wholes in the map. By doing so, you bring back some myth, create a zone of no knowledge"
This approach deliberately cultivates spaces of ambiguity, inviting viewers to navigate the uncertainty between documented reality and constructed narrative.
Transitioning from Huyghe's philosophical and practical approach to art-making, the mockumentary genre emerges as a tool with which similar questions of reality, fiction, and the viewer's engagement are explored, but within a more explicitly narrative framework. A mockumentary, by design, adopts the stylistic and structural conventions of documentary filmmaking to present fictional events or characters as if they are real. This genre thrives on the tension between the viewer's awareness of the artifice and the authentic documentary form's persuasive power.
An early example of the mockumentary format can be seen in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), a film that satirizes the rock and roll lifestyle with such verisimilitude that it becomes hard to judge the differences between the absurdities of its fictional band and the real-world eccentricities of rock musicians. The film's success lies in its ability to mimic the documentary style so convincingly that the absurd and the plausible become intertwined, showcasing the genre's potential to comment on reality through fabrication.
The Office (2001), both the British original and its American adaptation, represents the mockumentary genre in mainstream television. Originally written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the series represents mundane realities of office life through a fictional lens. The Office uses the documentary format to enhance the comedic and sometimes poignant moments of its characters' lives. The show's brilliance lies in its capacity to engage viewers with the authenticity of its setting and the relatability of its characters, all the while maintaining a critical, humorous distance facilitated by the mockumentary format.
"As I start a project, I always need to create a world. Then I want to enter this world, and my walk through this world is the work"
Pierre Huyghe in an Art21 interview, 2007.
"Now we don’t know if I went there, if I saw this island, if I saw this white creature. Maybe I did, maybe is a special effect, people don’t know. What is important to me is to create wholes in the map. By doing so, you bring back some myth, create a zone of no knowledge"
Pierre Huyghe in an Art21 interview, 2007.
"In articulating his process, Huyghe offers a succinct encapsulation of his methodology: "I occupy both sides of a divide: I build up a fiction and then I make a documentary of this fiction. The point is: we should invent reality before filming it"
Huyghe in an interview with George Baker, October, no.110, Autumn 2004, p.106