Interactive Cinema on DVD in the Discourse of Audiovisual Art
Baltic Journal of Legal and Social Sciences
This article examines interactive DVD cinema (late 1990s–mid-2000s) as an artistic phenomenon. Using art historical analysis, case studies, and comparison with the FMV format, the research explores its evolution within audiovisual and interactive media. Key results include identifying how DVD technology's capabilities (capacity, non-linear access) enabled the format, while remote control and DVD-Video limitations constrained interactivity design and aesthetics. A typology of interactive narrative strategies (nodal branching, parallel, labyrinth, environment-based) is proposed, and differences from FMV in technology, interactivity, narrative, and cultural positioning are highlighted. This study represents the first systematic art historical analysis of the format. It concludes that interactive DVDs were a unique, shortlived experimental stage influencing later interactive media. Future research directions involve in-depth case studies and digital preservation.
Findings
DVD capacity and non-linear access enabled interactive cinema as a domestic format, while remote-control interaction and DVD-Video constraints shaped its limited agency and aesthetics. The paper proposes a typology of strategies — nodal branching, parallel, labyrinth, environment-based — and distinguishes interactive DVD from FMV by technology, interactivity, narrative, and cultural positioning.
Conclusions
Interactive DVD cinema was a short-lived but formative experimental stage in audiovisual art. Its lessons — menu as dramaturgy, constrained agency, hybrid viewing — remain relevant for later interactive media. Further work requires deeper case studies and digital preservation.
DOI: 10.30525/2592-8813-2025-3-12.
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