You can view a video of the interactive in use:
Tony Buba Video: RealVideo (broadband connection recommended)

Pittsburgh filmmaker Tony Buba was named Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Artist of the Year in 1998. Buba was the first filmmaker to be given the honor, and new approaches to both exhibition design and documentation were required. Jason was commissioned by PCA curator Vicky Clark to develop a CD-ROM to accompany the exhibition, in lieu of a printed catalog.

Buba's films are deeply rooted in the life of his family and community. Braddock, a once thriving steeltown, has provided much of the raw material for Buba's evocative portrayals of the decline of industrial Pittsburgh.

The project was approached with several objectives: 1. provide a retrospective of Buba's 25 years of filmmaking, 2. explore the themes running through his work, 3. "site" the user experience in his physical environment, and 4. continue to explore the possibilities for interactive narratives.

The resulting documentary intertwines exploration of Buba's home with clips from most of his films (several short films are provided in their entirety), interviews with Buba and his mother, and commentary from Bill Judson, the former curator of film at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Navigation through the video content is largely by association. Software developed for the project interconnects the videos with a web of thematic information. For example, watching a clip about Buba's grandfather causes the software to search for all clips which mention or are related to his grandfather, and the matching clips are offered as links. The video of the interactive in use demonstrates this scenario.

The documentary presents one possible model for nonlinear narrative structures. It is an emergent narrative, with no predefined middle or end, and an infinite variety of paths through the story.

You can view a somewhat technical system architecture diagram.