Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database

Soft Cinema is a dynamic media installation constructed from a large media database and custom software. The software edits movies in real time by choosing the elements from the database using the systems of rules. It decides what appears on the screen, where, and in which sequence; it also chooses music tracks. In short, Soft Cinema can be thought of as a semi-automatic VJ (Video Jockey)—or more precisely, as a FJ (Film Jockey). The system is used to author editions in different styles, including “film essays,” fictional narratives, and non-narrative “music videos”. While the underlying software remains the same, each edition presents a different narrative and uses a different subset of the media database. In addition to the movies, the Soft Cinema project also includes architectural designs, print catalogs, and other manifestations in screen and physical spaces.

This book presents the general concepts behind the Soft Cinema project, documentation of the edition produced for the exhibition FUTURE CINEMA. The Cinematic Imaginary after Film (November 16, 2002 – March 30, 2003) at ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, and a number of architectural projects created for this edition. The book concludes with the short fictional story “Texas,” which this edition uses as the text for the voice-over narration.

All multi-frame images appearing in the book were produced by using Soft Cinema software specifically for the book. The software was also used to generate the design layouts.