7 Sons is an interactive online documentary about Beduin culture of the Sinai peninsula. The documentary invites users to explore aspects of beduin life; ranging from camel racing and courting women to law and portrayals of Beduin humor. The mode of viewership still maintains a very traditional mode of viewership as one might experience in a theatre, however, it exists online, and therefore includes a database, and offers navigation and some interactivity. As the viewer enters the documentary, he is met by an introductory sequence that he cannot escape. Voices questions whether it is an 'art piece' or not. What follows is entirely up to the viewer. As videos stream and dialogue occurs, buttons appear to the right column, displaying terms that thread a presumable theme for the proactive viewer (Life Style, Daily Life, Mobile, Starts, Girls, Women, Beauty, etc.)
In this way, the documentary oscillates between several key interviewers and offers alternative sequences that tend to build a motif. In one moment, the viewer is able to encounter a looped moving image of a Beduin man riding a camel. The offer occurs after dialogue regarding 'race'. It is coupled with music by Adult. Other 'joke' sequences tend to break the seriousness of the general material and at the same time offer yet another insight into the culture of the subject matter through the portrayal of cultural humor.
Out of these terms and offerings, a narrative is born which seems to have much control of the database. The interface is simple and straightforward. A viewer can feasible finish the documentary, and feel as though they have had a peek into the Bedouin culture. Another creator might have included other interactive features within the website to stimulate or inspire the viewer. However, that is not the case and one must assume it was outside the scope and intention of this project.
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