Narrative in New Media

Sharon Daniel is an American professor and artist in the field of Film and Digital Media. Immensely dissatisfied with particular social discrepancies, Daniel “refuses to accept reality as it is”. her contemporary digital documentary and new media works are devoted to changing the current state of reality or “permitting others to change it for themselves” essentially using narrative to supply escapism. She uses the internet ability to bridge geographical distances and express ethical concerns, pertinent to a global audience. This incentive drew Daniel to the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) Prison in Chowchilla, California’s Central Valley, which stimulated the development of “Public Secrets” (2008). Developed to “penetrate the wall of silence surrounding prisons in California,” “Public Secrets” is a hyper text, interactive website with sound clips and textual narratives from female inmates in California State Prisons. Every voice over was recorded, over a period of 5 years, by Daniel as she conducted conversations with inmates, nearly 600 excerpts comprise most of the work. The women discuss everything from mundane aspects of prison life, the economics of the “prison industrial complex”, previous mistakes and unfortunate circumstances and the internal prison hierarchy. Daniel says, “The stories I heard inside challenged all my basic preconceptions of justice, freedom, and responsibility.”' narration open realms of anguish and memories riddled with adversity extending the viewers artistic experience to one exploring psychological, theoretical, and ideological realities of the prison in an incredibly personified and confronting manner. The collage of narratives with in this work stresses the call for social reform in modern society.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT SHARON DANIEL'S "PUBLIC SECRETS"