If you have an idea for an interactive factual story, for an app for change, or are working in tech and have a desire to create around meaningful subject matter, iFlab would love to hear from you. iFlab welcomes individuals and professional teams from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and industries: coding, web design, games design, journalism, documentary filmmaking, photography, video production, television, radio, education, social activism, the arts and creative industries.

You do not need to have your own project, and no previous experience in webdocs or interactive factual storytelling is necessary. The organisers are particularly interested to hear from coders and designers who could join teams of storytellers and help them to develop their ideas into an interactive format.

‘Interactive factual storytelling’ is any project that starts with an intention to document ‘the real’, and aims to do so using digital interactive technology. You may also hear us referring to them as IF narratives or interfactuals.

!F Lab begins from the understanding that the genre has not yet developed a production language of its own.  The emphasis is on learning through practical experimentation and the freedom to explore ideas unhindered by prior bias or assumption.

Rather than borrowing ill-adapted methodologies from documentary formats, !F Lab seeks to merge complementary elements of idea development in design and storytelling into an original process, placing the user firmly at the control panel.