Multimedia Design in the Implementation of Cultural Research

Digital technologies of media infiltrate increasingly diverse aspects of life; taking part in accomplished new digital cultural forms and practices. This article outlines a design practical work in relation to a collaborative project between multimedia design and visual ethnographic culture research. The aim of the collaboration is to explore new possibilities for using new media to create a multilayered associative narrative, as most efforts in the design field have been directed to defining and forming the concrete objectives of our physical environment. The article describes the ideas about how multimedia design can be used to combine, integrate and juxtapose the moving image alongside photographs and sound to convey ideas about landscape, life style and visual culture, and tangible context in relation as a material of representing contemporary culture. It makes the assertion that, by using knowledge and techniques of multimedia design are enabling users’ to enrich their experience and interaction with the materials presented. Powerful new possibilities can arise and key sources of inspiration be created through which to communicate ideas and arguments in border research areas for multilayered narrations. It is proposed that the design approach contributes to thinking about ways that digital media can respond to multiple realities and corporeal and affective phenomena, and open up new avenues for the design-based research paradigm.