Indexicality in the Age of the Sensor and Metadata

The concept of indexicality has remained fundamental to documentary, helping to distinguish the genre from other audio-visual forms and providing the sense of urgency it generates as a social-political form. This chapter considers the nature and implications of indexicality at a time when video capturing capabilities have become increasingly ubiquitous, and embedded in mobile, locative, and networked devices where image and sound recording operate together with an array of other sensors. The generation of video together with metadata involves the generation of additional layers of information which carry meaning above and beyond that seen within the frame. At one level, metadata help to augment the “sense-making” capability of documentary makers, increasing the means to scale up workflows around the collation, organization, and sifting of material. At another level, it is important to recognize that metadata can take on different meanings within the automated systems which assess, categorize, and perform operations.