Origins and Core: context for understanding what we see

Origin tells how something was made

Organic, Synthetic, and Hybrid are the three initial Origins. Organic refers to material captured or made by people without synthetic generation determining what is represented. Synthetic identifies material produced or represented through generation. Hybrid combines both kinds of material.

This distinction calls for understanding provenance and relevant transformations. A documentary with recorded interviews and generated reconstructions needs to explain which parts belong to each Origin. Thresholds for classifying filters, restoration, and other transformations still need detailed rules.

Core tells what a piece presents

The initial catalog includes Fiction, Real, Documentary, News, Theory, and Educational. These are contexts for interpretation: fiction presents imagined situations; a documentary develops a subject using sources; a theory proposes hypotheses; an educational piece aims to teach an audience something.

Origin and Core answer different questions. A fiction piece can be Organic. A documentary can be Hybrid. An educational piece can be Synthetic. Understanding them depends both on how they were produced and on the intention with which they are presented.

Real needs an additional explanation

Real identifies a thematic relationship to people, places, or subjects in reality. Imagine a generated representation of an existing plaza with new trees and pedestrian spaces. The piece can be Synthetic + Real if it is clearly presented as a projection. Its image does not document that the transformation has happened.

A recording of that same plaza also needs context: when it was captured, how it was edited, and what it claims about the place. Organic recording alone does not establish an interpretation; a Synthetic representation does not invalidate an explanation when its nature is identified.

Classification begins the explanation

Labels accompany sources, temporal context, and distinctions among fact, reconstruction, and proposal. A claim needs its own support to be considered true. Knowing who is responsible for a piece and how it was produced is useful, but neither replaces evidence.

The shared framework helps ask precise questions: How was it made? What does it present? What can its audience conclude? Mulvin, Amivi, and Imagia apply those questions to their respective paths for production, publishing, and understanding.