All Outputs (39)

There’s more to life than the monomyth: multiperspectival approaches to teaching narrative and story in university film and media departments (2024)
Journal Article

This article critiques the ongoing dominance of the Hollywood monomyth in the film and television industry, at least in the UK if not more widely. It considers how this is impacting on the teaching of narrative and story in university film and media... Read More about There’s more to life than the monomyth: multiperspectival approaches to teaching narrative and story in university film and media departments.

Ten years of I-Docs: A reflective discussion on polyphony and practice-led research (2022)
Book Chapter

This article is based on my keynote and accompanying workshop for the inaugural StoryBits conference in April 2021. This was ten years on from the first i-Docs symposium in March 2011, with the StoryBits conference taking a similar approach in relati... Read More about Ten years of I-Docs: A reflective discussion on polyphony and practice-led research.

Interactive documentary: Re-setting the field (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This article responds to the 4th Interactive Film and Media International Conference (IFM 2022) themes of eco-media, epistemologies and listening by focusing on the role that interactive documentary can play in addressing the existential and pressing... Read More about Interactive documentary: Re-setting the field.

Interactive documentary: Its history and future as a polyphonic form (2022)
Book Chapter

This chapter looks at the decolonization of interactive documentary practices through the lens of polyphony. Writing as practice-based researchers from a position of privilege, the authors argue that self-reflexivity is a key requirement for “decolon... Read More about Interactive documentary: Its history and future as a polyphonic form.

The readerly and the cinematic: Hybrid reconfigurations through digital media practice (2019)
Book Chapter

This is a critical response to two interviews that will be in this new collection from interactive narrative pioneers David Clark and Sharon Daniel. I was commissioned to write this by the book's editor, Roderick Coover, based on my work as a pioneer... Read More about The readerly and the cinematic: Hybrid reconfigurations through digital media practice.

Polyphonic futures (2018)
Book Chapter

Game-Changing Documentarism engages in dialogue with more than 30 writers and stakeholders who lead the state-of-the-art documentary scene in Japan and abroad. The editor writes in the introduction to my article: "How will the documentary list living... Read More about Polyphonic futures.

The poetics and politics of polyphony: Towards a research method for interactive documentary (2018)
Journal Article

This article stems from a panel we jointly convened at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, where we presented a series of provocations with a view to generating a new theoretical framework for i-docs. These provocations were inspired by all aspects of Mikhail... Read More about The poetics and politics of polyphony: Towards a research method for interactive documentary.

Enacting polyphony: An interview with Florian Thalhofer (2018)
Journal Article

Florian Thalhofer is a documentary filmmaker and the inventor of Korsakow, a software to create a new form of film and a principle to create a new kind of story. Florian’s system allows video makers to create nonlinear and interactive films and to te... Read More about Enacting polyphony: An interview with Florian Thalhofer.

I-Docs as intervention: The poetics and politics of polyphony (2018)
Journal Article

This special issue aims to analyse, reflect and raise questions on approaches to polyphony and complexity within i-docs. It also aims to begin to critically theorise this within the wider context of how media research methods can influence knowledge... Read More about I-Docs as intervention: The poetics and politics of polyphony.

Polyphony in practice: An interview with Sharon Daniel (2018)
Journal Article

Media artist Sharon Daniel has been involved with the i-Docs community since its inception—having presented her online documentaries and works in progress at all five i-Docs symposia that have taken place since 2011. We consider her to be a central a... Read More about Polyphony in practice: An interview with Sharon Daniel.

Interactive documentary: Setting the field (2018)
Book Chapter

This is a re-print of my 2012 article of the same name.

The New Materialism: Human and algorithmic agency within interactive documentary (2017)
Book Chapter

“This paper came out of a panel on 'The Material Turn and Interactive Documentary' at Visible Evidence XXIV, Buenos Aires, 2017. Each panelist was asked to make a series of propositions and interrogations around new epistemologies and ontologies for... Read More about The New Materialism: Human and algorithmic agency within interactive documentary.

Emplaced interaction and interactive documentary: Fighting algorithmic manipulation and filter bubbles with physical engagement (2017)
Journal Article

Whilst the problems of algorithmic manipulation and filter bubbles need to be addressed on several fronts, the strategy I am proposing here is that of “emplaced interaction.” When applied to interactive documentary, this is a strategy which marries t... Read More about Emplaced interaction and interactive documentary: Fighting algorithmic manipulation and filter bubbles with physical engagement.

Interactive documentary and thick description: Embracing complexity and transcultural understanding (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This paper builds on my work as a founding director of i-Docs (i-docs.org) and on my background in anthropology. It explores how Geertz’s concept of ‘thick description’ can be applied to interactive documentary as a tool for engaging with complexity... Read More about Interactive documentary and thick description: Embracing complexity and transcultural understanding.

From ‘embodied interaction’ to ‘emplaced interaction’: Thinking through the transformative potential of interactive documentary (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

In 2016, interactive pioneer Chris Milk launched his new company With.in through an article on ‘The Future of Virtual Reality’, in which he called VR “the last medium” and claimed that it “will be more than just a storytelling platform. It will be a... Read More about From ‘embodied interaction’ to ‘emplaced interaction’: Thinking through the transformative potential of interactive documentary.

i-docs - the evolving practices of interactive documentary (2017)
Book

The history of documentary has been one of adaptation and change, as docu-mentarists have harnessed the affordances of emerging technology. In the last decade interactive documentaries (i-docs) have become established as a new field of practice withi... Read More about i-docs - the evolving practices of interactive documentary.

Interactive documentary and live performance: From embodied to emplaced interaction (2017)
Book Chapter

In 2015, I gave a keynote lecture on ‘Interactive Documentary and Live Performance’ (Aston 2015), a subject which has received little attention to date within the field of interactive documentary practice. My argument was that the sense of time, plac... Read More about Interactive documentary and live performance: From embodied to emplaced interaction.

Interactive documentary: What does it mean and why does it matter? (2016)
Other

Having just convened our fourth i-Docs symposium, it feels like an opportune moment to reflect on what is meant by ‘interactive documentary’ and why we at i-Docs have always seen it as a way of framing a set of possibilities, as opposed to being a sp... Read More about Interactive documentary: What does it mean and why does it matter?.

I am Orion as a ‘wraparound’ approach to documentary film-­making (2015)
Report

‘I Am Orion’ is the direct result of a collaborative venture between myself and the artist and filmmaker Jeanie Finlay between September 2013 and March 2014. It is a ‘wraparound’ project, a term which we have come up with to offer an innovative model... Read More about I am Orion as a ‘wraparound’ approach to documentary film-­making.

Interactive documentary (streaming video) (2015)
Other

Professor Judith Aston discusses the genesis of her "i-doc" interactive documentary concept and its potential applications.