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All Outputs (10)

Interactive multimedia ethnography: Archiving workflow, interface aesthetics and metadata (2012)
Journal Article
Matthews, P., & Aston, J. (2012). Interactive multimedia ethnography: Archiving workflow, interface aesthetics and metadata. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 5(4), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1145/2399180.2399182

Digital heritage archives often lack engaging user interfaces that strike a balance between providing narrative context and affording user interaction and exploration. It seems nevertheless feasible for metadata tagging and a "joined up" workflow to... Read More about Interactive multimedia ethnography: Archiving workflow, interface aesthetics and metadata.

Memories of a blue nile home: The photographic moment and multimedia linkage (2012)
Book Chapter
Aston, J., & James, W. (2012). Memories of a blue nile home: The photographic moment and multimedia linkage. In R. Vokes (Ed.), Photography in Africa: Ethnographic Perspectives (104-123). Woodbridge, Suffolk. Rochester, New York.: James Currey, Boydell and Brewer Inc

This chapter is based on an ongoing collaboration between the authors. We first explore the role of photographs within what became a long-term, though intermittent, anthropological engagement by Wendy James in the turbulent regions of the Sudan/Ethio... Read More about Memories of a blue nile home: The photographic moment and multimedia linkage.

Transliteracy and polyphonic narrative: a case study (2010)
Presentation / Conference
Aston, J. (2010, February). Transliteracy and polyphonic narrative: a case study. Paper presented at Transliteracy Conference, Phoenix Square Digital Media Centre, Leicester, UK

This paper will look at the role of transliteracy in the creation of a series of texts relating to a long-term ethnographic study of displacement in the Sudan/Ethiopian borderlands. It will draw on a rich audiovisual archive recorded by the anthropol... Read More about Transliteracy and polyphonic narrative: a case study.

Spatial montage and the enchantment of everyday life: towards the development of fluid interfaces for interactive documentary (2010)
Presentation / Conference
Aston, J. (2010, January). Spatial montage and the enchantment of everyday life: towards the development of fluid interfaces for interactive documentary. Paper presented at Documentary Now! 2010, Birkbeck College, London

Building on Lev Manovich’s ideas about spatial montage and interactive cinema, this paper will provide examples of the author’s approach to interactive documentary based on an ongoing collaboration between the author and the anthropologist, Wendy Jam... Read More about Spatial montage and the enchantment of everyday life: towards the development of fluid interfaces for interactive documentary.

Spatial montage and multimedia ethnography: Using computers to visualise aspects of migration and social division among a displaced community (2010)
Journal Article
Aston, J. (2010). Spatial montage and multimedia ethnography: Using computers to visualise aspects of migration and social division among a displaced community. Forum: Qualitative Social Research / Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, 11(2), Art. 36

Peer reviewed journal article based on contribution to international conference on Visualising Migration ad Divided Societies, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, June 2008.

Direct cinema and a making of the ‘real’: polyphonic narrative, spatial montage and cinema-sincerity (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Aston, J. (2009, November). Direct cinema and a making of the ‘real’: polyphonic narrative, spatial montage and cinema-sincerity. Paper presented at International Jean Rouch Symposum, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris

Building on Rouch’s thoughts on cinema-sincerity, this paper will interrogate new possibilities for the creation of polyphonic narratives brought about by the multiple windows environment of 21st century computing. Drawing on material recorded in the... Read More about Direct cinema and a making of the ‘real’: polyphonic narrative, spatial montage and cinema-sincerity.

Still pictures, moving contexts (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Aston, J., & James, W. (2009, November). Still pictures, moving contexts. Paper presented at The Image Relation: Towards an Anthropology of Photography, Wolfson College, Oxford, UK

This presentation will highlight ways of presenting still photographs, both black and white and colour, as well as colour slides, using multimedia methods which add fresh resonance to archival materials. Examples will be drawn from James’s ethnogra... Read More about Still pictures, moving contexts.

Database narrative, spatial montage and the cultural transmission of memory: A case study from the Sudan/Ethiopian borderlands (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Aston, J. (2009, August). Database narrative, spatial montage and the cultural transmission of memory: A case study from the Sudan/Ethiopian borderlands. Paper presented at ISEA2009, The 15th International Symposium on Electronic Art, University of Ulster, Belfast

A peer reviewed paper presented within the Interactive Storytelling theme of an international conference on Engaged Creativity and Mobile Environments.

Voices from the blue nile: Using digital media to create a multilayered associative narrative (2008)
Journal Article
Aston, J. (2008). Voices from the blue nile: Using digital media to create a multilayered associative narrative. Journal of Media Practice, 9(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1386/jmpr.9.1.43_1

This article outlines work in progress in relation to a collaborative project between me as a multimedia designer and Oxford anthropologist, Professor Wendy James. The aim of the collaboration is to explore new possibilities for using digital media t... Read More about Voices from the blue nile: Using digital media to create a multilayered associative narrative.