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All Outputs (13)

Ten years of I-Docs: A reflective discussion on polyphony and practice-led research (2022)
Book Chapter
Aston, J. (2022). Ten years of I-Docs: A reflective discussion on polyphony and practice-led research. In F. Merino, & M. Penafria (Eds.), Storybits I – Narrative and Digital Media (15-30). (1). Covilha, Portugal: Universidade de Beira Interior. https://doi.org/10.25768/654-889-6

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: Its history and future as a polyphonic form (2022)
Book Chapter
Aston, J. (2022). Interactive documentary: Its history and future as a polyphonic form. In K. M. Ryan, & D. Staton (Eds.), Interactive Documentary: Decolonising Practice-Based Research (20-37). New York and London: Routledge

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
Aston, J. (2019). The readerly and the cinematic: Hybrid reconfigurations through digital media practice. In R. Coover (Ed.), The Digital Imaginary. Bloomsbury Publishing

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
Aston, J., & Tsurusaki, A. (2018). Polyphonic futures. In A. Tsurusaki (Ed.), Game Changing Documentarism (308-313). Tokyo, Japan: BNN Inc

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.

Interactive documentary: Setting the field (2018)
Book Chapter
Aston, J., & Gaudenzi, S. (2018). Interactive documentary: Setting the field. In D. Williams (Ed.), Ten Years of Studies in Documentary Film. London: Routledge

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
Aston, J. (2017). The New Materialism: Human and algorithmic agency within interactive documentary. In A. Miles (Ed.), The Material Turn and Interactive Documentary: A Panel (50-61). A media materialisms UnPublising initiative

“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.

Not media about, but media with: Co-creation for activism (2017)
Book Chapter
Rose, M. (2017). Not media about, but media with: Co-creation for activism. In M. Rose, S. Gaudenzi, & J. Aston (Eds.), i-docs: the evolving practices of interactive documentary (49-65). New York, Chichester, West Sussex: Wallflower, Columbia University Press

In this chapter I address the co-creative dimension of two interactive documentary projects – Question Bridge and Quipu. I examine the cultural precursors and contexts that inspired their divergent co-creative approaches. I consider how the producers... Read More about Not media about, but media with: Co-creation for activism.

Interactive documentary and live performance: From embodied to emplaced interaction (2017)
Book Chapter
Aston, J. (2017). Interactive documentary and live performance: From embodied to emplaced interaction. In M. Rose, S. Gaudenzi, & J. Aston (Eds.), The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary (222-237). New York: Wallflower, subsidiary of Columbia University Press

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.

Who wants to become banal? The i-doc from experiment to industry (2017)
Book Chapter
Dovey, J. (2017). Who wants to become banal? The i-doc from experiment to industry. In J. Aston, S. Gaudenzi, & M. Rose (Eds.), I-Docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary (272-288). Columbia, USA: Wallflower Press

In this chapter I want to mark a moment in the evolving story of the interactive documentary and to look at its developmental trajectory to date. I want to think about how we would establish a timeline for the development of the i-doc and further, ho... Read More about Who wants to become banal? The i-doc from experiment to industry.

Interactive documentary (2014)
Book Chapter
Aston, J. (2014). Interactive documentary. In K. Harvey (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Politics and Social Media (704-704). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452244723.n288

Interactive documentary is a term used to describe the new possibilities for both the construction and representation of reality brought about by the human–computer interface. For a documentary to be interactive in this context, a physical action nee... Read More about Interactive documentary.

Database narrative, spatial montage, and the cultural transmission of memory: An anthropological perspective (2013)
Book Chapter
Aston, J. (2013). Database narrative, spatial montage, and the cultural transmission of memory: An anthropological perspective. In D. Harrison (Ed.), Digital Media and Technologies for Virtual Artistic Spaces (150-158). Hershey PA: Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2961-5.ch011

This chapter discusses ways in which the database narrative techniques of virtual media can be used to explore the relationship between real-world oral storytelling and embodied performance in the cultural transmission of memory. It is based on an on... Read More about Database narrative, spatial montage, and the cultural transmission of memory: An anthropological perspective.

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.