I hold a PhD in computer-related design from the Royal College of Art and a Masters degree in the social sciences from the University of Cambridge. I am a Associate Professor in Film and Digital Arts at the University of the West of England in Bristol. My teaching specialisms are in interaction design, documentary and expanded film-making, and my research combines these with my longstanding engagement with visual anthropology. I am Co-Founder and Co-Director of the i-Docs group (http://i-docs.org/) and Creative Producer of the Russian Winter project (http://therussianwinter.co.uk/). I retain a particular interest in the potential of fluid interfaces and interactive narrative for communicating multiple points of view.
Professor Judith Aston discusses the genesis of her "i-doc" interactive documentary con... more Professor Judith Aston discusses the genesis of her "i-doc" interactive documentary concept and its potential applications.
An innovative immersive film experiment with the Sacconi String Quartet for the 2104 Bristol Prom... more An innovative immersive film experiment with the Sacconi String Quartet for the 2104 Bristol Proms. The Quartet performed Beethoven's Opus 132 in the intimate setting of the Studio Theatre, with the audience sitting in the round. The performance was visually enhanced with projections behind each of the four musicians, with a view to making the music and its themes more accessible to the uninitiated. Live vj-ing was used to layer a portrait-style projection of each musician as they played with extreme closeup shots of their instruments. Additional mood lighting was used to reflect the different phases in the music in relation to the autobiographical nature of Beethoven's Opus.
This article responds to the 4th Interactive Film and Media International Conference (IFM 2022) t... more 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 issue of climate change. It re-visits the article Interactive Documentary: setting the field which I co-authored with Sandra Gaudenzi in 2012 in light of this now central concern and asks how the affordances of interactive documentary can be used to help re-frame our engagement with the human and the non-human. It places metamodern and polyphonic thinking at the centre of this discussion, as two key concepts that I consider to be particularly helpful when thinking about the contribution that interactive documentary can make to wider debates about eco-media. The paper argues that metamodernism and polyphony can contribute to the development of transformative approaches to interactive documentary and indeed to interactive narrative more generally. This is important as it offers us a set of cognitive tools through which to think about how to navigate the complexities and uncertainties of our collective futures which climate change is undoubtedly bringing. The paper engages with the theoretical arguments first and then applies these to a discussion of my work as a co-convenor of the Polyphonic Documentary project before bringing these thoughts together as tentative conclusions and unresolved issues.
This chapter looks at the decolonization of interactive documentary practices (i-docs) through th... more This chapter looks at the decolonization of interactive documentary practices (i-docs) 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 “decolonizing the mind” and that i-docs can facilitate this process. They place polyphony at the heart of this, as an approach that encourages us to embrace complexity and plurality as well as to respect different perspectives and points of view. Building on Bakhtin’s work on polyphony, they argue that the interactive, multimodal, and nonlinear properties of i-docs methods and tools can help us to reframe our perspectives on self and other in ways that can be both challenging and transformative. Outlining the thinking behind their Polyphonic Documentary project, they look at what two specific software tools bring to the table. They also argue that approaching i-docs from the perspective of polyphony and decolonization can help with addressing two major and interconnected issues of our times: climate emergency and ideological polarization.
This paper came out of a panel on The Material Turn and Interactive Documentary at Visible Eviden... more 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 understanding interactive documentary through a materialist lens. The interventions were then written up and published as an e-book.
Welcome to our portrait, in imagery and sound, of a refugee community. This presentation accompan... more Welcome to our portrait, in imagery and sound, of a refugee community. This presentation accompanies Wendy James’ study of how Sudan’s civil wars have affected just one among many minority groups who have lived through loss and displacement. You are invited to enter a series of eight clusters of video clips which illustrate the memory rich landscape of Bonga, one of several refugee settlements in Ethiopia where displaced Sudanese sought safety and assistance over the last two generations. To view the video clips, you will need a broadband connection and Flash 8 player. There are also a few audio clips which require a quicktime player.
Having just convened our fourth i-Docs symposium, it feels like an opportune moment to reflect on... more 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 specific medium, genre or platform. This seems prescient in light of the ‘immersive turn’ with interactive work starting to become more closely defined in response to it. At the heart of this is the current interest in emergent VR technology, a more specific medium or platform, within which more easily definable genres are likely to emerge. This is contributing to a rising interest in ‘experiential storytelling’ and ‘alternate realities’ and a potential re-framing of what is meant by interactivity.
MENO (Multimedia Education and Narrative Organisation), May 1, 1997
The programme that we have developed at the University of the West of England over the last five ... more The programme that we have developed at the University of the West of England over the last five years explores the creative potential of new media by centring on storytelling. This paper describes some of the key issues arising from this research and teaching, and investigates ways of developing appropriate teaching strategies for creative media in higher education. Storytelling is a point of reference which allows comparisons to be made both within and between media. It allows us to debate the tensions and potentials which occur when computer-based interactivity and nonlinearity are added to conventional storytelling; and it allows us to consider computers as the latest in a long line of tools for communication and expression, providing a critical and historical framework in which debates and references may be grounded. In order to explore these issues, we have developed a programme which integrates practice and theory in a range of linear and nonlinear media forms. This programme of work begins with a foundation course, extending through a BA honours course, into work at postgraduate level. The teaching team consists of practioners in both established and new media. Since the BA course in Time-Based Media has been running for a longer period of time than the other parts of the programme, we shall focus our discussions on the work which has been generated from this course.
This is a critical response to two interviews that will be in this new collection from interactiv... more 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 within the field of interactive documentary.
Entry on Interactive Documentary in the Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, edited by Kerr... more Entry on Interactive Documentary in the Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, edited by Kerric Harvey, Sage Publications, December 2013
Building on Lev Manovich's ideas about spatial montage and interactive cinema, this paper wi... more 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 James. The paper will ...
Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 2018
The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in Ma... more The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in March 2018 in Bristol, UK, where we jointly convened a discussion on the potential engagement of the interactive documentary (i-doc) form with Mikhail Bakthin’s expanded concept of polyphony. As part of this, we presented a series of provocations with a view to generating a new theoretical framework for i-docs.1 These provocations were inspired by all aspects of Bakthin’s polyphony, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view.
This article stems from a panel we jointly convened at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, where we presen... more 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 Bakthin’s concept of polyphony, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. This article presents these provocations and reflects further on them. A number of key issues are documented, expanded and commented upon, as a potential framework for further research, including multiplicity, the chronotope, dialogism and interaction. We propose that these lead to new ways of approaching complexity. With the aim of using juxtaposition, nonlinearity and layering to break down binaries, the article demonstrates how complexity can be embraced and, crucially, how the simplicity within it can be revealed. In other words, a key proposition here is that we should accept and celebrate complexity as the natural order of things, without needin...
Professor Judith Aston discusses the genesis of her "i-doc" interactive documentary con... more Professor Judith Aston discusses the genesis of her "i-doc" interactive documentary concept and its potential applications.
An innovative immersive film experiment with the Sacconi String Quartet for the 2104 Bristol Prom... more An innovative immersive film experiment with the Sacconi String Quartet for the 2104 Bristol Proms. The Quartet performed Beethoven's Opus 132 in the intimate setting of the Studio Theatre, with the audience sitting in the round. The performance was visually enhanced with projections behind each of the four musicians, with a view to making the music and its themes more accessible to the uninitiated. Live vj-ing was used to layer a portrait-style projection of each musician as they played with extreme closeup shots of their instruments. Additional mood lighting was used to reflect the different phases in the music in relation to the autobiographical nature of Beethoven's Opus.
This article responds to the 4th Interactive Film and Media International Conference (IFM 2022) t... more 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 issue of climate change. It re-visits the article Interactive Documentary: setting the field which I co-authored with Sandra Gaudenzi in 2012 in light of this now central concern and asks how the affordances of interactive documentary can be used to help re-frame our engagement with the human and the non-human. It places metamodern and polyphonic thinking at the centre of this discussion, as two key concepts that I consider to be particularly helpful when thinking about the contribution that interactive documentary can make to wider debates about eco-media. The paper argues that metamodernism and polyphony can contribute to the development of transformative approaches to interactive documentary and indeed to interactive narrative more generally. This is important as it offers us a set of cognitive tools through which to think about how to navigate the complexities and uncertainties of our collective futures which climate change is undoubtedly bringing. The paper engages with the theoretical arguments first and then applies these to a discussion of my work as a co-convenor of the Polyphonic Documentary project before bringing these thoughts together as tentative conclusions and unresolved issues.
This chapter looks at the decolonization of interactive documentary practices (i-docs) through th... more This chapter looks at the decolonization of interactive documentary practices (i-docs) 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 “decolonizing the mind” and that i-docs can facilitate this process. They place polyphony at the heart of this, as an approach that encourages us to embrace complexity and plurality as well as to respect different perspectives and points of view. Building on Bakhtin’s work on polyphony, they argue that the interactive, multimodal, and nonlinear properties of i-docs methods and tools can help us to reframe our perspectives on self and other in ways that can be both challenging and transformative. Outlining the thinking behind their Polyphonic Documentary project, they look at what two specific software tools bring to the table. They also argue that approaching i-docs from the perspective of polyphony and decolonization can help with addressing two major and interconnected issues of our times: climate emergency and ideological polarization.
This paper came out of a panel on The Material Turn and Interactive Documentary at Visible Eviden... more 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 understanding interactive documentary through a materialist lens. The interventions were then written up and published as an e-book.
Welcome to our portrait, in imagery and sound, of a refugee community. This presentation accompan... more Welcome to our portrait, in imagery and sound, of a refugee community. This presentation accompanies Wendy James’ study of how Sudan’s civil wars have affected just one among many minority groups who have lived through loss and displacement. You are invited to enter a series of eight clusters of video clips which illustrate the memory rich landscape of Bonga, one of several refugee settlements in Ethiopia where displaced Sudanese sought safety and assistance over the last two generations. To view the video clips, you will need a broadband connection and Flash 8 player. There are also a few audio clips which require a quicktime player.
Having just convened our fourth i-Docs symposium, it feels like an opportune moment to reflect on... more 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 specific medium, genre or platform. This seems prescient in light of the ‘immersive turn’ with interactive work starting to become more closely defined in response to it. At the heart of this is the current interest in emergent VR technology, a more specific medium or platform, within which more easily definable genres are likely to emerge. This is contributing to a rising interest in ‘experiential storytelling’ and ‘alternate realities’ and a potential re-framing of what is meant by interactivity.
MENO (Multimedia Education and Narrative Organisation), May 1, 1997
The programme that we have developed at the University of the West of England over the last five ... more The programme that we have developed at the University of the West of England over the last five years explores the creative potential of new media by centring on storytelling. This paper describes some of the key issues arising from this research and teaching, and investigates ways of developing appropriate teaching strategies for creative media in higher education. Storytelling is a point of reference which allows comparisons to be made both within and between media. It allows us to debate the tensions and potentials which occur when computer-based interactivity and nonlinearity are added to conventional storytelling; and it allows us to consider computers as the latest in a long line of tools for communication and expression, providing a critical and historical framework in which debates and references may be grounded. In order to explore these issues, we have developed a programme which integrates practice and theory in a range of linear and nonlinear media forms. This programme of work begins with a foundation course, extending through a BA honours course, into work at postgraduate level. The teaching team consists of practioners in both established and new media. Since the BA course in Time-Based Media has been running for a longer period of time than the other parts of the programme, we shall focus our discussions on the work which has been generated from this course.
This is a critical response to two interviews that will be in this new collection from interactiv... more 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 within the field of interactive documentary.
Entry on Interactive Documentary in the Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, edited by Kerr... more Entry on Interactive Documentary in the Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, edited by Kerric Harvey, Sage Publications, December 2013
Building on Lev Manovich's ideas about spatial montage and interactive cinema, this paper wi... more 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 James. The paper will ...
Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 2018
The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in Ma... more The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in March 2018 in Bristol, UK, where we jointly convened a discussion on the potential engagement of the interactive documentary (i-doc) form with Mikhail Bakthin’s expanded concept of polyphony. As part of this, we presented a series of provocations with a view to generating a new theoretical framework for i-docs.1 These provocations were inspired by all aspects of Bakthin’s polyphony, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view.
This article stems from a panel we jointly convened at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, where we presen... more 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 Bakthin’s concept of polyphony, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. This article presents these provocations and reflects further on them. A number of key issues are documented, expanded and commented upon, as a potential framework for further research, including multiplicity, the chronotope, dialogism and interaction. We propose that these lead to new ways of approaching complexity. With the aim of using juxtaposition, nonlinearity and layering to break down binaries, the article demonstrates how complexity can be embraced and, crucially, how the simplicity within it can be revealed. In other words, a key proposition here is that we should accept and celebrate complexity as the natural order of things, without needin...
This work represents the documentation that emerged from a panel at the Visible Evidence XXIV doc... more This work represents the documentation that emerged from a panel at the Visible Evidence XXIV documentary conference, held in Buenos Aires in 2017. The panel consisted of a series of propositions and interrogations of new epistemologies and ontologies for understanding interactive documentary through a materialist lens. These have been collected here, and the panel members invited to further develop their thinking in light of the panel. The work, as curated here, is deliberately between the tone of the presentation and a finished article. They are more formal than the former, and shorter and less refined than the latter.
In this manner they are part of an ongoing experiment in alternative academic practices and forms that seek to open, critique, and revision scholarship as a black box.
Expert contributions, case studies and interviews with major figures in the field address the pro... more Expert contributions, case studies and interviews with major figures in the field address the production processes that lie behind interactive documentary, as well as the political, cultural and geographic contexts in which they are emerging and the media ecology that supports them. Taking a broad view of interactive documentary as any work which engages with 'the real' by employing digital interactive technology, this volume addresses a range of platforms and environments, from web-docs and virtual reality to mobile media and live performance. It thus explores the challenges that face interactive documentary practitioners and scholars, and proposes new ways of producing and engaging with interactive factual content.
Entry on Interactive Documentary in the Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, edited by Kerr... more Entry on Interactive Documentary in the Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, edited by Kerric Harvey, Sage Publications, December 2013
The Material Turn and Interactive Documentary: A Panel, 2017
Available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1120447
This work represents the documentation that ... more Available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1120447 This work represents the documentation that emerged from a panel at the Visible Evidence XXIV documentary conference, held in Buenos Aires in 2017. The panel consisted of a series of propositions and interrogations of new epistemologies and ontologies for understanding interactive documentary through a materialist lens. These have been collected here, and the panel members invited to further develop their thinking in light of the panel. The work, as curated here, is deliberately between the tone of the presentation and a finished article. They are more formal than the former, and shorter and less refined than the latter.
In this manner they are part of an ongoing experiment in alternative academic practices and forms that seek to open, critique, and revision scholarship as a black box.
This special edition presents a collection of articles that came out of i-docs 2011, the first i... more This special edition presents a collection of articles that came out of i-docs 2011, the first international symposium exclusively devoted to the rapidly evolving field of interactive documentary making. The symposium was held at the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol, on behalf of the University of the West of England's Digital Cultures Research Centre. Its aim was to showcase recent projects and discuss the artistic, economic and political implications of new forms of factual representation. The articles, case studies and interviews in this edition represent the range of themes and debates that were raised and be seen as a unique snapshot of a complex and diverse field of study that is in its early stages of development.
The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in Ma... more The idea for this special issue of Alphaville originated at the i-Docs 2018 Symposium, held in March 2018 in Bristol, UK, where we jointly convened a discussion on the potential engagement of the interactive documentary (i-doc) form with Mikhail Bakthin's expanded concept of polyphony. As part of this, we presented a series of provocations with a view to generating a new theoretical framework for i-docs. 1 These provocations were inspired by all aspects of Bakthin's polyphony, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. Much like Giulio Camillo's " Memory Theatre " (Yates xi), which brings order into the complexity of the universe (of the media, in our case), we argue that i-docs can be considered as a method that facilitates intervention in our societies, cultures and knowledge. Hence, this contemporary digital form can be also described and defined as a complexity of methods that find their space of action, dialogue and completion within the concept of polyphony. This issue's general focus, indeed, is on i-docs as often complex projects that embrace, within their structures and production processes, multiple voices that interact together in the creation of content. This brings us to what Bakhtin has written about the polyphonic and multivocal novel, which, he claims, " is constructed not as the whole of a single consciousness, absorbing other consciousnesses as objects into itself, but as a whole formed by the interaction of several consciousnesses, none of which entirely becomes an object for the other " (18). We believe that Bakhtin's theory, which gives account of this plurality, is well suited to i-docs and, although his work has been mentioned before in the literature (Daniel; Aston, " Direct " ; Aston and Matthews; Zimmermann and De Michiel), it still has a lot to offer to the field, especially due to its multifaceted nature. This special issue, accordingly, 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 generation across different disciplines. We are interested in the use of i-docs as an interventionist form in any area of research, whether it is part of a participatory process, a tool for data analysis or activism, a reflexive exploration of new and creative methodologies or a dialogical machine. Furthermore, we are interested in how the creation of a theoretical tool within a Bakthinian framework of analysis
I-Docs - the Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary, 2017
The history of documentary has been one of adaptation and change, as docu-mentarists have harness... more 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 within non-fiction storytelling. Their various incarnations are now a focus at leading film festivals (IDFA DocLab, Tribeca Storyscapes, Sheffield DocFest), works have won major international awards, and they are increasingly the subject of academic study. This anthology looks at the creative practices, purposes and ethics that lie behind these emergent forms. Expert contributions, case studies and interviews with major figures in the field address the production processes that lie behind interactive documentary, as well as the political, cultural and geographic contexts in which they are emerging and the media ecology that supports them. Taking a broad view of interactive documentary as any work which engages with 'the real' by emplo...
This special issue of the Interactive Film and Media Journal constitutes the first of two issues ... more This special issue of the Interactive Film and Media Journal constitutes the first of two issues dedicated to the IV International Interactive Film and Media Conference, held online in June 2022 and co-organized by Hudson Moura (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada), Heidi Rae Cooley (University of Texas at Dallas, USA), Anna Wiehl (University of Bayreuth, Germany) and Stefano Odorico (Technological University of the Shannon, Ireland / Leeds Trinity University, UK). As tangential as it may seem, the IFM conferences are an opportunity to reflect on the scholarly field of interactivity, offering a platform for academics and practitioners to broaden the field across disciplines. The conference titled: Interactive Epistemology, Listening, and Ecomedia clearly demonstrated that interactivity does not just have a newly rediscovered popularity in film and media, but it is also omnipresent in a multidisciplinary context, from cultural productions such as games, films and books to audience perception such as streaming, virtual reality and real-time; from intellectual publications such as news, hypertexts, social media to virtual world economy such as cryptocurrencies.
Based on the conference’s call for papers, we “are witnessing a shift in all levels of cultural production. As a result, interactivity gains more space and conceptual independence with specific terminology, questions, promises, and challenges. Moreover, interactivity is growing as an academic discipline, a field of study, and an area of research in several spheres.” In a post-pandemic society, we feel that now is an excellent time to be returning to these debates, as the computer-based aesthetic of the multiple such as that of the Zoom interface and similar (which we have all mastered during periods of isolation) have become a newly established fixture of working life.
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Papers by Judith Aston
In this manner they are part of an ongoing experiment in alternative academic practices and forms that seek to open, critique, and revision scholarship as a black box.
This work represents the documentation that emerged from a panel at the Visible Evidence XXIV documentary conference, held in Buenos Aires in 2017. The panel consisted of a series of propositions and interrogations of new epistemologies and ontologies for understanding interactive documentary through a materialist lens. These have been collected here, and the panel members invited to further develop their thinking in light of the panel. The work, as curated here, is deliberately between the tone of the presentation and a finished article. They are more formal than the former, and shorter and less refined than the latter.
In this manner they are part of an ongoing experiment in alternative academic practices and forms that seek to open, critique, and revision scholarship as a black box.
Based on the conference’s call for papers, we “are witnessing a shift in all levels of cultural production. As a result, interactivity gains more space and conceptual independence with specific terminology, questions, promises, and challenges. Moreover, interactivity is growing as an academic discipline, a field of study, and an area of research in several spheres.” In a post-pandemic society, we feel that now is an excellent time to be returning to these debates, as the computer-based aesthetic of the multiple such as that of the Zoom interface and similar (which we have all mastered during periods of isolation) have become a newly established fixture of working life.