Policy Press

Encountering the World with I-Docs

Interactive Documentary as a Research Method

By Ella Harris

Published

Jan 28, 2025

Page count

148 pages

Browse the series

Creative Research Methods in Practice

ISBN

978-1447374176

Dimensions

216 x 140 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Jan 28, 2025

Page count

148 pages

Browse the series

Creative Research Methods in Practice

ISBN

978-1447374169

Dimensions

216 x 140 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Jan 28, 2025

Page count

148 pages

Browse the series

Creative Research Methods in Practice

ISBN

978-1447374183

Dimensions

216 x 140 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Jan 28, 2025

Page count

148 pages

Browse the series

Creative Research Methods in Practice

ISBN

978-1447374183

Dimensions

216 x 140 mm

Imprint

Policy Press
Encountering the World with I-Docs

Interactive documentaries, or i-docs, are web based, multimedia documentaries that immerse audiences through dynamic, interactive platforms. This book unlocks the value of i-docs as a creative research method, providing an engaging guide on how to use i-docs to examine and communicate research subjects.

With examples, conceptual discussion, and practical advice, the book explores how i-docs can illuminate topics including temporalities, power and space, affect and feeling, freedom, and epistemic justice. The book addresses i-docs as a digital form but also shows that even just planning an i-doc on paper can open up new analytical perspectives.

Key features of the book include:

- An easy to use template for planning your own i-doc;

- Advice on how researchers can ‘think with i-docs’ without even producing one;

- Discussion of methodological work with i-docs including participatory i-doc making;

Insights into a range of examples of commercial, activist and research i-docs from around the world.

This book is a valuable resource for scholars, students, community researchers, creatives and activists who want to enlist and ignite the possibilities of i-docs.

"A compelling and timely work that widens the scope for thinking about, recognising and deploying creative methods, while encouraging fresh perspectives on power dynamics and the means by which realities are constructed. Encountering the World with I-Docs is a deeply inspirational read. It is a practical toolbox for researchers and for those whose work involves joint visioning, decision-making and new world-making." Evelyn Wilson, National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange

Ella Harris is a freelance and academic researcher specialising in creative methods and ‘crisis cultures.’

1. Introducing I-Docs as Method

2. Temporal Architecture

3. Spatial Infrastructure

4. Aesthetics

5. Interactivity

6. Co-creation and Multi-perspectivity

7. Thinking with I-Docs

Appendix: Interactive Documentaries Referenced