Welcome to Issue 8 of the International Journal of Creative Media Research. For for first time since launching, our latest Issue is a rolling one, meaning that we will be using this Issue to publish our latest submissions as and when they are accepted, rather than waiting for the next available full Issue.

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So, what have we got in store for Issue 8? Our original hope for the International Journal of Creative Media Research was always that it could make a contribution to the academy’s ongoing attempts to develop new approaches and methods for undertaking creative and practice-based research, in whatever discipline or medium that might entail. Thankfully, our hope continues to be realised, as can be seen by the truly interdisciplinary, varied, and high-quality submissions that make up Issue 8 - both by established researchers and students.   First up is Sarah Day's 'Illustrating Complex Networks' article, a short submission that explores how the practice of network mapping can illuminate a design-led project brief. One challenge of research-through-design, Day argues, is that the knowledge produced is often embodied within artefacts, unable to be shared or interrogated by others. There is therefore a need to produce artifacts which are accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. Her article reflects on issues in creative practice research and responds to the question of how we can navigate interdisciplinary quagmires in practice-based research.   Next is Helen Jackson's 'Over the Wall: A Drone View of the 'Other' Side'. Jackson's study intervenes in the presumed remoteness of the visual condition and experience of the aerial image created by the drone apparatus, to create new knowledge about the cultural and societal spaces that these envisioning technologies reveal. Using The Walls that Surround Us, a short drone-film of the Peace Walls in Belfast by local film-maker James Brennan, her article captures the participant’s lived experience of the place that is the film’s subject, and analyses how the system of visual signification captured within the film, operates to intervene or subvert his association with this place.  We are also pleased to publish Rosemary Joiner's article titled 'Narrative Storytelling, Creative Flow and Designing and Methodology in Practice-based Research'. Joiner focuses on her practice-based research study which employs the artefact-exegesis model to write my novel, Kristal and Marg, exploring the impact of volunteering. Joiner addresses approaches to methodology design for practice-based research, and the place for theory, practice and reflective evaluation within. It also focuses on creativity and flow and approaches to directing the creative process in practice-based research. Informed by her own experience in industry and community immersed in volunteering and altruism, her practice-based research looks at capturing the impact of volunteerism through narrative storytelling. This article focuses on what practice-based creative research allows that traditional research methods do not, specifically when measuring and exploring the impact of volunteering. Through practice-based creative research, Joiner has written a novel which attempts to fill the research gaps by telling the real stories of the impact of volunteering. 
Issue 8 also showcases our two 2020 winners of our Centre for Media Research Student Award, a special prize awarded each year to truly exceptional Media Communications undergraduate students at Bath Spa University. We are thrilled to publish the work of two of our recent graduates, the first of which is Amber Wisteria. In her dissertation titled 'TV Representations of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of South Korean K-Drama ‘It’s Okay to Not be Okay’', Wisteria uncovers the links between representations of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in TV through a cross-cultural analysis of South Korea (SK) and the West by utilising the case study It’s Okay to Not be Okay. An argument is made that the case study represents an accurate understanding of ASD, but also of the family values surrounding it, such as the relationship those with ASD have with their family and siblings. A reception analysis was then undertaken to understand if and how audiences in South Korea and the West reacted to these portrayals. Western/International audiences openly discussed the portrayal and family relationships and believed it to be accurate, as well as educational. In response, Wisteria developed these conclusions to do with cultural differences in the way that audiences understand representations of ASD into a new awareness campaign.  The second winner is Robert Harrison, whos dissertation is titled 'A Screenshot into a World: A Comparative Analysis of Star Wars Film Posters (1977-2019)'. This project uses the case study of Star Wars - or rather its posters - to understand how changes within the film and marketing industries have made it difficult for posters to stay original. These changes to posters have resulted in two main variables of alteration, artistic style and composition, argues Harrison, resulting in trends of similarities across the traditional and contemporary promotional film landscape. Asking questions of how we as audiences view posters, particularly with regards to preconceptions and nostalgia, Harrison's research also analyses trends of similarity, including the art style used in traditional posters and the contemporary composition of the celebrity pyramid, a term proposed later within his research to explain this phenomenon. In response, Harrison undertook industry research into the marketing sector in order to develop the conclusions from the research into a practical and creative set of digital media artefacts beneficial to industry. Specifically, this took the form of film posters, which aim to bring back nostalgia for audiences, but also explore a possible outlet for industry to develop a new trend of film posters, harnessing the possibilities that digital technology and social media have given to us.

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ISSUE 2 / SEPT 2019

Characterising Generational Reboot Strategies:

The Femme Fatale and the Female Screenwriter: Disrupting the Stereotype

Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive: Digital Archive as Critical Argument

How Do You Write for What the Camera Can’t Do?: Scriptwriting, Animation, & Transmedia Storytelling

Not (a) Part: Handmade Animation, Materialism and the Photogram Film

A Crisis Discipline:

Affective Cinema: Experimenting with Feelings of Meaning

Affordances (and Potential Pitfalls) of Documentary as Research:

Contemplative Photo-collage in Media Studies Pedagogy

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR NEXT ISSUE

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