Editorial Introduction

Dr Susan Kerrigan, University of Newcastle & Associate Professor Craig Batty, RMIT University

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The 11th annual ASPERA conference, Screen Explosion: Expanding practice, narrative and education for the creative screen industries, celebrated the multiplicity of screens and the impact they have on screen production, output and education. Delegates presented and debated on how traditional creative screen practices are endorsed, challenged, changed and reconstituted by the diversity of large and small screens that permeates our everyday lives.

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A range of keynote addresses, workshops and papers brought together experienced and new academics, industry practitioners and higher degree by research candidates. The broad and rich experiences of these delegates resulted in a set of refereed papers that cross dynamic territories, from interactive documentary to film festivals, and from creative practice research to reflections on learning and teaching. It is also perhaps worth noting that each of the authors has either completed or is undertaking a higher degree by creative practice research, a testament, we hope, to the developing discourse of what it means to research for, about and through screen production – a discourse the ASPERA Research Committee is invested in through its various activities and research pursuits.

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As part of this, ASPERA is keen to mentor higher degree by research candidates in the discipline through opportunities such as conference presentations, publications and peer reviewing activities – all of which these refereed proceedings represent. Opportunities such as these help individual researchers to build their academic track records, and also help the discipline of screen production to develop its research agenda and strengthen its voice in the academy. We hope that, as readers of these papers, you are inspired to join the debates and share your voice with your peers.

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Finally, we are grateful to the following peer reviewers for their assistance with the 2014 refereed proceedings:

Dr Marsha Berry, RMIT University; Dr Diane Charleston, Australian Catholic University; Sky Crompton, RMIT University; Dr Kath Dooley, Flinders University; Dr Bettina Frankham, University of Technology, Sydney; Bruce Gater, Charles Sturt University; Samuel Hutchinson, University of Newcastle; Dr Seth Keen, RMIT, University; Dr Susan Kerrigan, University of Newcastle; Dr Natalie Lewandowski, Macquarie University; Dr Donna McRae, Deakin University; Steven Murdoch, Swinburne University of Technology; Dr Mark Ryan, Queensland University of Technology; Kristi Street, University of Newcastle; Tim Thomas, University of Canberra; Dr Michael Vale, Monash University; JT Velikovsky, University of Western Sydney; Dr Mike Walsh, Flinders University.