Deconstructing the detour: a meld of theory and filmic practice to generate new knowledge

Detour Off the Superhighway is a feature-length documentary film produced as the creative practice element of a PhD which examined media, aura, and filmic practice. The project sought to answer the key research question, ‘What are the implications of a modern filmmaker utilising traditional media technologies ahead of contemporary equipment?’. The film uses evocative autoethnographic methods to depict an experiment in which the researcher surrendered the use of modern media and communication technology for 80 days, instead opting for legacy image-making technologies from several different eras throughout history. In doing so, the film explores theories of auratic experience, slow media, and the consequences of ‘going offline’ in the modern world. The screen production research project utilised a hybrid methodology of autoethnography and practice-led research to address the research question. The analysis of theory raised questions about the way we experience media works, and informed the design of the 80-day experiment, which explored the implications of my foregoing various advances in filmmaking technology and which was documented and depicted in the documentary. This article demonstrates how a careful blending of theory and practice was used in this project to explore the ‘range of communities in which the work can stimulate dialogue’.