CFP-Special Issue: Autonomy In and Through Interactive Digital
Storytelling**
/**N**o payment from the authors*// will be required as this is in the context of the Journal of Interactive Narrative, a diamond open access journal./ *Acknowledgement* **/This special issue is an initiative and sponsored by theDigital Storytelling and Innovation Network(DSIN), a research cluster hosted by the Leeds School of Arts./ *Scope of the Special Issue* * ***
Building on previous work in the disciplines of art, design, communications and media —i.e. on open cultural production (Velkova, 2016b), the interactive digital narrative field (Murray, 2018; Rouse & Koenitz, 2018), interactive documentary production (Dubois, 2021), and autonomous art schools (Hudson-Miles and Goodman, 2024)— this special issue seeks contributions that raise questions of autonomy in and through interactive digital storytelling.
Recent scholarship has highlighted the need for negotiation of “human-machine co-creativity” (Fisher, 2023; McCormack et al., 2020) and distributed cognition (Taffel, 2019; Hayles, 1999).
We are particularly (but not exclusively) interested in surfacing complexity and ambiguities around maker agency and authorship within cooperative or independent interactive digital narrative (IDN) production arrangements. Communication and social interactions among makers in various human/nonhuman assemblages (Romic, 2022; Zylinska, 2020) and engagement with generative AI software in particular are of key interest.
The use and/détournement/(de Certeau & Rendall, 2004) of technological tools can lead to more or less creative autonomy (Banks, 2010) or craft autonomy (Velkova, 2016) in media making. This is particularly true in autonomous media (Langlois & Dubois, 2005) settings, where the final work and the process are intrinsically aligned with the very empowerment of makers of media.
Interactive digital storytelling practices —e.g. interactive film, narrative-based computer games (Buckles, 1985), digital and
participatory theatre (influenced by Laurel, 2013), narrative virtual reality, or augmented reality stories— have seen practitioners share their autonomy together with increasingly interdisciplinary teams on the one hand, and end users on the other (as the limits of what is internal or external to production teams has become malleable at best). Put differently, Koenitz (2023) points to IDNs being ‘incomplete’, as long as the user is not interacting with it: “The designer of an IDN work no longer produces a finished object in the sense of a printed book or the theatrical release of a movie. Instead, they create artifacts that can be considered purposefully incomplete, as they require the active engagement by an audience to be fully realized.“ (p. 101)
In parallel, technological infrastructures such as big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and large language models have percolated production cultures to a point where the lines between what is maker-driven and what is algorithm-driven have started to blur. This in turn provokes questions of various forms of shared agency between human and nonhuman actors (Spierling & Szilas, 2009; Zylinska, 2020).
It is in this context of organisational and technological innovation in interactive digital storytelling production that we are asking how autonomy can be defined, as part of the shifting maker culture and where it is found/negotiated.
We are also interested, following the scepticism of writers such as Goldsmith and Wu (2007), about philosophical conceptualisations of the term ‘autonomy’ (see, for example: Coeckelbergh, 2004), including its manifestations in various niche contexts of interactive digital storytelling, such as Hakim Bey’s ‘temporary autonomous zones’ (1985).
We welcome research-creation scholars, reflective practitioners, critical and analytical scholars to participate in the special issue.
Please submit one of three options by 19 January 2026 at: https://journal.ardin.online/index.php/jin/about/submissions
*You can choose between:*
1) a scholarly essay or paper of 6,000-8,000 words (excluding abstract,
reference list, and meta information),
2) a 20-minute audiovisual-essay, or
3) a 12-minute IDN in combination with a short paper (between 2,400 and
3,200 words).
For any inquiry related to the special issue, don’t hesitate to contact us via (autonomy /at/ filmschule.de)
*Guest editors* * Frédéric Dubois, Department of Digital Narratives, ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln * BojanaRomic, School of Arts and Communication (K3), Malmö University
*Important dates*
* 20 October 2026: Publication of the call for papers
* 19 January 2026: Deadline for submission of draft manuscripts
* 2 February 2026: Desk-selection sent to authors
* 13 April 2026: Combined peer review and editorial review back to
authors
* 15 June 2026: Deadline for submission of full advanced manuscripts
* 20 July 2026: Second and final review
* 21 September 2026: Deadline for submission of final manuscripts
* 1 November 2026: Papers are published as they are readied. They are bundled into a special issue post-publication.