Brett Story
Biographic Data
| ID | 3790950 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brett Story |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brett |
| FAMILY NAME | Story |
| SIGNATURE | STORY B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Methodist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9851-7790 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 338 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance VI: An Experimental and Analytical Assessment of Javelin and Atlatl Dart Oscillation Frequency, Mode Shape, and Shaft Spine
In Conversation with Brett Story, Emily Kassie, and Julian Brave NoiseCat
Still from The Prison in Twelve Landscapes.This issue of the Journal of Architectural Education is titled “Worlding. Energy. Transitions.”, and it’s organized around modes of political, social, and
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance IV: An Experimental Assessment of Knife Edge Effectiveness and Wear
This study is an assessment of Clovis knife edge effectiveness and wear. This work is the fourth contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis “point” forms. Here, we used both edges from 14 replica Clovis point forms in a wood slicing task: the first seven forms represent the average and extremes of observed Clovis points; the second seven represent length-standardized versions. …
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance V: An Experimental Assessment of Spear Thrusting Penetration Depth and Entry Wound Size
This study is an assessment of Clovis spear thrusting penetration depth and entry wound size. This work is the fifth contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis point forms. Here, using highly controlled and standardized procedures, we had a participant who had previously trained with bayonets and hand-to-hand combat thrust seven spears, each tipped with a distinct Clovis point …
Static penetration assessment of stone weapon tip geometry metrics and comparison of static and dynamic penetration depths
Many factors governed the penetration efficacy of prehistoric projectile weaponry. Archaeologists broadly focus their efforts on understanding the effect of stone weapon tips because these specimens are often the only part of the weapon system that survives in the archaeological record. The tip cross‐sectional area (TCSA) and perimeter (TCSP) of stone weapon tips have been shown to correlate with target penetration depth. Here, using results from…
Comparison of four ballistic and thrusting target materials: An experimental and Bayesian approach using static testing of stone and steel arrow tips
Researchers use a variety of target materials, and sometimes combinations of materials, in their archaeological experiments to examine thrust‐spear or projectile penetration, impact angle, durability, and other issues involving prehistoric hunting weaponry. This variety of target materials is beneficial to archaeological science in several ways, but it may also hinder the comparison of results because many of these target materials do not necessa…
Not just for proboscidean hunting: On the efficacy and functions of Clovis fluted points
Our article “On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans” (Eren et al., 2021), sought to assess whether these stone points were, as conventional wisdom had it, highly effective weapon components for inflicting lethal wounds on proboscideans. Although Clovis points had been used to bring down proboscideans, we observed that their penetrating ability had limits that reduced their ballistic effectiveness. That, combined with th…
Experimental assessment of lanceolate projectile point and haft robustness
Art in Conversation: Visualizing Security Studies Research
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance II: An Experimental Assessment of Point, Haft, and Shaft Durability
This study presents the results of an experimental assessment of Clovis projectile durability, or the ability of Clovis point forms and their hafts to withstand impact damage. This work is the second contribution in a series of experimental studies aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis point forms. For this experiment we fired seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Cl…
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance III: An Experimental Assessment of Knife Cutting Efficiency
This study is an experimental assessment of Clovis knife use. This work is the third contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis “point” forms. Here, we used seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Clovis form, in two cutting tasks: rope cutting and clay cutting. Statistical comparison of cutting time, our measure of cutting efficiency…
Plains Paleoindian Projectile Point Penetration Potential
The iconic Paleoindian projectile points of the northern portion of the North American Great Plains—Clovis, Folsom, Agate Basin, Plainview (Goshen), Hell Gap, Alberta, Scottsbluff, and Eden—span nearly 4,000 radiocarbon years. Here, we apply recent findings from experimental archaeology to a database of 343 Paleoindian points to better understand how well these point types potentially functioned relative to each other in terms of penetration. Giv…
On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans
Clovis fluted points are deemed efficient weapon tips for hunting large game, including Pleistocene proboscideans. However, experimental and archaeological studies cast doubt on their effectiveness as hunting weapons. Owing to the broad and thick tip geometry of Clovis points, their penetration depth into a carcass would have been relatively limited, which would have rendered them unlikely to reach the well-protected vital organs of a proboscidea…
Tip cross-sectional geometry predicts the penetration depth of stone-tipped projectiles
Understanding prehistoric projectile weaponry performance is fundamental to unraveling past humans’ survival and the evolution of technology. One important debate involves how deeply stone-tipped projectiles penetrate a target. Theoretically, all things being equal, projectiles with smaller tip cross-sectional geometries should penetrate deeper into a target than projectiles with larger tip cross-sectional geometries. Yet, previous experiments ha…
Reflections on dread and futurity
Connecting the Dots Between Mass Incarceration, Health Inequity, and Climate Change
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance: An Experimental Assessment of Penetration Depth
In Late Pleistocene North America colonizing hunter-gatherers knapped and used Clovis fluted projectile points. During their expansion the size and shape of Clovis points changed significantly. Archaeologists know that cultural drift contributed to this variation, but is it possible that this single source could alone generate so much variation so quickly? We present the first of several experimental studies exploring whether Clovis size and shap…
Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power across Neoliberal America
Why Are Clovis Fluted Points More Resilient than Non‐Fluted Lanceolate Points? A Quantitative Assessment of Breakage Patterns Between Experimental Models
For decades, archaeologists have wondered whether the Clovis Palaeoindian ( c .11 600–10 800 radiocarbon years bp ) practice of ‘fluting’, a flake removal technique that creates a distinctive shallow channel extending from the base of the projectile point towards the tip, bestowed a functional advantage over non‐fluted projectile points. Using analytical modelling and static engineering experiments, Thomas et al . (2017) found that points that mo…
Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power Across Neoliberal America
Humanitarian Ethics and Documentary Politics
Scholar Pooja Rangan and filmmaker-scholars Brett Story and Paige Sarlin engage in a conversation about documentary theory and practice emerging from the questions posed by Rangan’s book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (published by Duke University Press in 2017 as part of Camera Obscura’s relaunched book series). Rangan introduces “immediations,” the concept she uses for documentary tropes that generate a sensation of urgen…
Explaining the origin of fluting in North American Pleistocene weaponry
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes: An interview with film producer and director Brett Story
Editors Michelle Brown and Eamonn Carrabine interview filmmaker Brett Story about her recent documentary, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
The prison in the city: Tracking the neoliberal life of the “million dollar block”
The concept of the ‘million dollar block’ refers to the spatially concentrated urban origins of the US prison population, most of whom come from a handful of neighborhoods in the country’s biggest cities. Visualized through a series of maps charting home addresses alongside financial costs of imprisonment, the million dollar block has emerged as a powerful rhetorical umbrella for bipartisan collaboration on prison reform. This article critically …
The prison inside
Focusing on the history of Canada’s first penitentiary, this chapter examines the crucial, though under-recognized, role of sound in the way carceral space is constructed, modified, and remembered. Drawing from archival materials related to Kingston Penitentiary, it first outlines the silent system as spatial articulation of sonic power in the penitentiary’s first century, from 1835 to 1932. It then traces technological change in the sonic struct…
The role of raw material differences in stone tool shape variation: An experimental assessment
Explaining the origin of fluting in North American Pleistocene weaponry
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance: An Experimental Assessment of Penetration Depth
In Late Pleistocene North America colonizing hunter-gatherers knapped and used Clovis fluted projectile points. During their expansion the size and shape of Clovis points changed significantly. Archaeologists know that cultural drift contributed to this variation, but is it possible that this single source could alone generate so much variation so quickly? We present the first of several experimental studies exploring whether Clovis size and shap…
On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans
Clovis fluted points are deemed efficient weapon tips for hunting large game, including Pleistocene proboscideans. However, experimental and archaeological studies cast doubt on their effectiveness as hunting weapons. Owing to the broad and thick tip geometry of Clovis points, their penetration depth into a carcass would have been relatively limited, which would have rendered them unlikely to reach the well-protected vital organs of a proboscidea…
The prison in the city: Tracking the neoliberal life of the “million dollar block”
The concept of the ‘million dollar block’ refers to the spatially concentrated urban origins of the US prison population, most of whom come from a handful of neighborhoods in the country’s biggest cities. Visualized through a series of maps charting home addresses alongside financial costs of imprisonment, the million dollar block has emerged as a powerful rhetorical umbrella for bipartisan collaboration on prison reform. This article critically …
Why Are Clovis Fluted Points More Resilient than Non‐Fluted Lanceolate Points? A Quantitative Assessment of Breakage Patterns Between Experimental Models
For decades, archaeologists have wondered whether the Clovis Palaeoindian ( c .11 600–10 800 radiocarbon years bp ) practice of ‘fluting’, a flake removal technique that creates a distinctive shallow channel extending from the base of the projectile point towards the tip, bestowed a functional advantage over non‐fluted projectile points. Using analytical modelling and static engineering experiments, Thomas et al . (2017) found that points that mo…
Not just for proboscidean hunting: On the efficacy and functions of Clovis fluted points
Our article “On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans” (Eren et al., 2021), sought to assess whether these stone points were, as conventional wisdom had it, highly effective weapon components for inflicting lethal wounds on proboscideans. Although Clovis points had been used to bring down proboscideans, we observed that their penetrating ability had limits that reduced their ballistic effectiveness. That, combined with th…
Plains Paleoindian Projectile Point Penetration Potential
The iconic Paleoindian projectile points of the northern portion of the North American Great Plains—Clovis, Folsom, Agate Basin, Plainview (Goshen), Hell Gap, Alberta, Scottsbluff, and Eden—span nearly 4,000 radiocarbon years. Here, we apply recent findings from experimental archaeology to a database of 343 Paleoindian points to better understand how well these point types potentially functioned relative to each other in terms of penetration. Giv…
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance II: An Experimental Assessment of Point, Haft, and Shaft Durability
This study presents the results of an experimental assessment of Clovis projectile durability, or the ability of Clovis point forms and their hafts to withstand impact damage. This work is the second contribution in a series of experimental studies aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis point forms. For this experiment we fired seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Cl…
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance III: An Experimental Assessment of Knife Cutting Efficiency
This study is an experimental assessment of Clovis knife use. This work is the third contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis “point” forms. Here, we used seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Clovis form, in two cutting tasks: rope cutting and clay cutting. Statistical comparison of cutting time, our measure of cutting efficiency…
Experimental assessment of lanceolate projectile point and haft robustness
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance IV: An Experimental Assessment of Knife Edge Effectiveness and Wear
This study is an assessment of Clovis knife edge effectiveness and wear. This work is the fourth contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis “point” forms. Here, we used both edges from 14 replica Clovis point forms in a wood slicing task: the first seven forms represent the average and extremes of observed Clovis points; the second seven represent length-standardized versions. …
Connecting the Dots Between Mass Incarceration, Health Inequity, and Climate Change
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance V: An Experimental Assessment of Spear Thrusting Penetration Depth and Entry Wound Size
This study is an assessment of Clovis spear thrusting penetration depth and entry wound size. This work is the fifth contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis point forms. Here, using highly controlled and standardized procedures, we had a participant who had previously trained with bayonets and hand-to-hand combat thrust seven spears, each tipped with a distinct Clovis point …
Static penetration assessment of stone weapon tip geometry metrics and comparison of static and dynamic penetration depths
Many factors governed the penetration efficacy of prehistoric projectile weaponry. Archaeologists broadly focus their efforts on understanding the effect of stone weapon tips because these specimens are often the only part of the weapon system that survives in the archaeological record. The tip cross‐sectional area (TCSA) and perimeter (TCSP) of stone weapon tips have been shown to correlate with target penetration depth. Here, using results from…
Comparison of four ballistic and thrusting target materials: An experimental and Bayesian approach using static testing of stone and steel arrow tips
Researchers use a variety of target materials, and sometimes combinations of materials, in their archaeological experiments to examine thrust‐spear or projectile penetration, impact angle, durability, and other issues involving prehistoric hunting weaponry. This variety of target materials is beneficial to archaeological science in several ways, but it may also hinder the comparison of results because many of these target materials do not necessa…
In/different cities: A Case for Contact at the Margins
Long before embarking on the academic life of a geographer, I made films about cities. In the following essay, I reflect on a series of my short films, shot in the magical aesthetic of super8 film, which meditate on themes that continue to preoccupy and interest many urban geographers, in particular, the dialectic between social life and the built landscape of contemporary urban space. A central argument suggested by these cinematic excursions is…
Humanitarian Ethics and Documentary Politics
Scholar Pooja Rangan and filmmaker-scholars Brett Story and Paige Sarlin engage in a conversation about documentary theory and practice emerging from the questions posed by Rangan’s book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (published by Duke University Press in 2017 as part of Camera Obscura’s relaunched book series). Rangan introduces “immediations,” the concept she uses for documentary tropes that generate a sensation of urgen…
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes: An interview with film producer and director Brett Story
Editors Michelle Brown and Eamonn Carrabine interview filmmaker Brett Story about her recent documentary, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
The Forgotten Space by Allan Sekula and Noël Burch
Allan Sekula and Noël Burch , The Forgotten Space . Amsterdam: Doc.Eye Film and Vienna : WILDart FILM , 2010 The old port has disappeared. In its place sit spectacular beachside condominiums, while the remains of the now gentrified harbor pose ossified for the pleasure of tourists. Somewhere else, maybe even nearby, concrete container terminals break the air of the modern working port into an automated rhythm of hums and clanks, sending stacks of…
In/different cities: A Case for Contact at the Margins
Long before embarking on the academic life of a geographer, I made films about cities. In the following essay, I reflect on a series of my short films, shot in the magical aesthetic of super8 film, which meditate on themes that continue to preoccupy and interest many urban geographers, in particular, the dialectic between social life and the built landscape of contemporary urban space. A central argument suggested by these cinematic excursions is…
Alone inside: Solitary confinement and the ontology of the individual in modern life
The long-term solitary confinement of prisoners causes fundamentally debilitative psychological damage. This violence, inherent to the socio-spatial organization of solitary confinement, diminishes prisoners' capacity to function as human beings. Yet while violence might characterize the ends of solitary confinement, individuation defines the means. This paper argues that solitary confinement, while an extreme case, shares crucial characteristics…
The role of raw material differences in stone tool shape variation: An experimental assessment
The prison inside
Focusing on the history of Canada’s first penitentiary, this chapter examines the crucial, though under-recognized, role of sound in the way carceral space is constructed, modified, and remembered. Drawing from archival materials related to Kingston Penitentiary, it first outlines the silent system as spatial articulation of sonic power in the penitentiary’s first century, from 1835 to 1932. It then traces technological change in the sonic struct…
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes: An interview with film producer and director Brett Story
Editors Michelle Brown and Eamonn Carrabine interview filmmaker Brett Story about her recent documentary, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
The prison in the city: Tracking the neoliberal life of the “million dollar block”
The concept of the ‘million dollar block’ refers to the spatially concentrated urban origins of the US prison population, most of whom come from a handful of neighborhoods in the country’s biggest cities. Visualized through a series of maps charting home addresses alongside financial costs of imprisonment, the million dollar block has emerged as a powerful rhetorical umbrella for bipartisan collaboration on prison reform. This article critically …
Explaining the origin of fluting in North American Pleistocene weaponry
Humanitarian Ethics and Documentary Politics
Scholar Pooja Rangan and filmmaker-scholars Brett Story and Paige Sarlin engage in a conversation about documentary theory and practice emerging from the questions posed by Rangan’s book Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary (published by Duke University Press in 2017 as part of Camera Obscura’s relaunched book series). Rangan introduces “immediations,” the concept she uses for documentary tropes that generate a sensation of urgen…
Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power across Neoliberal America
Why Are Clovis Fluted Points More Resilient than Non‐Fluted Lanceolate Points? A Quantitative Assessment of Breakage Patterns Between Experimental Models
For decades, archaeologists have wondered whether the Clovis Palaeoindian ( c .11 600–10 800 radiocarbon years bp ) practice of ‘fluting’, a flake removal technique that creates a distinctive shallow channel extending from the base of the projectile point towards the tip, bestowed a functional advantage over non‐fluted projectile points. Using analytical modelling and static engineering experiments, Thomas et al . (2017) found that points that mo…
Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power Across Neoliberal America
Tip cross-sectional geometry predicts the penetration depth of stone-tipped projectiles
Understanding prehistoric projectile weaponry performance is fundamental to unraveling past humans’ survival and the evolution of technology. One important debate involves how deeply stone-tipped projectiles penetrate a target. Theoretically, all things being equal, projectiles with smaller tip cross-sectional geometries should penetrate deeper into a target than projectiles with larger tip cross-sectional geometries. Yet, previous experiments ha…
Reflections on dread and futurity
Connecting the Dots Between Mass Incarceration, Health Inequity, and Climate Change
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance: An Experimental Assessment of Penetration Depth
In Late Pleistocene North America colonizing hunter-gatherers knapped and used Clovis fluted projectile points. During their expansion the size and shape of Clovis points changed significantly. Archaeologists know that cultural drift contributed to this variation, but is it possible that this single source could alone generate so much variation so quickly? We present the first of several experimental studies exploring whether Clovis size and shap…
On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans
Clovis fluted points are deemed efficient weapon tips for hunting large game, including Pleistocene proboscideans. However, experimental and archaeological studies cast doubt on their effectiveness as hunting weapons. Owing to the broad and thick tip geometry of Clovis points, their penetration depth into a carcass would have been relatively limited, which would have rendered them unlikely to reach the well-protected vital organs of a proboscidea…
Not just for proboscidean hunting: On the efficacy and functions of Clovis fluted points
Our article “On the efficacy of Clovis fluted points for hunting proboscideans” (Eren et al., 2021), sought to assess whether these stone points were, as conventional wisdom had it, highly effective weapon components for inflicting lethal wounds on proboscideans. Although Clovis points had been used to bring down proboscideans, we observed that their penetrating ability had limits that reduced their ballistic effectiveness. That, combined with th…
Experimental assessment of lanceolate projectile point and haft robustness
Art in Conversation: Visualizing Security Studies Research
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance II: An Experimental Assessment of Point, Haft, and Shaft Durability
This study presents the results of an experimental assessment of Clovis projectile durability, or the ability of Clovis point forms and their hafts to withstand impact damage. This work is the second contribution in a series of experimental studies aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis point forms. For this experiment we fired seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Cl…
North American Clovis Point Form and Performance III: An Experimental Assessment of Knife Cutting Efficiency
This study is an experimental assessment of Clovis knife use. This work is the third contribution in a series of experiments aimed at shedding light on the functional performance of distinct Clovis “point” forms. Here, we used seven replica Clovis point forms, representing the average and extremes of observed Clovis form, in two cutting tasks: rope cutting and clay cutting. Statistical comparison of cutting time, our measure of cutting efficiency…
Plains Paleoindian Projectile Point Penetration Potential
The iconic Paleoindian projectile points of the northern portion of the North American Great Plains—Clovis, Folsom, Agate Basin, Plainview (Goshen), Hell Gap, Alberta, Scottsbluff, and Eden—span nearly 4,000 radiocarbon years. Here, we apply recent findings from experimental archaeology to a database of 343 Paleoindian points to better understand how well these point types potentially functioned relative to each other in terms of penetration. Giv…
Static penetration assessment of stone weapon tip geometry metrics and comparison of static and dynamic penetration depths
Many factors governed the penetration efficacy of prehistoric projectile weaponry. Archaeologists broadly focus their efforts on understanding the effect of stone weapon tips because these specimens are often the only part of the weapon system that survives in the archaeological record. The tip cross‐sectional area (TCSA) and perimeter (TCSP) of stone weapon tips have been shown to correlate with target penetration depth. Here, using results from…
Comparison of four ballistic and thrusting target materials: An experimental and Bayesian approach using static testing of stone and steel arrow tips
Researchers use a variety of target materials, and sometimes combinations of materials, in their archaeological experiments to examine thrust‐spear or projectile penetration, impact angle, durability, and other issues involving prehistoric hunting weaponry. This variety of target materials is beneficial to archaeological science in several ways, but it may also hinder the comparison of results because many of these target materials do not necessa…
Geology (14 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Mathematics (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Projectile (8 works) · Projectile point (8 works) · Geometry (7 works)