Power and Performance: Revaluing Theatre in the 21st century. This project aims to examine the changing function of the theatre in Western culture. For millennia, theatre has been valued as a way to bridge questions of a personal and political nature. As the Western cultural sphere is now organised around generating consensus rather than debate, so this foundational function of theatre is being challenged and must be re-assessed. Accordingly, the role of the artist, audience or scholar of theatr ....Power and Performance: Revaluing Theatre in the 21st century. This project aims to examine the changing function of the theatre in Western culture. For millennia, theatre has been valued as a way to bridge questions of a personal and political nature. As the Western cultural sphere is now organised around generating consensus rather than debate, so this foundational function of theatre is being challenged and must be re-assessed. Accordingly, the role of the artist, audience or scholar of theatre is also changing in fundamental ways. There is now a need to re-examine the social value of theatrical performance in contemporary Western culture. This project plans to consider case studies in different global sites to develop a comparative and critical framework for establishing the new cultural politics of theatre and the re-evaluation of the arts.Read moreRead less
The changing identity and sustainability of the music-cultures and worldviews of the Riau Islands' sea nomads and sedentary Malays. This project explores the music-cultural identity and related socioeconomic dilemmas of remote Sea Nomads vis-à-vis the Muslim Malays in the industrialising Riau Islands. It will further Australians' awareness of the intercultural contexts in which they work and help maintain Australia's leadership role and ongoing engagement with the Asia-Pacific.
Peking opera, epitheatre and writing in nineteenth-century Beijing. Employing the neglected 'flower-guide' booklets of nineteenth-century Beijing, this project explores the role theatre-based popular literature played in the formation of the capital city's emerging public sphere. Establishing epitheatre as a new field, it opens new horizons in the history of modern China, social history and literary criticism.
Redefining conceptions of child and adolescent emotional responses to music using time-series analysis. The National Review of Music Education recognizes the need to understand more fully how musical experiences impact on children's emotional and general development. Australian researchers are leaders in the field of continuous response to emotion in music. Our international leadership on this critically important issue will result in new ways of understanding music and teaching music to childre ....Redefining conceptions of child and adolescent emotional responses to music using time-series analysis. The National Review of Music Education recognizes the need to understand more fully how musical experiences impact on children's emotional and general development. Australian researchers are leaders in the field of continuous response to emotion in music. Our international leadership on this critically important issue will result in new ways of understanding music and teaching music to children through to adults because our explanations of affective aspects of music will be framed within a scientific perspective which moves beyond learning the purely technical and subjective aspects of music appreciation.Read moreRead less
Performative Body-Mapping (PBM) method for socialising non-humanlike robots. This project aims to transform techniques of embodiment that are central to human–robot interaction, to improve the social skills and acceptability of future robots. Robots are increasingly becoming part of our lives in the sectors of health, education, commerce and leisure. But robots’ social skills today fall far behind their functional capabilities. Performative body-mapping (PBM) aims to address this problem by inve ....Performative Body-Mapping (PBM) method for socialising non-humanlike robots. This project aims to transform techniques of embodiment that are central to human–robot interaction, to improve the social skills and acceptability of future robots. Robots are increasingly becoming part of our lives in the sectors of health, education, commerce and leisure. But robots’ social skills today fall far behind their functional capabilities. Performative body-mapping (PBM) aims to address this problem by inventing and trialling a transdisciplinary body-mapping method for socialising non-humanlike robots. Significantly, this would allow for social robots to be non-humanoid in appearance but still appealing and readable to humans, and robots to be taught to interact by using human movement expertise in an innovative, effective way.Read moreRead less
Understanding and overcoming technical difficulties in woodwind musical instruments. A large minority of Australians play musical instruments, and even more enjoy listening. Wind instruments predominate in school bands. This project will provide knowledge and resources that will improve teaching and playing techniques. It will also provide understanding and information useful to instrument makers, of which Australia has several. The information will be made available in both technical and non-te ....Understanding and overcoming technical difficulties in woodwind musical instruments. A large minority of Australians play musical instruments, and even more enjoy listening. Wind instruments predominate in school bands. This project will provide knowledge and resources that will improve teaching and playing techniques. It will also provide understanding and information useful to instrument makers, of which Australia has several. The information will be made available in both technical and non-technical forms via our widely used web site.
The quality of this research, its useful application to practical problems, and the rapid and easy communication to a wide and very interested subset of the public will enhance Australia's reputation for research and music.Read moreRead less
New media dramaturgy: how new media transform the composition and reception of live performance. New media dramaturgy will formulate a new framework for analysing and creating contemporary new media performance including multimedia theatre and dance, video performance and installation. The project will also explore how the synthesis of new dramaturgy and new media has changed the experience of live arts for the spectator.
Remediation: Performance Art and Video Performance. This project addresses National Research Priority 4: Safeguarding Australia, priority goal 'understanding our region and the world'. Its benefits will be felt within the cultural community in Australia and across the world. It will encourage overseas curators to include Australian works in their exhibitions; in turn this will generate international scholarship on works from Australia. This will set up a healthy critical dialogue and contribute ....Remediation: Performance Art and Video Performance. This project addresses National Research Priority 4: Safeguarding Australia, priority goal 'understanding our region and the world'. Its benefits will be felt within the cultural community in Australia and across the world. It will encourage overseas curators to include Australian works in their exhibitions; in turn this will generate international scholarship on works from Australia. This will set up a healthy critical dialogue and contribute to knowledge transfer and exchange between Australia and the rest of the world.Read moreRead less
When the Waters Will Be One: Indigenous Performance Traditions at the New Frontier of Inter-Cultural Discourse in Arnhem Land. This project will examine the emerging roles of Indigenous performance traditions from Arnhem Land as fulcra for the strategic development of new discourses between peoples of the region and the international community. The adaptation of music and dance traditions to new media and performance contexts will be considered as will the hereditary intellectual paradigms that ....When the Waters Will Be One: Indigenous Performance Traditions at the New Frontier of Inter-Cultural Discourse in Arnhem Land. This project will examine the emerging roles of Indigenous performance traditions from Arnhem Land as fulcra for the strategic development of new discourses between peoples of the region and the international community. The adaptation of music and dance traditions to new media and performance contexts will be considered as will the hereditary intellectual paradigms that underpin these processes. This project will also investigate historical antecedents to these new developments within the past 50 years, and explore their centrality to current attempts by Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land to achieve cultural and economic sustainability amid a continuing period of radical social change.Read moreRead less
Reclaiming indigenous performance in southeast Australia, 1935-75. This project aims to reframe a period of Australian history, the Assimilation era (1935-1975), to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' active intervention in public affairs through performances of music and dance. The project will collaborate with present-day communities aiming to construct an alternative history of cultural resilience and agency. Outcomes directed at academic, community and public audiences aim to ....Reclaiming indigenous performance in southeast Australia, 1935-75. This project aims to reframe a period of Australian history, the Assimilation era (1935-1975), to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' active intervention in public affairs through performances of music and dance. The project will collaborate with present-day communities aiming to construct an alternative history of cultural resilience and agency. Outcomes directed at academic, community and public audiences aim to better inform current debates on Australian identity, support the work of contemporary practitioners, build international networks and validate histories hitherto hidden at the heart of Australian nationhood.Read moreRead less