Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney. Urban wetlands in Australia provide benefits for climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, habitat provision and socioecological connection. However, in large cities like Sydney, urban wetlands are unseen because undergrounded, and, therefore not adequately understood. This illegibility, and loss of understanding by residents, planners and policy makers impedes wetlands' good management. This project surfaces wetlands through v ....Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney. Urban wetlands in Australia provide benefits for climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, habitat provision and socioecological connection. However, in large cities like Sydney, urban wetlands are unseen because undergrounded, and, therefore not adequately understood. This illegibility, and loss of understanding by residents, planners and policy makers impedes wetlands' good management. This project surfaces wetlands through visualisation in a multimodal knowledge platform focusing on two urban renewal sites, Green Square and Marrickville South. We leverage design ethnography to develop resources for strengthening multiple stakeholders’ socioecological engagement through methods empowering just, creative and open participation.Read moreRead less
Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis o ....Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis of the role of the avatar, in consultation with industry, this project offers a unique opportunity to develop a wider perspective that will contribute to an understanding of the uses and policies for the digital economy.Read moreRead less
Cinema and the Senses: Temporality of the films of Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick and Kumar Shahani. The resulting monograph, articles and seminars will provide new methodologies for Australian cinema studies which has tended to depend on Euro-American models. The project offers three distinct ways of thinking about an ecology of the human senses in and through cinema. The ideas on cine-synaesthesia would link up with current research on this topic in other disciplines such as neurophysiology, ....Cinema and the Senses: Temporality of the films of Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick and Kumar Shahani. The resulting monograph, articles and seminars will provide new methodologies for Australian cinema studies which has tended to depend on Euro-American models. The project offers three distinct ways of thinking about an ecology of the human senses in and through cinema. The ideas on cine-synaesthesia would link up with current research on this topic in other disciplines such as neurophysiology, painting and music. The interdisciplinarity of the project offers, to the public sphere of Australian cinema, cross-cultural and cross-media perspectives on film aesthetics. Read moreRead less
A Design History of Australian HIV/AIDS Public Health Campaigns 1983-2004. This project investigates the differing roles of governments and community organisations as influential factors in the formulation of graphic representations which characterise the prevention campaigns used in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Australia 1983-2004. It explains how graphic representations, functioning as an index of official and public responses to the epidemic, impact on the aesthetic and professional autonomy of t ....A Design History of Australian HIV/AIDS Public Health Campaigns 1983-2004. This project investigates the differing roles of governments and community organisations as influential factors in the formulation of graphic representations which characterise the prevention campaigns used in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Australia 1983-2004. It explains how graphic representations, functioning as an index of official and public responses to the epidemic, impact on the aesthetic and professional autonomy of the designer. Complimenting existing quantitative assessments this study uses a textual-visual analysis and triangulation method to demonstrate the agency of these institutional constraints placed within the broader range of material forms relating to the campaigns including brochures, posters, and videos.Read moreRead less
The Power of the Image: affect, audience and disturbing imagery. In a period of fear and uncertainty about terrorism and war there is a pressing need to examine the specific contemporary modes of teenagers' engagements with media violence and the ways it contributes to their understanding of violence in the world around them. This project will identify the links young people make between affective and emotional reactions to media imagery, their own values and attitudes about the violence in ever ....The Power of the Image: affect, audience and disturbing imagery. In a period of fear and uncertainty about terrorism and war there is a pressing need to examine the specific contemporary modes of teenagers' engagements with media violence and the ways it contributes to their understanding of violence in the world around them. This project will identify the links young people make between affective and emotional reactions to media imagery, their own values and attitudes about the violence in everyday life (e.g. sexual harassment, bullying, fights at school), and their assessment of their own power and agency. It adds much needed Australian research to a field lacking a distinctive Australian perspective.Read moreRead less
Dynamic media: innovative social and artistic developments in new media in Australia, Britain, Canada and Scandinavia since 1990. This study will foreground strengths and remedy weaknesses in Australian new media arts and innovative social uses of new media. By studying the international strategies for social use of dynamic media, this study will provide information for Australians to more extensively implement dynamic media within a social context. It will highlight the innovation of Australian ....Dynamic media: innovative social and artistic developments in new media in Australia, Britain, Canada and Scandinavia since 1990. This study will foreground strengths and remedy weaknesses in Australian new media arts and innovative social uses of new media. By studying the international strategies for social use of dynamic media, this study will provide information for Australians to more extensively implement dynamic media within a social context. It will highlight the innovation of Australian artists and researchers in the development of dynamic media and position these internationally. A major long-term benefit of this study will be an online database that will both profile and be accessible to Australian artists, arts organizations, new media researchers and social innovators. Read moreRead less
Branding Cities on the West Pacific Rim: Cinematic Traditions and Tourism Marketing Strategies in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. This innovative project emphasises brand-building as a part of visual culture, and cinema as a contributory influence to marketing decisions. It will produce a landmark study of media synergies in the contemporary world. It compares cinematic traditions and tourism marketing in cosmopolitan cities in the Australiasian region. The comparison, based on archival analysis ....Branding Cities on the West Pacific Rim: Cinematic Traditions and Tourism Marketing Strategies in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. This innovative project emphasises brand-building as a part of visual culture, and cinema as a contributory influence to marketing decisions. It will produce a landmark study of media synergies in the contemporary world. It compares cinematic traditions and tourism marketing in cosmopolitan cities in the Australiasian region. The comparison, based on archival analysis and on interviews with producers, policy makers, and consumers, will determine whether images of the city converge or compete in business practice and cultural production. The research complements recent major Australian initiatives to re-evaluate creativity in the media.Read moreRead less
Digital Technologies, Mediated Futures: Envisioning Culture in Arnhem Land. This research offers an exciting new way to understand how Aboriginal people are envisioning, and working towards, a culturally viable future for themselves and their children. Digital media technologies allow Yolngu elders to connect with current and future generations in new, but nevertheless, culturally appropriate ways. They allow them to work innovatively to strengthen the social fabric of communities in crisis. ....Digital Technologies, Mediated Futures: Envisioning Culture in Arnhem Land. This research offers an exciting new way to understand how Aboriginal people are envisioning, and working towards, a culturally viable future for themselves and their children. Digital media technologies allow Yolngu elders to connect with current and future generations in new, but nevertheless, culturally appropriate ways. They allow them to work innovatively to strengthen the social fabric of communities in crisis. For mainstream Australian society, this project represents an important opportunity for to learn directly from, and about, indigenous cultures. It offers a significant opportunity to take up the ethical and imaginative challenges of seeing the world from indigenous perspectives. Read moreRead less
William Faulkner Between Cinema and Literature. Literature continues to react and adapt to an ever-more complex media environment, but there is still little in the way of detailed critical study to specify the strategies and tactics of literary survival in an audio-visual era. By attending to the unique and indicative case of William Faulkner, who wrote simultaneously for the films and the serious literary market, this project will develop a new critical model for understanding literature's ada ....William Faulkner Between Cinema and Literature. Literature continues to react and adapt to an ever-more complex media environment, but there is still little in the way of detailed critical study to specify the strategies and tactics of literary survival in an audio-visual era. By attending to the unique and indicative case of William Faulkner, who wrote simultaneously for the films and the serious literary market, this project will develop a new critical model for understanding literature's adaptation to a complex media environment. It will shed significant intellectual light on the present and future states of literary survival in advanced industrial nations like Australia. Read moreRead less
Cinematic Imaginations: American Literature and the Visual Media, 1905-1945. The advent of new visual media in the late C19th, and their rapid growth and industrialization in the 20th, obliged the traditional forms of literature to change. This project investigates that change in the American context, as a set of interlinked adaptations, in both literature and cinema, to more general social changes in an emergent mass-production economy. Arguing for a ?media ecology?, the project's originality i ....Cinematic Imaginations: American Literature and the Visual Media, 1905-1945. The advent of new visual media in the late C19th, and their rapid growth and industrialization in the 20th, obliged the traditional forms of literature to change. This project investigates that change in the American context, as a set of interlinked adaptations, in both literature and cinema, to more general social changes in an emergent mass-production economy. Arguing for a ?media ecology?, the project's originality is to establish a viable model for analysing this shift in the complexion of a culture, in terms of an explosive expansion of the cultural economy.Read moreRead less