Interrogating the music city: cultural economy & popular music in Melbourne. Drawing on a range of sources and disciplinary frameworks, this project is designed to be both a history of the pop and rock music scenes in Melbourne from the mid-1950s to the present, and an analysis and critique of the usefulness of the concept of the 'music city' to understanding the role of popular music in the cultural economy of cities internationally. Melbourne is Australia’s premier ‘music city’, with popular m ....Interrogating the music city: cultural economy & popular music in Melbourne. Drawing on a range of sources and disciplinary frameworks, this project is designed to be both a history of the pop and rock music scenes in Melbourne from the mid-1950s to the present, and an analysis and critique of the usefulness of the concept of the 'music city' to understanding the role of popular music in the cultural economy of cities internationally. Melbourne is Australia’s premier ‘music city’, with popular music a key component of its contemporary identity and cultural economy. As governments and civic leaders around the world increasingly look to music cultures as drivers of economic development and cultural status, the project offers a timely evaluation of the utility of this cultural and economic strategy.Read moreRead less
Comedy - no laughing matter: identifying and preserving the history of comedy in Melbourne from the 1960s through the 1980s. This project will document the historical development of the comedy industry in Melbourne through preserving the material culture and recording the oral histories of its participants. In doing so, it will bridge a substantial gap in the knowledge of Australia's cultural history, and preserve important material for future research.
3D printing of custom musical instruments for heritage and industry needs. This Project will explore innovative heritage and commercial applications for the 3D modelling and printing of custom musical instruments to advance Australia’s flexible-manufacturing industry. Musical instruments are complex devices, often made with multiple parts and/or materials, that are commonly built to produce sound through a multitude of manufacturing processes to meet high-performance requirements. When hand-craf ....3D printing of custom musical instruments for heritage and industry needs. This Project will explore innovative heritage and commercial applications for the 3D modelling and printing of custom musical instruments to advance Australia’s flexible-manufacturing industry. Musical instruments are complex devices, often made with multiple parts and/or materials, that are commonly built to produce sound through a multitude of manufacturing processes to meet high-performance requirements. When hand-crafted, they can present considerable morphological variations, even within a single instrument type. The Project’s novel challenge of flexibly manufacturing custom music instruments to meet a diversity of end-user needs will create new digital heritage strategies and market opportunities for Australian research end-users.Read moreRead less
Planning for Sustainability of the National Indigenous Recording Project: a pilot project. This pilot project lays the essential groundwork for Yothu Yindi Foundation to carry out the National Recording Project for Indigenous Music, which will aim to record, document and archive today's leading performers of traditional music across Australia. Through workshops and community consultations, the pilot project will allow the Chief Investigators to collaborate with YYF to develop appropriate recordi ....Planning for Sustainability of the National Indigenous Recording Project: a pilot project. This pilot project lays the essential groundwork for Yothu Yindi Foundation to carry out the National Recording Project for Indigenous Music, which will aim to record, document and archive today's leading performers of traditional music across Australia. Through workshops and community consultations, the pilot project will allow the Chief Investigators to collaborate with YYF to develop appropriate recording and documentation methods that are sensitive to indigenous priorities and conformant with international best practice.Read moreRead less
From British Imperialist to Honorary Aussie to International Meeting-Place: How Shakespeare has been spoken and staged in Australia 1910-2003. Aims: To discover how changing ideas of Australia's relationship to Britain and the world relate to performances of Shakespeare for Australian audiences.
Significance: For the last 100 years Shakespeare has been the most performed playwright in Australia, but theatre companies today are more likely to draw on Asian physical theatre than British speech tr ....From British Imperialist to Honorary Aussie to International Meeting-Place: How Shakespeare has been spoken and staged in Australia 1910-2003. Aims: To discover how changing ideas of Australia's relationship to Britain and the world relate to performances of Shakespeare for Australian audiences.
Significance: For the last 100 years Shakespeare has been the most performed playwright in Australia, but theatre companies today are more likely to draw on Asian physical theatre than British speech training. How Shakespeare's plays have been staged and spoken here reflects changing ideas about national character and identity, in terms of independence, sophistication, and sense of cultural geography.
Outcomes: A PhD thesis and a major exhibition catalogue essay by the APAI candidate; research publications by the Chief InvestigatorsRead moreRead less
Engaging the global legacy and impact of the Aboriginal Artists Agency. The Aboriginal Artists Agency (AAA) was a driving force for change in the Australian arts industry. Founded in 1976, it was the first national body to administer copyrights for indigenous artists, create international demand for Australian culture and pioneer ways for Indigenous artists to reach audiences and markets worldwide. This project aims to investigate the seminal work of the AAA, secure and analyse its exclusive pri ....Engaging the global legacy and impact of the Aboriginal Artists Agency. The Aboriginal Artists Agency (AAA) was a driving force for change in the Australian arts industry. Founded in 1976, it was the first national body to administer copyrights for indigenous artists, create international demand for Australian culture and pioneer ways for Indigenous artists to reach audiences and markets worldwide. This project aims to investigate the seminal work of the AAA, secure and analyse its exclusive primary collection and assess the vast corporate knowledge of its personnel through new interviews. New frameworks for assessing Indigenous arts initiatives, it is hoped, will be generated through this unprecedented analysis of the AAA's role in reshaping attitudes towards Australian identities.Read moreRead less
Musical resilience within marginal groups in culturally diverse societies. This project aims to examine and compare the music of minorities in one Western and one non-Western culturally diverse society to better understand how certain musics thrive. This project will improve understanding of the musical and social lives of minority communities in culturally diverse societies. By exploring how communities perceive and handle challenges to musical practices, it will expand knowledge of the ways th ....Musical resilience within marginal groups in culturally diverse societies. This project aims to examine and compare the music of minorities in one Western and one non-Western culturally diverse society to better understand how certain musics thrive. This project will improve understanding of the musical and social lives of minority communities in culturally diverse societies. By exploring how communities perceive and handle challenges to musical practices, it will expand knowledge of the ways that music can enhance the lives of minority peoples and our society. The outcomes will include practical guidance that can inform community activities and policy at a range of levels, and benefit society through positive social change.Read moreRead less
Postmodernism in contemporary Australian art-music: analysis and reappraisal. Art-music composition in Australia is vibrant and diverse but its relationship with current trends in other art practices has not been well understood, and music critics and educators have too often been dismissive of musical innovation of the postmodern kind. This project will be the first sustained analysis of the emergence and critical reception of postmodernism in Australian art-music, from the linked perspectives ....Postmodernism in contemporary Australian art-music: analysis and reappraisal. Art-music composition in Australia is vibrant and diverse but its relationship with current trends in other art practices has not been well understood, and music critics and educators have too often been dismissive of musical innovation of the postmodern kind. This project will be the first sustained analysis of the emergence and critical reception of postmodernism in Australian art-music, from the linked perspectives of musicology and cultural studies. It will produce the first thematic book on Australian art-music since Covell's 1968 'Australia's Music', providing a standard reference and valuable education resource for music critics, scholars and educators while locating Australia in current international debates about postmodern musicRead moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100553
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$327,849.00
Summary
Restoring the Contemporary: Remembering Live Art at The Performance Space. This project aims to analyse the Performance Space archive as a microcosm of how contemporary performance practices have evolved over the past thirty years. In doing so, it will argue that this rare national resource can contribute to wider global debates about the changing relationship between theatre, performance and live art. The project aims to produce data for existing infrastructures such as AusStage as well as a pu ....Restoring the Contemporary: Remembering Live Art at The Performance Space. This project aims to analyse the Performance Space archive as a microcosm of how contemporary performance practices have evolved over the past thirty years. In doing so, it will argue that this rare national resource can contribute to wider global debates about the changing relationship between theatre, performance and live art. The project aims to produce data for existing infrastructures such as AusStage as well as a public symposium, an edited book addressed to a wide audience, and a series of journal articles and monographs for the scholarly community.Read moreRead less
Understanding creative excellence: a case study in poetry. Creativity is the engine of a healthy and successful society. In order to learn how best to encourage and generate creativity, there needs to be a greater understanding of how successful creative professionals operate. This project focuses on poets as a case study that will inform the development of ways to enhance creativity in other professional groups.