What is successful public art today?: exploring how contemporary public art and memorial design shapes public engagement, perceptions and behaviour. Much public money is invested in public art and memorials. The research explores critical questions of value: what the public enjoys about such artworks, if and how artworks contribute amenity to public spaces, and whether recent artworks engage effectively with social memory, identity and politics. The research situates local practice within intern ....What is successful public art today?: exploring how contemporary public art and memorial design shapes public engagement, perceptions and behaviour. Much public money is invested in public art and memorials. The research explores critical questions of value: what the public enjoys about such artworks, if and how artworks contribute amenity to public spaces, and whether recent artworks engage effectively with social memory, identity and politics. The research situates local practice within international trends, to inform Australian designers, policymakers, art patrons and public space managers about recent innovations in technology, craft, creativity and critique, so they can create and choose public artworks and memorials which engage with the potentials of contemporary arts practice, the complexities of contemporary culture, and the diversity of social behaviour in public spaces.Read moreRead less
In Public / In Focus: Photography, Testimony and the Public Sphere. Photography plays an important but little understood role in the public sphere. Photographs invite viewers to identify with stories, events and others, and the ease with which photographs circulate in print and online makes them ideal for fostering discourse and debate. However, the increasing focus on testimony and witness in contemporary culture has recently altered the way that photography operates in public and raised some s ....In Public / In Focus: Photography, Testimony and the Public Sphere. Photography plays an important but little understood role in the public sphere. Photographs invite viewers to identify with stories, events and others, and the ease with which photographs circulate in print and online makes them ideal for fostering discourse and debate. However, the increasing focus on testimony and witness in contemporary culture has recently altered the way that photography operates in public and raised some significant problems for photography historians regarding the representation of events, others and the past. This project will respond to these problems, and produce a new understanding of the historical, social, cultural and political links between photography and the public sphere today.Read moreRead less
Reconfiguring the World: China. Art. Agency, 1900s to Now. This research project will use modern and contemporary Chinese art to understand intercultural communication in the 21st century. It will do this by recovering forgotten histories and perspectives on modern and contemporary Chinese art in a global context. It will map the complexities of understanding Chinese art and charts the misunderstandings that have arisen in engaging with China.
Cascading effects of Australia's ecological extinctions on biodiversity and ecosystem function. The current rate of species extinctions is so extensive that it has been described as the “sixth mass extinction”. In Australian ecosystems, extinctions and declines of mammals have been dramatic, with formerly abundant species now “ecologically extinct”, meaning they are too rare to continue to play important ecological roles. The loss of entire functional guilds may have cascading effects on biodive ....Cascading effects of Australia's ecological extinctions on biodiversity and ecosystem function. The current rate of species extinctions is so extensive that it has been described as the “sixth mass extinction”. In Australian ecosystems, extinctions and declines of mammals have been dramatic, with formerly abundant species now “ecologically extinct”, meaning they are too rare to continue to play important ecological roles. The loss of entire functional guilds may have cascading effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function. This project uses a multi-scalar experimental approach to investigate the broader impacts of mammal declines on Australian ecosystems, accounting for interactions with climate. The outcomes will include new insights into the pre-European state of Australian ecosystems and more realistic targets for ecosystem restoration.Read moreRead less
Vulnerability of Australian savannas to climate change and variability. Australian savannas are productive and are culturally and biologically significant landscapes, but they are vulnerable to climate change. This project will determine savanna function (carbon and water balance) for the present and assess how sensitive they have been to past climate variability. The project will then address how they may respond to future climate change.
From prediction to adaptation: responding to rapid ecosystem shifts under climate change. Nobody knows exactly how climate change will affect the ecosystems on which we depend for our own existence, though negative impacts are widely predicted. This project integrates mathematical, economic and ecological approaches to learn about the most effective way to spend limited funds for sustaining ecosystems threatened by climate change.