A national framework for managing malignant plastics in museum collections. A national framework for managing malignant plastics in museum collections. This collaborative project between three universities, four museums and an art gallery aims to discover how to predict and increase the lifespan of malignant plastics or polymers by studying their identification, deterioration and conservation. 5 to 80% of museum collections, composed of growing numbers of plastic or polymer-based materials, need ....A national framework for managing malignant plastics in museum collections. A national framework for managing malignant plastics in museum collections. This collaborative project between three universities, four museums and an art gallery aims to discover how to predict and increase the lifespan of malignant plastics or polymers by studying their identification, deterioration and conservation. 5 to 80% of museum collections, composed of growing numbers of plastic or polymer-based materials, need better preservation. Conservators do not have much expertise in preserving plastics, which are contemporary and have a relatively short life expectancy. This project intends to provide museums with a model for prioritising and effectively allocating resources to preserve a vulnerable group of collections for future generations.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing museum specimen data through the pathways of global commerce. This project aims to reconnect zoological specimens with vital collection data. From 1758-1900 millions of specimens were commercially traded to and between museums and collectors, frequently without retaining the data associated with the specimen. This project pioneers spectroscopic techniques to reconstruct data and enhance material conservation practice. The impact of the project will provide new pathways for recove ....Reconstructing museum specimen data through the pathways of global commerce. This project aims to reconnect zoological specimens with vital collection data. From 1758-1900 millions of specimens were commercially traded to and between museums and collectors, frequently without retaining the data associated with the specimen. This project pioneers spectroscopic techniques to reconstruct data and enhance material conservation practice. The impact of the project will provide new pathways for recovering lost ecological data, creating a resource to improve future biodiversity research.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101322
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,526.00
Summary
Capturing foundational Australian photography in a globalising world. This project will combine archival research on the foundational years of Australian photography, 1839-54, with new methods of multimedia database design to network early photographs: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and calotypes, with dispersed manuscripts, journalism and legal proceedings that document their creation. These images are prized by Australian collecting institutions but their significance to our cultural heritage rema ....Capturing foundational Australian photography in a globalising world. This project will combine archival research on the foundational years of Australian photography, 1839-54, with new methods of multimedia database design to network early photographs: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and calotypes, with dispersed manuscripts, journalism and legal proceedings that document their creation. These images are prized by Australian collecting institutions but their significance to our cultural heritage remains unrecognised. This project will analyse how colonial Australian photographers’ distance from Europe prompted them to innovate with processes, materials and apparatuses. It will excavate this neglected dimension of colonial modernity, assessing its resonance for media heritage, culture, and law.Read moreRead less
Heritage diplomacy and One Belt One Road. This project aims to address China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, utilising the concept of heritage diplomacy to interpret the role culture plays in shaping trade and diplomatic relations. This project expects to develop new knowledge about 21st Century diplomacy and the political drivers of heritage preservation today. Expected outcomes of the project include collaborations with OBOR think tanks and universities in Australia, China and Central A ....Heritage diplomacy and One Belt One Road. This project aims to address China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, utilising the concept of heritage diplomacy to interpret the role culture plays in shaping trade and diplomatic relations. This project expects to develop new knowledge about 21st Century diplomacy and the political drivers of heritage preservation today. Expected outcomes of the project include collaborations with OBOR think tanks and universities in Australia, China and Central Asia, and an open access-mapping database based on international heritage documentation standards. This should significantly assist Australian and heritage international agencies understand the large-scale forces and pressures that shape their future conservation policies in the region.Read moreRead less
Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives. Anxiety pervades many Western countries about the direction, nature and expression of social debate regarding community identities, and the social and cultural values underpinning them. In developing our understanding of heritage, and how it is used to construct and legitimatise certain social values and identities in certain national, cultural and social contexts, the research will inform the development of museu ....Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives. Anxiety pervades many Western countries about the direction, nature and expression of social debate regarding community identities, and the social and cultural values underpinning them. In developing our understanding of heritage, and how it is used to construct and legitimatise certain social values and identities in certain national, cultural and social contexts, the research will inform the development of museum and heritage exhibition/interpretation policies. In examining the agency of heritage audiences, the research will inform and facilitate the abilities of museum and heritage professionals to effectively convey messages about contentious issues or make more informed interventions into social debates.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI100100200
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$177,000.00
Summary
Reversing the gaze: Indigenous perspectives on cultural representation in national museums. Through a focus on new media and digital engagements the project will identify the capacity for Indigenous communities to act as partners in their representation in the national museum space. By contributing an indigenous-centred review of best-practice moments at both a national and international level, the project will deliver modes of engagement that will benefit both Indigenous communities and museu ....Reversing the gaze: Indigenous perspectives on cultural representation in national museums. Through a focus on new media and digital engagements the project will identify the capacity for Indigenous communities to act as partners in their representation in the national museum space. By contributing an indigenous-centred review of best-practice moments at both a national and international level, the project will deliver modes of engagement that will benefit both Indigenous communities and museums engaged in Indigenous cultural representation.Read moreRead less
Increasing Visitor Frequency: approach to understanding and forecasting how cultural attraction visitors respond to various incentives to increase visitation rates. Museums have been steadily losing visitors over the past decade. While current research indicates that this may be attributed to greater leisure competition, little is understood about how people make choices to visit or not to visit cultural attractions. The aim of this project is to develop, demonstrate and test a Random Utility Th ....Increasing Visitor Frequency: approach to understanding and forecasting how cultural attraction visitors respond to various incentives to increase visitation rates. Museums have been steadily losing visitors over the past decade. While current research indicates that this may be attributed to greater leisure competition, little is understood about how people make choices to visit or not to visit cultural attractions. The aim of this project is to develop, demonstrate and test a Random Utility Theory (RUT)-based modelling approach allowing managers of cultural attractions to understand and predict the likely visitation consequences of potential initiatives. We wish to model visitor choices of museums versus other competing attractions to allow museums to identify specific strategic actions (or combinations) to achieve organisational goals.Read moreRead less
Engaging objects: Indigenous communities, museum collections and the representation of Indigenous histories. This project centres on the research process leading up to a major exhibition in Australia of the British Museum's Australian Indigenous collections. By exploring the historical and representational issues evoked in creating this exhibition, new understandings of these collections and their historical and contemporary significance will result.
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0989457
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$48,000.00
Summary
Digitisation and Indigenous Communities: A study of the development of online collections. The interface between international institutions and Australian Indigenous communities. The preservation and protection of Australian Indigenous knowledge in the digital age is in the National interest. This research may offer much valued insight into the ways in which Indigenous people are engaging in the protection of traditional knowledge in Australia in the digital age. At the international level has ....Digitisation and Indigenous Communities: A study of the development of online collections. The interface between international institutions and Australian Indigenous communities. The preservation and protection of Australian Indigenous knowledge in the digital age is in the National interest. This research may offer much valued insight into the ways in which Indigenous people are engaging in the protection of traditional knowledge in Australia in the digital age. At the international level has seen the start of development at the World Intellectual Property Organisation into the International legal mechanisms concerning the protection of traditional knowledge and the intellectual property aspects of access to and benefit-sharing from such knowledge. This study will explore these important developments which are in Australia's national interest. Read moreRead less
Cross-cultural translations: initiating Australian encounters with post colonial Korean art and national identity. The project analyses the complex problems of exhibiting the art of other cultures to both insiders and outsiders. It develops a new theoretical approach to understanding the complexities of cross-cultural translation, the dynamics of cross-cultural receptions, and the concepts of otherness and identity in visual arts. In translating and presenting the rich, diverse and vibrant art o ....Cross-cultural translations: initiating Australian encounters with post colonial Korean art and national identity. The project analyses the complex problems of exhibiting the art of other cultures to both insiders and outsiders. It develops a new theoretical approach to understanding the complexities of cross-cultural translation, the dynamics of cross-cultural receptions, and the concepts of otherness and identity in visual arts. In translating and presenting the rich, diverse and vibrant art of post-1945 Korea in an art historically important yet accessible way, first to culturally unfamiliar Australians, then to other Asians and finally to Koreans themselves, a new model for exhibiting other cultures will be developed.Read moreRead less