Discovering a ‘good read’: Pathways to reading for Australian teens. This project aims to support the school, library, and book industries to increase teenagers’ recreational reading. Matching the right book to the right reader is essential to increase young people’s motivation to read. Yet how cultural intermediaries should operate to best effect within the complex ecologies that shape young people’s text selection is unclear. The project expects to generate robust evidence on how teens discove ....Discovering a ‘good read’: Pathways to reading for Australian teens. This project aims to support the school, library, and book industries to increase teenagers’ recreational reading. Matching the right book to the right reader is essential to increase young people’s motivation to read. Yet how cultural intermediaries should operate to best effect within the complex ecologies that shape young people’s text selection is unclear. The project expects to generate robust evidence on how teens discover books and the cultural factors that influence their choices. Expected outcomes include strategies that libraries, schools, and the book industry can use to promote Australian content for young adults, and equip young people to participate more fully in the social and economic benefits of pleasure reading.Read moreRead less
Museum Digital Social Futures. This project aims to understand and transform the digital experience of museum audiences post COVID-19 through collaborating with ACMI who pioneered digital curation methods through a Living Lab model. This project will generate new methods for engaging diverse audiences across social and digital worlds in domestic and public spaces through codesigning with national museum peak body, AGaMA, stakeholders. Expected outcomes include resources (i.e. toolkits for implem ....Museum Digital Social Futures. This project aims to understand and transform the digital experience of museum audiences post COVID-19 through collaborating with ACMI who pioneered digital curation methods through a Living Lab model. This project will generate new methods for engaging diverse audiences across social and digital worlds in domestic and public spaces through codesigning with national museum peak body, AGaMA, stakeholders. Expected outcomes include resources (i.e. toolkits for implementation), online repository (website) and symposium for knowledge sharing and transferring of learnings. This should provide significant benefits to the museums sector including digital innovation for social inclusion strategies and resources.
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Using community engagement and enhanced visual information to promote FireWatch satellite communication as a support for collaborative decision-making. Using continuously updated satellite data, FireWatch will repurpose its professional service for use by the wider public, informing community-based decision-making and action. Communication flows and community decision-making will promote informed action at times of fire stress. Complex visual data will be communicated in clear and compelling way ....Using community engagement and enhanced visual information to promote FireWatch satellite communication as a support for collaborative decision-making. Using continuously updated satellite data, FireWatch will repurpose its professional service for use by the wider public, informing community-based decision-making and action. Communication flows and community decision-making will promote informed action at times of fire stress. Complex visual data will be communicated in clear and compelling ways.Read moreRead less
Talking Country: Sharing Indigenous stories of place through mobile media. This project aims to investigate how media technologies can facilitate cross-cultural engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. There is a need to break down the barriers that limit cross-cultural engagement with heritage issues. Mobile media environments provide ways to build this engagement through place-based incentives. The project expects to develop a new model for practice-based research, two mobile a ....Talking Country: Sharing Indigenous stories of place through mobile media. This project aims to investigate how media technologies can facilitate cross-cultural engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. There is a need to break down the barriers that limit cross-cultural engagement with heritage issues. Mobile media environments provide ways to build this engagement through place-based incentives. The project expects to develop a new model for practice-based research, two mobile apps, two digital archives and a toolkit to guide people on driving, cycling and walking tours to Indigenous places of significance. This will offer valuable avenues to share knowledge on the importance of those sites, build cultural awareness and position Indigenous knowledges at the heart of place-based engagements.Read moreRead less
Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility. Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. A Research Facility that consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between or ....Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility. Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. A Research Facility that consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between organizations working with young people; providing an accessible interface with research that can help address the community’s concerns about the role of technology in young people’s lives, and inform future policy and programs; and model effective cross-sector knowledge brokering to Australian industry. Read moreRead less
Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection. The early years of Australian digital media arts heritage are at risk. Australians were significant contributors to the development of media arts internationally, as well as making and exhibiting work nationally, yet only a tiny portion of the digital artwork by Australian artists has made it into institutional collections. Deteriorating disks and reliance on obsolete hardware and software mean that innovative digital pre ....Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection. The early years of Australian digital media arts heritage are at risk. Australians were significant contributors to the development of media arts internationally, as well as making and exhibiting work nationally, yet only a tiny portion of the digital artwork by Australian artists has made it into institutional collections. Deteriorating disks and reliance on obsolete hardware and software mean that innovative digital preservation and access solutions are needed if these artworks are to be saved. Working with key cultural institutions, this project will conserve key media art case studies from the archives of media arts organisations, and develop a best practice method for the preservation of our digital media arts heritage.Read moreRead less
Play it again: creating a playable history of Australasian digital games, for industry, community and research purposes. This project provides a unique account of the role played by computer games in familiarising the public to new technologies. The computer game industry grosses billions of dollars each year, and yet game technology is quickly superseded. This project redresses this gap by writing histories of the early digital age, and preserving key artefacts.
Superheroes: Creative Force, Cultural Zeitgeist and Transmedia Phenomenon. Since their emergence in 1938 comic book heroes have become imbedded in our popular culture, becoming part of our modern mythology. In each form and every generation these characters serve as cultural signposts, articulating our loftiest ideals and deep-seated anxieties. The project aims to explore the historic, creative and artistic development of the genre across multiple media and its political and social significance. ....Superheroes: Creative Force, Cultural Zeitgeist and Transmedia Phenomenon. Since their emergence in 1938 comic book heroes have become imbedded in our popular culture, becoming part of our modern mythology. In each form and every generation these characters serve as cultural signposts, articulating our loftiest ideals and deep-seated anxieties. The project aims to explore the historic, creative and artistic development of the genre across multiple media and its political and social significance. The genre has been enormously successful in film, with the top 100 films accounting for approximately $13 billion in profit for the companies that produced them. The project will explore how the successful transmedia crossover further offers insight into the strategies that drive creative industries such as film, television, video games and comics. The project will work with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to develop a Melbourne Winter Masterpiece exhibition and a series of research projects, public events and an international conference to engage both the general public and academics.Read moreRead less
Play it again: preserving Australian videogame history. This project aims to demonstrate and evaluate the emulation of obsolete operating systems and programs in a cloud-based environment to document, preserve, and exhibit digital cultural heritage. The challenge of preserving and accessing complex digital cultural heritage such as software is one that collecting institutions worldwide are facing. This project will address this challenge by recovering the history of Australian made videogames of ....Play it again: preserving Australian videogame history. This project aims to demonstrate and evaluate the emulation of obsolete operating systems and programs in a cloud-based environment to document, preserve, and exhibit digital cultural heritage. The challenge of preserving and accessing complex digital cultural heritage such as software is one that collecting institutions worldwide are facing. This project will address this challenge by recovering the history of Australian made videogames of the 1990s, preserving significant local digital game artefacts currently at risk, and investigating how these can be exhibited as playable software using the newest emulation techniques. The project expects to generate new knowledge needed by government, museums and industry to inform future strategy and infrastructure investment aimed at making a range of digital cultural heritage available to the public.Read moreRead less
Spreading fictions: distributing stories in the online age. As the first systematic, large scale, public analysis of audiovisual distribution in Australia, Spreading Fictions will greatly improve understanding of a vital area for Australia's economic and cultural future. The high priority governments give to policies encouraging local audiovisual productions reflects a belief in their cultural resonance at home and abroad and the economic significance of creative work. This project will help to ....Spreading fictions: distributing stories in the online age. As the first systematic, large scale, public analysis of audiovisual distribution in Australia, Spreading Fictions will greatly improve understanding of a vital area for Australia's economic and cultural future. The high priority governments give to policies encouraging local audiovisual productions reflects a belief in their cultural resonance at home and abroad and the economic significance of creative work. This project will help to maximise the effectiveness of those policies. As digital TV switchover proceeds and the National Broadband Network is built, data about how Australians are using more powerful, functional mobile devices and faster, cheaper fixed line access will be critical.Read moreRead less