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
Alternative Public Spheres: Alexander Kluge's Film and Television Experiments. This project will make a significant contribution to the emphasis on 'Promoting an Innovation Culture and Economy' outlined in Research Priority 3 through its analysis of the important role film and television producers can play in the establishment of alternative public spheres. Taking Alexander Kluge's groundbreaking work as a case study, it will highlight the integral relationship between an active public sphere an ....Alternative Public Spheres: Alexander Kluge's Film and Television Experiments. This project will make a significant contribution to the emphasis on 'Promoting an Innovation Culture and Economy' outlined in Research Priority 3 through its analysis of the important role film and television producers can play in the establishment of alternative public spheres. Taking Alexander Kluge's groundbreaking work as a case study, it will highlight the integral relationship between an active public sphere and the sustenance of an innovative and democratic culture in which the capacity to think 'outside the square' is fostered, supported, and appreciated. In doing so, it will internationalise Australia's knowledge base in the field, and place Australia at the forefront of international debates in Screen Studies.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 learning design to operationalise new pedagogical frameworks: developing critical multi-literacy within a technology-supported learning environment. This study seeks to use the goals of current state and national education policies to develop specific teaching and learning strategies that can be employed in secondary school classrooms. The study will research the process of implementing such strategies and measure outcomes associated with improved student learning. These learning outcomes wil ....A learning design to operationalise new pedagogical frameworks: developing critical multi-literacy within a technology-supported learning environment. This study seeks to use the goals of current state and national education policies to develop specific teaching and learning strategies that can be employed in secondary school classrooms. The study will research the process of implementing such strategies and measure outcomes associated with improved student learning. These learning outcomes will be assessed in terms of the development of critical levels of technology, media, visual and information literacies. It is this critical multi-literacy that is considered necessary for the next generation of contributors to Australia's economic and societal innovation and growth.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100120
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$303,000.00
Summary
Citizen photo-journalism: how is it shaping the news? This project aims to investigate contemporary practices in photojournalism in the Australian news media in the wake of massive layoffs among press photographers. In a media landscape that is more visual than ever, a critical question is whether the news media still has the capacity to bear effective witness. Combining ethnographic and social semiotic approaches, this mixed-method project aims to assess the extent to which contemporary photo-j ....Citizen photo-journalism: how is it shaping the news? This project aims to investigate contemporary practices in photojournalism in the Australian news media in the wake of massive layoffs among press photographers. In a media landscape that is more visual than ever, a critical question is whether the news media still has the capacity to bear effective witness. Combining ethnographic and social semiotic approaches, this mixed-method project aims to assess the extent to which contemporary photo-journalistic practices enable high-quality visual storytelling. It also aims to assess the ways in which citizens and organisations outside of journalism, through their engagement with the digital economy, are re-shaping and re-defining photojournalistic practice.Read moreRead less
The body-computer interface in new media art from 1984 to the present. Our understanding of computers is restricted by dominant cognitive models of the interface. This study produces an aesthetic framework for analysing new media art as a genre and traces its development through changes in the interface from the restricted keyboard/screen assemblage through multiple sensory interfaces to the emerging trend of producing the interface as dynamic relation between biology and code. It examines the d ....The body-computer interface in new media art from 1984 to the present. Our understanding of computers is restricted by dominant cognitive models of the interface. This study produces an aesthetic framework for analysing new media art as a genre and traces its development through changes in the interface from the restricted keyboard/screen assemblage through multiple sensory interfaces to the emerging trend of producing the interface as dynamic relation between biology and code. It examines the development of interfaces between the body and computers in new media art work, establishing that new media artists, from 1984 onwards, have focussed upon the sensate body as site for interfacing with, and interpenetrating, virtual media.Read moreRead less
Towards a social theory of semiotic technology: Exploring PowerPoint's design and its use in higher education and corporate settings. PowerPoint has become the dominant technology for designing and delivering presentations in many important settings and skills in the use of PowerPoint have become essential for professional and academic success. This study will investigate the use of PowerPoint in higher education and corporate settings in order to discover what these skills are and how the desig ....Towards a social theory of semiotic technology: Exploring PowerPoint's design and its use in higher education and corporate settings. PowerPoint has become the dominant technology for designing and delivering presentations in many important settings and skills in the use of PowerPoint have become essential for professional and academic success. This study will investigate the use of PowerPoint in higher education and corporate settings in order to discover what these skills are and how the design of PowerPoint supports or hinders the achievement of a range of communicative purposes. The study will provide guidelines for evaluating and improving the design and use of PowerPoint and other, similar presentation software.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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100878
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,605.00
Summary
The Other War: An investigation via documentary film into images of race and otherness in WW1 and their implications for Indigenous communities today.
. In 1915, German scientists began an immense task of wartime science designed to categorise 'the peoples of the world'. This ideological experiment involved Indigenous Australian and Pacific prisoners of war, and paved the way to post-war Nazi racial ideology. The sound, image and other cultural records captured during this wartime experiment ....The Other War: An investigation via documentary film into images of race and otherness in WW1 and their implications for Indigenous communities today.
. In 1915, German scientists began an immense task of wartime science designed to categorise 'the peoples of the world'. This ideological experiment involved Indigenous Australian and Pacific prisoners of war, and paved the way to post-war Nazi racial ideology. The sound, image and other cultural records captured during this wartime experiment are now listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. This project will use documentary film and will apply innovative and socially inclusive 'reconciling' research methodologies to repatriate significant Australian cultural records from this World War I prisoners of war archive. It will document a post-colonial chapter in the aesthetics of 'otherness', and describe an important history of indigenous involvement in the foundational Australian narrative of World War I conflict.Read moreRead less
Investigating, prototyping and trialling interactive online youth counselling tools. This project prototypes and trials interactive online counselling tools and evaluates their effectiveness in partnership with Australia's largest youth counselling service, Kids Help Line. There is a demonstrable need for Internet counselling practice and theory to incorporate opportunities offered by new information and communication technologies, especially to engage with the multimedia literacies of young peo ....Investigating, prototyping and trialling interactive online youth counselling tools. This project prototypes and trials interactive online counselling tools and evaluates their effectiveness in partnership with Australia's largest youth counselling service, Kids Help Line. There is a demonstrable need for Internet counselling practice and theory to incorporate opportunities offered by new information and communication technologies, especially to engage with the multimedia literacies of young people. The project will investigate multi-user graphical interactivity in youth counselling and develop an evidence base for advances in online counselling worldwide. It will research and prototype graphical tools based on traditional counselling methods to improve service delivery, and benefit the wellbeing of young Australians.Read moreRead less