Preserving Australia's endangered heritages: Murrinhpatha song at Wadeye. This project will produce authoritative, thorough and archivally sound musicological and linguistic documentation of one of Australia's most vibrant indigenous song traditions, the public dance songs of Murrinhpatha people at Wadeye, NT. We will work with traditional owners to document three song genres (Dhanba, Wurlthirri, and Malkarrin) in the light of their historical and contemporary interrelationships with other local ....Preserving Australia's endangered heritages: Murrinhpatha song at Wadeye. This project will produce authoritative, thorough and archivally sound musicological and linguistic documentation of one of Australia's most vibrant indigenous song traditions, the public dance songs of Murrinhpatha people at Wadeye, NT. We will work with traditional owners to document three song genres (Dhanba, Wurlthirri, and Malkarrin) in the light of their historical and contemporary interrelationships with other local genres. More broadly, we will assess the song corpus as endangered cultural heritage of national and international significance, and will develop and apply appropriate electronic media interfaces to ensure longterm conservation and accessibility of the research within the community and outside.Read moreRead less
Connecting Asia-Pacific Literary Cultures: Grounds, Encounter and Exchange. This project aims to enhance cultural connections between Asia-Pacific nations by defining and testing a new model for linking writers and writing. The project expects to generate new knowledge about creative writing as a collaborative artform that enables, and is enriched by, deep and sustained cultural exchange. Expected outcomes include a robust model for ethical literary encounters and exchanges and the development o ....Connecting Asia-Pacific Literary Cultures: Grounds, Encounter and Exchange. This project aims to enhance cultural connections between Asia-Pacific nations by defining and testing a new model for linking writers and writing. The project expects to generate new knowledge about creative writing as a collaborative artform that enables, and is enriched by, deep and sustained cultural exchange. Expected outcomes include a robust model for ethical literary encounters and exchanges and the development of a dynamic regional literary network. It seeks to provide benefits that include broadening the reach and power of Australia’s diverse literary voices and stories, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, enriching the lives of readers and viewers, and strengthening Australia’s capacity for cultural diplomacy in the region.Read moreRead less
Developing narratives from language and stories indigenous to the south coast of Western Australia. Over time linguists have collected Indigenous language narratives. This research project involves returning these narratives to the descendants of the people who first created human society in their part of the world. It will investigate the extent to which an Indigenous language and its stories, can inform contemporary writing in English about Australian identity.
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
A History of the Theatre in Late Georgian Britain: Spaces, Sociability and Cultural Networks. The Romantic period in Britain was formative in the history of Australia and the reconfiguring of Romantic period culture which this project entails will be of relevance to the understanding of our history. The ideologies and practices of Enlightenment sociability underpinned the early years of the colony, as much as they influenced metropolitan culture. In 2005, when many of the achievements of Enlig ....A History of the Theatre in Late Georgian Britain: Spaces, Sociability and Cultural Networks. The Romantic period in Britain was formative in the history of Australia and the reconfiguring of Romantic period culture which this project entails will be of relevance to the understanding of our history. The ideologies and practices of Enlightenment sociability underpinned the early years of the colony, as much as they influenced metropolitan culture. In 2005, when many of the achievements of Enlightenment modernity have been questioned or are perceived to be under threat, it is also worth re-examining the egalitarianism underlying the ideals if sometimes not the practice of Georgian sociability. This research will also enhance Australia's overseas reputation in the field of eighteenth-century and Romantic studies.Read moreRead less
Vocal Emotional Communication. Understanding vocal emotional communication (VEC) has health, social, educational, economic and political benefits. Outcomes include: Development of an Australian test of sensitivity to emotional signals in (prosody) speech phythms; Characterisation of emotional signals in music and speech; Understanding congenital impairments in music and speech prosody; Elucidating the cognitive basis of motor planning and facial expressions in VEC; and internationalisation of mo ....Vocal Emotional Communication. Understanding vocal emotional communication (VEC) has health, social, educational, economic and political benefits. Outcomes include: Development of an Australian test of sensitivity to emotional signals in (prosody) speech phythms; Characterisation of emotional signals in music and speech; Understanding congenital impairments in music and speech prosody; Elucidating the cognitive basis of motor planning and facial expressions in VEC; and internationalisation of motion capture research. Potential benefits include training programs in VEC for individuals with social adjustment problems or for people involved in sensitive cross-cultural interactions; enhancement of music pedagogy programs; and construction of effective warning and alert signals.Read moreRead less
Developing a personalised Music Affect Recommender System. The project aims to develop a personalised music recommender system using perceived tone quality, affect and liking. Recommender systems using prior verbal annotations and ratings are common (Amazon) but inappropriate for less popular music by unfamiliar artists, which lacks social use data. The project intends to build on work into perception of musical affect and its relation to loudness and tone quality; and the automation of the orga ....Developing a personalised Music Affect Recommender System. The project aims to develop a personalised music recommender system using perceived tone quality, affect and liking. Recommender systems using prior verbal annotations and ratings are common (Amazon) but inappropriate for less popular music by unfamiliar artists, which lacks social use data. The project intends to build on work into perception of musical affect and its relation to loudness and tone quality; and the automation of the organisation of digital libraries both by labels and acoustic content. Developing this, the project seeks to create a model that gives recommendations which accounts for an individual's preferences based on acoustic content, affect and liking. The system will be designed to update rapidly and to encourage exploration of familiar and unfamiliar music.Read moreRead less
Theatre in the Asia-Pacific: Regional Culture in a Modern Global Context. This project contributes to Australian understandings of other countries in its region and promotes an Asia-literate society. Its focus on theatre and performance cultures of the Asia-Pacific deepens our understanding of the issues, both social and aesthetic, that characterise regional-specific responses to a shared global context. With its focus on innovative theatre and performance, that both conserve the region's rich c ....Theatre in the Asia-Pacific: Regional Culture in a Modern Global Context. This project contributes to Australian understandings of other countries in its region and promotes an Asia-literate society. Its focus on theatre and performance cultures of the Asia-Pacific deepens our understanding of the issues, both social and aesthetic, that characterise regional-specific responses to a shared global context. With its focus on innovative theatre and performance, that both conserve the region's rich cultural heritage and express its creativity, the project analyses recent trends in performing arts in the region. The outcomes will inform the academic community and future cultural policies of national organisations including Asialink and the Australia Council. Read moreRead less
The well-travelled musician: John Sigismond Cousser and cultures of musical exchange in Baroque Europe. Baroque Europe witnessed the extensive dissemination of two main musical styles: the French and the Italian. This innovative project, which focuses on the unique notebook of widely-travelled musician J. S. Cousser, will re-write current notions of how musicians' networks operated, contributing to a fuller picture of the development of European music.
Malay Music and Dance from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. In the Indian Ocean Territories of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island live the oldest established Malay-Muslim communities within the Commonwealth of Australia. This project examines the history and practice of Malay music traditions through a pioneering ethnomusicological study of music and dance, examining these traditions as key factors in preserving and strengthening unique cultural identities. It also ....Malay Music and Dance from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. In the Indian Ocean Territories of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island live the oldest established Malay-Muslim communities within the Commonwealth of Australia. This project examines the history and practice of Malay music traditions through a pioneering ethnomusicological study of music and dance, examining these traditions as key factors in preserving and strengthening unique cultural identities. It also considers how Malay music culture was transplanted to these islands from the nineteenth century onwards. Planned research outputs include the first scholarly articles on these topics, public performances and lectures, a conference and a documentary film investigating the social contexts and cultural meaning of Malay music on the islands.Read moreRead less