Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney. Urban wetlands in Australia provide benefits for climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, habitat provision and socioecological connection. However, in large cities like Sydney, urban wetlands are unseen because undergrounded, and, therefore not adequately understood. This illegibility, and loss of understanding by residents, planners and policy makers impedes wetlands' good management. This project surfaces wetlands through v ....Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney. Urban wetlands in Australia provide benefits for climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, habitat provision and socioecological connection. However, in large cities like Sydney, urban wetlands are unseen because undergrounded, and, therefore not adequately understood. This illegibility, and loss of understanding by residents, planners and policy makers impedes wetlands' good management. This project surfaces wetlands through visualisation in a multimodal knowledge platform focusing on two urban renewal sites, Green Square and Marrickville South. We leverage design ethnography to develop resources for strengthening multiple stakeholders’ socioecological engagement through methods empowering just, creative and open participation.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
Contemporary Australian Photography 1980 to the present. Contemporary Australian art photography has burgeoned over the last 25 years but there is no dedicated book length study in the field. This project will fill this gap by putting Australian photography on an international scholarly agenda, which will generate more scholarship on Australian work. It will have enormous national and community benefit for Australian artists, curators and dealers and the general public who are keenly interested ....Contemporary Australian Photography 1980 to the present. Contemporary Australian art photography has burgeoned over the last 25 years but there is no dedicated book length study in the field. This project will fill this gap by putting Australian photography on an international scholarly agenda, which will generate more scholarship on Australian work. It will have enormous national and community benefit for Australian artists, curators and dealers and the general public who are keenly interested in photography. Read moreRead less
Digital photography: mediation, memory and visual communication. This project aims to address the social impact of major shifts in the production, distribution, viewing and storage of photographic images which have profoundly altered their everyday use. By adopting an interdisciplinary, user-centred approach to digitally networked photography, the project will provide a more holistic understanding of how photographs mediate communication, sociality and memory in the present. Expected outcomes i ....Digital photography: mediation, memory and visual communication. This project aims to address the social impact of major shifts in the production, distribution, viewing and storage of photographic images which have profoundly altered their everyday use. By adopting an interdisciplinary, user-centred approach to digitally networked photography, the project will provide a more holistic understanding of how photographs mediate communication, sociality and memory in the present. Expected outcomes include generating original empirical data, building international collaboration, and creating a new conceptual framework for assessing contemporary photographic practices. The research will provide community benefit by enabling insight into the social and ethical tensions affecting photography in the present.
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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
Experiencing space: sensory encounters from Baroque Rome to neo-baroque Las Vegas. This project focuses on the historical baroque and the neo-baroque and the relationship between them. The aim of the project is to apply a new methodology to the study of baroque and neo-baroque cultures, one grounded in sensory and spatial approaches. The primary case studies will be the cities of Rome and Las Vegas, two cities that are paradigmatic of the baroque and the neo-baroque. Whereas for theorists such a ....Experiencing space: sensory encounters from Baroque Rome to neo-baroque Las Vegas. This project focuses on the historical baroque and the neo-baroque and the relationship between them. The aim of the project is to apply a new methodology to the study of baroque and neo-baroque cultures, one grounded in sensory and spatial approaches. The primary case studies will be the cities of Rome and Las Vegas, two cities that are paradigmatic of the baroque and the neo-baroque. Whereas for theorists such as Jean Baudrillard argue that Las Vegas embodies the postmodern world in excess, this project will instead argue that it is emblematic of the return of a baroque aesthetics that has been nurtured by consumer culture, multi-media conglomeration and digital technology.Read moreRead less
Genealogies of digital light. The first interdisciplinary account of practice in light technologies, this project will look in detail at the innovation process in the techniques and technologies used in depicting, recording and projecting light. It will explore how contemporary digital media imitate, advance or retreat from the achievements of older techniques and devices; how accidental artefacts of specific media become desirable outcomes in others; and how these past processes impact on desig ....Genealogies of digital light. The first interdisciplinary account of practice in light technologies, this project will look in detail at the innovation process in the techniques and technologies used in depicting, recording and projecting light. It will explore how contemporary digital media imitate, advance or retreat from the achievements of older techniques and devices; how accidental artefacts of specific media become desirable outcomes in others; and how these past processes impact on design and innovation of new tools. Outcomes will include print and online publications, a conference and collaboration between three universities.Read moreRead less
A Design History of Australian HIV/AIDS Public Health Campaigns 1983-2004. This project investigates the differing roles of governments and community organisations as influential factors in the formulation of graphic representations which characterise the prevention campaigns used in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Australia 1983-2004. It explains how graphic representations, functioning as an index of official and public responses to the epidemic, impact on the aesthetic and professional autonomy of t ....A Design History of Australian HIV/AIDS Public Health Campaigns 1983-2004. This project investigates the differing roles of governments and community organisations as influential factors in the formulation of graphic representations which characterise the prevention campaigns used in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Australia 1983-2004. It explains how graphic representations, functioning as an index of official and public responses to the epidemic, impact on the aesthetic and professional autonomy of the designer. Complimenting existing quantitative assessments this study uses a textual-visual analysis and triangulation method to demonstrate the agency of these institutional constraints placed within the broader range of material forms relating to the campaigns including brochures, posters, and videos.Read moreRead less
Through the Lens: A Cultural Study of Women's Fashion Photography in Australia, 1890 to 2000. This study supports growing academic interests in Australian fashion and provides the nascent fashion industry, and the media, with a cultural and historical context for their current practices. It sets up debate and expands available information about local fashion photography, challenging the assumption that it is solely dependent on overseas ideas and practices. It has the further potential to export ....Through the Lens: A Cultural Study of Women's Fashion Photography in Australia, 1890 to 2000. This study supports growing academic interests in Australian fashion and provides the nascent fashion industry, and the media, with a cultural and historical context for their current practices. It sets up debate and expands available information about local fashion photography, challenging the assumption that it is solely dependent on overseas ideas and practices. It has the further potential to export understandings of Australian fashion and its photographic representation, including its creative and aesthetic aspects, and by implication will assist the fashion industry, and the public, develop understanding of its workings.Read moreRead less
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