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
Old Atrocities, New Media: Terror Images and the Visual-Military Complex. This research centres on the relations between twenty-first century visual technologies and the age-old practice of the massacre-atrocity. It takes as its major case study the atrocities at the end of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. The most graphic form of knowledge about these mass deaths and rapes was produced through digitally transmitted visual images. The research asks how new forms of recording and circulating images ....Old Atrocities, New Media: Terror Images and the Visual-Military Complex. This research centres on the relations between twenty-first century visual technologies and the age-old practice of the massacre-atrocity. It takes as its major case study the atrocities at the end of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. The most graphic form of knowledge about these mass deaths and rapes was produced through digitally transmitted visual images. The research asks how new forms of recording and circulating images of atrocity, whether in the form of trophy photographs or other digital documents, shape the reception of, and responses to, atrocity. These questions are contextualised against a broader examination of the historical and evolving relations between visual media and atrocity images from the Holocaust to Abu Ghraib.Read moreRead less
Representation of gender and sexual diversity in Australian film and television. This project aims to investigate the cultural, health and identity impact of gender/sexually-diverse characters, themes and narratives in Australian film and television from 1990 to present. The project expects to generate new knowledge by providing the first comprehensive account of Australian media production’s contribution to sexual minority representation, in the context of its importance for fostering healthy i ....Representation of gender and sexual diversity in Australian film and television. This project aims to investigate the cultural, health and identity impact of gender/sexually-diverse characters, themes and narratives in Australian film and television from 1990 to present. The project expects to generate new knowledge by providing the first comprehensive account of Australian media production’s contribution to sexual minority representation, in the context of its importance for fostering healthy identities, and acceptance of minorities to mainstream audiences in a digital media era. This knowledge will provide significant benefit to the mental health, wellbeing and social harmony for both minority and mainstream Australians and help showcase an important aspect of Australian media inclusivity and diversity in international scholarship.Read moreRead less
Utilitarian Filmmaking in Australia 1945 - 1980. The project plans to discover, document, analyse and compile a lasting archive of utilitarian filmmaking in Australia. 'Utilitarian' describes client-sponsored, instructional and governmental filmmaking existing outside the conventional theatrical contexts by which cinema is usually defined. Focused on the post-World War Two decades before the proliferation of video in the late 1970s, the project aims to highlight previously-unstudied aspects of t ....Utilitarian Filmmaking in Australia 1945 - 1980. The project plans to discover, document, analyse and compile a lasting archive of utilitarian filmmaking in Australia. 'Utilitarian' describes client-sponsored, instructional and governmental filmmaking existing outside the conventional theatrical contexts by which cinema is usually defined. Focused on the post-World War Two decades before the proliferation of video in the late 1970s, the project aims to highlight previously-unstudied aspects of the media industries. This is designed to deliver new knowledge of the skills and subject matter that sustained filmmaking, communication and education in Australia during a time when conventional scholarship assumes there was almost no significant filmmaking.Read moreRead less
Migration and mobility: the question of childhood in Chinese and European cinema since 1945. This project will produce a comparative account of the migrant and mobile child in postwar film, researched in China and Europe. It will contribute deeper knowledge of how childhood has been valued in key societies since 1945, and will bring new energy to international and domestic debates on the status, image and experience of migrant children.
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
The global self: screening the history of human rights in the 20th century to the present. This project will research the history and theory of human rights as represented in film and new media. It will analyse the origins and development of human rights theory and document the changes in films about human rights in order to understand how we now conceptualise human rights in the twenty-first-century.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101607
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,220.00
Summary
Moving Stories: Emerging Documentary Desert Painting and Interactive New Media. New forms and practices of desert Aboriginal women's 'documentary' art and media that depart markedly from the Dreaming story-based traditions are emerging in a context of severe socio-economic disadvantage. The implications of this important 'witnessing' work have not yet been studied. This project is an innovative arts practice-led ethnographic study that will investigate the significance of experimental narrative- ....Moving Stories: Emerging Documentary Desert Painting and Interactive New Media. New forms and practices of desert Aboriginal women's 'documentary' art and media that depart markedly from the Dreaming story-based traditions are emerging in a context of severe socio-economic disadvantage. The implications of this important 'witnessing' work have not yet been studied. This project is an innovative arts practice-led ethnographic study that will investigate the significance of experimental narrative-based desert arts, focusing on documentary paintings and their transformation into interactive animated multi-lingual multimedia works. It will critically assess digitally creative intercultural collaboration as a key mode of contemporary Indigenous cultural survival and national cultural production.Read moreRead less