Real-time Porosity: Using computer gaming technology to map and analyse pedestrian movement in public and private space. This project will make a major, and ongoing, contribution to our understanding of urban space in a major Australian city. The Porosity Lenses will enable a more complete understanding of pedestrian movement that the Emergency Information Coordination Unit (EICU) believes will directly contribute to protecting Australia from terrorism and crime. In the case of terrorism the soc ....Real-time Porosity: Using computer gaming technology to map and analyse pedestrian movement in public and private space. This project will make a major, and ongoing, contribution to our understanding of urban space in a major Australian city. The Porosity Lenses will enable a more complete understanding of pedestrian movement that the Emergency Information Coordination Unit (EICU) believes will directly contribute to protecting Australia from terrorism and crime. In the case of terrorism the socio/economic benefits of even the smallest success can be immeasurable. The need to anticipate and mitigate the impact of catastrophic events on the city will be balanced, in this study, by a concern to maintain freedom of circulation and promote civic opportunities within previously under-utilised zones.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
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
The impact of location-specific urban digital social information networks and public displays on the City of Melbourne. The purpose of this project is to enhance the city as a vibrant destination by taking digital content and anchoring it in the physical world. The outcomes will be physical nodes of interaction in urban cultural hubs - e.g., museums, libraries, cafes - allowing users to post media, stories and events that are locally relevant for others to consume.
Exploring Botanic Gardens Herbarium's value, via Environmental Aesthetics. . The project aims to aesthetically redefine engagement with the plant collection at Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium (RBG) Sydney and to communicate its artistic, cultural and heritage value to the public through a Public Program of creative arts case studies. It's expected that new insights will arise from an environmental art methodology utilising the digitisation of the Herbarium specimens, so that audiences can intera ....Exploring Botanic Gardens Herbarium's value, via Environmental Aesthetics. . The project aims to aesthetically redefine engagement with the plant collection at Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium (RBG) Sydney and to communicate its artistic, cultural and heritage value to the public through a Public Program of creative arts case studies. It's expected that new insights will arise from an environmental art methodology utilising the digitisation of the Herbarium specimens, so that audiences can interactively experience the plant archive through narratives that activate plants as underpinning ecosystems. Benefits to partners RBG, Bundanon Trust and Open Humanities Press will include the digital expansion of audience engagement with the Herbarium at RBG and Mt Annan and communication of collection’s significance.Read moreRead less
What is successful public art today?: exploring how contemporary public art and memorial design shapes public engagement, perceptions and behaviour. Much public money is invested in public art and memorials. The research explores critical questions of value: what the public enjoys about such artworks, if and how artworks contribute amenity to public spaces, and whether recent artworks engage effectively with social memory, identity and politics. The research situates local practice within intern ....What is successful public art today?: exploring how contemporary public art and memorial design shapes public engagement, perceptions and behaviour. Much public money is invested in public art and memorials. The research explores critical questions of value: what the public enjoys about such artworks, if and how artworks contribute amenity to public spaces, and whether recent artworks engage effectively with social memory, identity and politics. The research situates local practice within international trends, to inform Australian designers, policymakers, art patrons and public space managers about recent innovations in technology, craft, creativity and critique, so they can create and choose public artworks and memorials which engage with the potentials of contemporary arts practice, the complexities of contemporary culture, and the diversity of social behaviour in public spaces.Read moreRead less
Extinction Imaginaries: Mapping Affective Visual Cultures in Australasia. This project aims to provide NGOs with new strategies for raising awareness of environmental change by investigating what animal extinction means to Australians. Australasia has the highest global extinction rates, yet despite the wide circulation of visual images of extinction little is known about how they affect people. The project expects to address this critical gap by bringing innovative methodologies to the analysis ....Extinction Imaginaries: Mapping Affective Visual Cultures in Australasia. This project aims to provide NGOs with new strategies for raising awareness of environmental change by investigating what animal extinction means to Australians. Australasia has the highest global extinction rates, yet despite the wide circulation of visual images of extinction little is known about how they affect people. The project expects to address this critical gap by bringing innovative methodologies to the analysis of public responses to images of extinction and how they affect social imaginaries. Expected outcomes include research translations with environmental NGOs which should provide significant benefits by addressing public concern for the deteriorating ecosystems that future generations will inherit.
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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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100142
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$356,822.00
Summary
Sentient Testimony: digital media and memories of Parramatta Girls Home. The project aims to critically assess experimental artistic collaboration as a method for the production of marginalised stories and appropriate forms of national trauma commemoration. Innovative practices of art and digital media are emerging, for example to document life inside Australian child welfare institutions in the context of serious marginalisation and socio-economic disadvantages. The significance of these forms ....Sentient Testimony: digital media and memories of Parramatta Girls Home. The project aims to critically assess experimental artistic collaboration as a method for the production of marginalised stories and appropriate forms of national trauma commemoration. Innovative practices of art and digital media are emerging, for example to document life inside Australian child welfare institutions in the context of serious marginalisation and socio-economic disadvantages. The significance of these forms of testimony has not yet been studied.Read moreRead less