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
Dynamic media: innovative social and artistic developments in new media in Australia, Britain, Canada and Scandinavia since 1990. This study will foreground strengths and remedy weaknesses in Australian new media arts and innovative social uses of new media. By studying the international strategies for social use of dynamic media, this study will provide information for Australians to more extensively implement dynamic media within a social context. It will highlight the innovation of Australian ....Dynamic media: innovative social and artistic developments in new media in Australia, Britain, Canada and Scandinavia since 1990. This study will foreground strengths and remedy weaknesses in Australian new media arts and innovative social uses of new media. By studying the international strategies for social use of dynamic media, this study will provide information for Australians to more extensively implement dynamic media within a social context. It will highlight the innovation of Australian artists and researchers in the development of dynamic media and position these internationally. A major long-term benefit of this study will be an online database that will both profile and be accessible to Australian artists, arts organizations, new media researchers and social innovators. Read moreRead less
Visual Research in Social Aesthetics. Despite a few pioneering efforts beginning in the 1930s, visual anthropology (like anthropology itself) has largely confined its interest in aesthetics to studies of indigenous art. It has focused instead on technology, religion, economics, social structure, politics and ideology as the dominant forces in society. I believe this has limited the potential of visual anthropology, which is in fact ideally suited to studying the broader role of aesthetics in h ....Visual Research in Social Aesthetics. Despite a few pioneering efforts beginning in the 1930s, visual anthropology (like anthropology itself) has largely confined its interest in aesthetics to studies of indigenous art. It has focused instead on technology, religion, economics, social structure, politics and ideology as the dominant forces in society. I believe this has limited the potential of visual anthropology, which is in fact ideally suited to studying the broader role of aesthetics in human societies. The aim of this research is to examine how a reconsideration of the aesthetics of everyday life might form the basis for a revitalised visual anthropology.
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Cinematic Imaginations: American Literature and the Visual Media, 1905-1945. The advent of new visual media in the late C19th, and their rapid growth and industrialization in the 20th, obliged the traditional forms of literature to change. This project investigates that change in the American context, as a set of interlinked adaptations, in both literature and cinema, to more general social changes in an emergent mass-production economy. Arguing for a ?media ecology?, the project's originality i ....Cinematic Imaginations: American Literature and the Visual Media, 1905-1945. The advent of new visual media in the late C19th, and their rapid growth and industrialization in the 20th, obliged the traditional forms of literature to change. This project investigates that change in the American context, as a set of interlinked adaptations, in both literature and cinema, to more general social changes in an emergent mass-production economy. Arguing for a ?media ecology?, the project's originality is to establish a viable model for analysing this shift in the complexion of a culture, in terms of an explosive expansion of the cultural economy.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
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
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
Sharing Complex Systems information by challenging the orthodoxies of linear presentation. Information Technology has contributed more to working with complex systems than to communicating them. Presentation software styled on the power of the point hardly addresses the restrictions of traditional media: sequential visual information display with little possibility for the cross-reference needed to communicate a complex situation.
This research will test the effectiveness of our multidimension ....Sharing Complex Systems information by challenging the orthodoxies of linear presentation. Information Technology has contributed more to working with complex systems than to communicating them. Presentation software styled on the power of the point hardly addresses the restrictions of traditional media: sequential visual information display with little possibility for the cross-reference needed to communicate a complex situation.
This research will test the effectiveness of our multidimensional presentation software prototype in a range of complex system situations in order to improve the opportunities for interactive spatial media in today's work and learning environments.
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