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Research Projects 2005
| Name: David Blackall Project Title: The Monkey on my Back Description: A personal documentary essay film, of feature length, the story of which starts on the painter David Larwill, his work, life and contemporaries - the group of artists known as ROAR out of Melbourne in the late 1970s. Soon the film is deliberately distracted into the very personal issues of masculinity and onto the vexed and internationalised question of torture, which, as we have seen, is partly embedded in notions of masculinity. From where in our culture and government does the aberration of torture arise? The Monkey on my Back is set to demonstrate that the torture we see today in the military cultures of the West is institutionalized, normalized and inculcated into some of us from early childhood. This becomes encultured and so is likely to be of a recidivist nature over subsequent generations, reoccurring so that the tortured may become torturers. Those who plan war and hegemony know this fact and use it to their advantage in the war on terror – a contradiction of terms. The primary footage for this film and the story has already been acquired and includes David Larwill (who was not tortured); his manager, who is tough and uncompromising but not a torturer; the filmmaker (who was tortured); another filmmaker and journalist (who was also tortured) and who passed away as a result of his misery; and footage from Kashmir, India, where a great deal of the current dilemmas of today’s method of war - in respect to terrorism and the State using torture and fear to illicit public control - were first noted.
Name: Dr Merlinda Bobis Project Title: Philippines launch of novel 'Banana Heart Summer' Description: Research travel to the Philippines was undertaken (5-21 November 2005) to launch the Philippines edition of my novel, ‘Banana Heart Summer’. This edition is being published by Anvil Publications, the biggest publisher in the Philippines. Aside from the launch in Manila, I will also be giving lectures/readings as Associate Fellow of the University of Santo Tomas Centre for Creative Writing and Studies (Manila). I am also organising another launch cum lecture at the Aquinas University of Legaspi in another city. This Philippines trip will also allow me to continue cultivating Faculty of Creative Arts ties with the University of Santo Tomas, which I established successfully last year with the research trip to this university by Faculty of Creative Arts postgraduate creative writing student, Name: Dr Shady Cosgrove Project Title: Structuring narrative, maintaining ‘truth’ Description: For the Tenth Annual Australian Association of Writing Programs’ Conference In his preface to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, David Eggers states: “All the individual words and sentences have been … edited to fit within the narrative (though keeping with their essential truth).” This paper will explore the tension between ‘fitting’ a narrative structure and ‘keeping an essential truth’ within non-fiction – especially (auto)biography, memoir and documentary writing – as well as the ethical implications of choosing a structure. That is, how does the positioning of events and their temporality impact on the way they are read? How can flashbacks and juxtaposition influence the ‘essential truth’ of the work? How culpable should authors be in light of structure when all of the events recounted are ‘true’? Since the advent of autobiography studies in the 1970s by Elizabeth Bruss and Philippe Lejeune, many theorists (like Paul John Eakin and Julie Rak) have explored ideas of ‘truth’ in self-narration. This paper will extend that discussion by addressing how structure can affect ideas of ‘truth’. As well, I will explore the practical issues that have surfaced in structuring “The Graceland Chronicles”, a non-fiction work-in-progress about family and pilgrimage that explores multiple temporal positions and versions of events.
Project Title: Preparation for producing work for ‘Wanderlust’ An exhibition of artist books by Liz Jeneid and Alexander Arcus that are based on experiences and responses to place/s during travel or journeys made in Australia and overseas. The funding enabled me to have digital photography and scanning of images to be done so that material is available to include in a catalogue to be produced in 2006. These images have also be used in the production of artist books and for inclusion in applications to funding bodies to assist in funding the catalogue. The exhibition will be shown in seven galleries, commencing in September 2006 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Library and then travelling to six other venues in NSW and South Australia.
Name: Eric Loo Project Title: Information Communication Technologies Description: While ICTs have been widely used by governments in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to spread its party politics, the systematic integration of ICTS in the news industry is not evident nor documented. ICTs’ emancipatory effect on the media process in the post-Communist countries is so far largely assumed rather than verified by systematic studies. This project is a direct response to the lack of research on ICTs effects on the Indochinese media, which share similar political history and are today operating in an increasingly free market economy. The project involves an inventory study of the current ICT infrastructure in the media industry; surveys and interviews with the stakeholders – journalists and governments; participative observations of ICT applications in the newsroom; and finally, identification of strategic ICT applications in the reporting of public interest issues in a state-controlled media environment.
Name: Eric Loo Project Title: Journalism in Asia: Integrating the best of East & West Description: This is a two-year book project, which examines the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ of journalistic practice and journalism education in Asia in terms of its philosophy, values and functions. The Australian media experience will be used as a referent point. The goal is to develop a hybrid model of ‘best practices’, and a taxonomy of journalistic values for direct applications to journalism education and training in Asia. The project methodology involves:
Name: Dr Ian McGrath Project Title: The Happy Prince - a world premiere music-theatre production. Description: In 2004 the Performance Discipline successfully mounted a world premiere production of “Androcles” by Burchall/Crease, a musical farce. As a consequence, both lyricist and composer were inspired to write for four specific students (currently 3rd & 2nd year) a music/theatre version of Oscar Wilde’s story The Happy Prince. Together with colleagues David Vance (Music director), Lotte Latukefu (Vocal coach), Terrence Henningsen (postgraduate student & Art director) and other undergraduate students, we are currently rehearsing the work for presentation 20 - 23 July 2005 8:00pm in our Performance Space. Should the work prove as successful as we anticipate, we expect to re-present the piece at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2006.
Name:Jelle Van Den Berg Project Title: Double Dutch Joop Buis, Jelle Van Den Berg, Juan Den Pourg & Rudi Vos. A Gesamtkunstwerk collaborative project. Description: Jelle van den Berg is interested in how outsider cultures teach us to think completely differently. Double Dutch is a homage to artist Colin McCahon and the first major survey in the Western hemisphere of his work, the exhibition, Colin McCahon – A Question of Faith organised by Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum in late 2002. Despite the best efforts of its organisers, no partners in Europe or North America could be secured, so the show travelled only to galleries in Australia and New Zealand. However much McCahon transformed writing into painting "I will need words" to communicate directly to a provincial public, this legacy is remains ‘Double Dutch’ to cultural mandarins. Cultural communication, however, a two-way flow, as much of the Dutch avant-garde tradition is baffling to us. ARTISTS Rudi Vos Joop Buis Juan Den Pourg Jelle van den Berg
Name: Diana Wood Conroy Project Title: Exploring the archaeological image in prints Description: This project extends the archaeological documentation of frescoes from the ancient theatre in Pafos, Cyprus. I will develop the possibilities of detailed watercolour and gouache images of painted plaster fragments through etching and acquatint, working at Tom Goulder's printmaking workshop in Port Kembla. He has lithography and etching equipment, and has been associated with the development of the Wollongong University Collection, through Guy Warren and Glenn Barkley.
Name: Penny Harris Project Title: The Laboratory for Hearing: Project 1 Description: The project funding was for investment casting materials (casting Wax, Zircon Flour, Grog) and ingot Silica bronze. These materials enabled me to cast objects in bronze, components of the installation ‘The laboratory for Hearing’. The bronze casts are mostly fragile fabric and doilies that sit under much of this reconstructed electrical equipment. The exhibition ‘The Laboratory for Hearing’ works with research drawn from my doctorate that explores turn of the century technology and inventions and the Russian Avant Garde sound artists and work they did with describing sound visually such as Dziga. I am interested in the nexus between object and the visual description of sound and some type of physical sensation experienced by the human body. I have been also looking at Tesla and his early work with electricity as well as early designs for radio, turn tables and in particular sound speakers. I am manufacturing these early speakers in stainless steel. The bronze components are objects relating to smaller installed components of the installation. I am framing the installation space around the notion that equipment is being tested and interested in the space of the laboratory I have a large collection of out of use electrical testing equipment that is also integrated into the work. I have approached China Heights gallery, Sydney and proposed an exhibition for February 2007 but am waiting for confirmation.
Name: Anthony Macris Project Title: Conference Participation at “Alchemy: Blending Research and Creativity,” The 10th Annual Australian Association of Writing Programs Conference. Curtin University, Perth, 24-27 November 2005. Description: Activity One: I gave the paper “High Impact. Future Challenges for the Practice of Creative Writing in the New Research Context.” Outcomes: The paper was given to an audience of senior researchers and administrators in the field of creative writing. It engaged principally with ARC and RQF issues. The question session was particularly useful, in which we discussed the quality and impact issues relevant to creative writing. What emerged was the need for the AWP to lobby for its own RFCD code, and research into what constitutes quality and impact in our discipline. I discussed a refereed paper to be published in the conference proceedings with Professor Jen Webb, editor of the AAWP’s journal Text. Subsequent changes in RQF policy (the collapse of the RAE, a change of Minister, a possible return to metrics), have put these plans on hold. Activity Two: I attended the three-hour workshop “ARC Grants for Creative and Professional Writing Disciplines,” conducted by Dr Mandy Thomas, Executive Director of Humanities and Creative Arts, Australian Research Council. Outcomes: a) Increased awareness of grant application processes for Discovery and Linkage Projects with a creative component; b) Ability to better assess strategic issues surrounding grant applications with a creative component; c) I have since been listed by the ARC Expert Advisory Group as an Assessor of International Standing (Intreader). The opportunity to assess discipline-related ARC projects will enable me to give quality feedback to UoW staff wishing to apply for these types of grants.
Project Title: Coming up after the break Description: Funding was secured to employ John Purvis to scan and arrange poetry of mine from previous publications preparatory to them being the 'Selected' section of a New and Selected Poems (titled Coming Up After The Break) to be published within the next few years by either the University of Queensland Press or Giramondo Publishing.
Name: Grant Ellmers Project Title: Reflection on action strategy Description: Describing the impact of a reflection-on-action strategy applied in a graphic design studio-based learning classroom, contextualised by the relevant literature. Description of the manner in which the objectives of the research have been addressed Outcomes of the research and progress towards stated outcomes
Name: John Hawke Project Title: The Symbolist Movement in Australia Description: Coming Soon
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