Digital Commons Network^™

From Battle Metris To Symbiotic Symphony: A New Model For Musical Games, Mark Havryliv, E. Vergara-Richards

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Music and games have a rich history of interplay. Instrumental composers engage with the idea of game play as a way to serialise musical material, facilitate performer’s real-time decision making and organise a particular theatricality in performance. On the other hand, electronic game developers typically use music as a motivational device in a game, and in more sophisticated games conceive the creation of sound and music as an artefact of game play.

Whilst both these types of works can exhibit a tremendous degree of complexity in the relationship between game play and music, this paper argues that the question – …

Reflection And Graphic Design Pedagogy: Developing A Reflective Framework To Enhance Learning In A Graphic Design Tertiary Environment, Grant Ellmers

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The pedagogical approach employed in the graphic design program at the University of Wollongong is based primarily on a blend of project-based and studio-based learning. Emerging from experience and observations of teaching in this environment, the researcher has identified potential for enhanced learning through a formalised reflective framework. This may address concerns that current teaching frameworks over emphasise the design project, leaving the student at risk of not learning from the design process itself. This paper will describe the ongoing development and implementation of a formalised reflective framework into the University of Wollongong undergraduate graphic design program. Informed by staff …

Ordnance, Five Hats And Constantinople: Benjamin, Gustafsson And Lubitsch, Jon Cockburn

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper concentrates on identifying intellectual, cinematic and commercial representations of the efficiency movement as embodied in the emergent mechanical-flâneuse (the term is an obvious combination of the adjective ‘mechanical’, as a Taylorist/Fordist signifier, with the noun ‘flâneuse’, which is a gender inversion of the masculine flâneur: the metropolitan wanderer profiled in Benjamin’s re-examination of Baudelaire and 19th century Paris). To articulate these representations of the ‘new’ woman, under the influence of Americanism in post-1918 Europe, this paper focuses on two passages in Benjamin’s One Way Street. Benjamin’s passages are then read in juxtaposition to advertisements, the first for hats …

Minefields And Miniskirts: The Perils And Pleasures Of Adapting Oral History For The Stage, S. A. Mchugh

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

A case study of the adaptation of the author's non-fiction book, Minefields and Miniskirts, for the stage. The book, about Australian women's role in the Vietnam war, is based on oral history interviews with over 30 women. Their actual words make up 90% of the script for the dramatised version, also called Minefields and Miniskirts, but their interviews have been blended to make 5 composite fictionalised characters. The show, created by director Terence O'Connell based on McHugh's book, toured Australia to acclaim in 2004/5, playing to over 50,000 people. The author attended the Sydney opening night with 8 of the …

Metris: A Game Environment For Music Performance, Mark Havryliv, Terumi Narushima

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Metris is a version of the Tetris game that uses a player’s musical response to control game performance. The game is driven by two factors: traditional game design and the player’s individual sense of music and sound. Metris uses tuning principles to determine relationships between pitch and the timbre of the sounds produced. These relationships are represented as bells synchronised with significant events in the game. Key elements of the game design control a musical environment based on just intonation tuning. This presents a scenario where the game design is enhanced by a user’s sense of sound and music. Conventional …

Haptic Carillon: Sensing And Control In Musical Instruments, Mark Havryliv, Greg Schiemer, Fazel Naghdy

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper discusses the proposed design of a hapticrendered practice carillon clavier. This instrument will produce a haptic feedback coupled with a responsive bell synthesis algorithm in order to replicate the authentic playing ‘feel’ and sound of a conventional mechanical carillon. An original classification scheme for haptic devices is presented with two principle goals: 1. to forge a conceptual understanding of the nature of a haptically-enabled version of a traditional instrument, and 2. to identify which existing haptic projects contribute towards a technical roadmap for the haptic carillon. Devices surveyed include both musical instruments and other applications that clarify the …

The Microtonal Legacy Of The Pocket Gamelan, Greg Schiemer, Mark Havryliv Mh675@Uow.Edu.Au

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the origins and motivation for the Pocket Gamelan, a performance interface for mobile phones where musical interaction between players is facilitated via bluetooth. The performance scenario for mobile phones has its origins in two works composed more than 25 years earlier. Mandala 1, composed in 1980 and Mandala 2, in 1981, were the first in a series of works in which an ensemble of players swing mobile sound sources while Mandala 3 and Mandala 4 were composed to be performed using bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. The Mandala series all have a common feature related to microtonal tuning. While …

Pocket Gamelan: Tuneable Trajectories For Flying Sources In Mandala 3 And Mandala 4, Greg Schiemer, Mark Havryliv Mh675@Uow.Edu.Au

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper describes two new live performance scenarios for performing music using bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. Interaction between mobile phones via wireless link is a key feature of the performance interface for each scenario. Both scenarios are discussed in the context of two publicly performed works for an ensemble of players in which mobile phone handsets are used both as sound sources and as hand-held controllers. In both works mobile phones are mounted in a specially devised pouch attached to a cord and physically swung to produce audio chorusing. During performance some players swing phones while others operate phones as hand-held …

Orbophone: A New Interface For Radiationg Sound And Image, D. Lock Dnl463@Uow.Edu.Au, Greg Schiemer, L. Ong

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Orbophone is a new interface that radiates rather than projects sound and image. It provides a cohesive platform for audio and visual presentation in situations where both media are transmitted from the same location and localization in both media is perceptually correlated. This paper discusses the advantages of radiation over conventional sound and image projection for certain kinds of interactive public multimedia exhibits and describes the artistic motivation for its development against a historical backdrop of sound systems used in public spaces. An account of an exhibit using the Orbophone is given together with description and critique of the …

Oblique Reflections: Software Art And The 3d Game Engine, Brogan Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Classical To Contemporary: Thoughts For The Future, Diana Wood Conroy

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

FORM is an independent, not for profit organisation dedicated to advocating for and developing creativity in Western Australia.

CULTURAL STRANDS PUBLICATION

Inspired by the acclaimed touring exhibition Woven Forms: Contemporary basket making in Australia, Cultural Strands is a publication that links together 16 essays from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal practitioners, curators and academics and investigates the warp and weft of Australian fibre arts. Techniques, culture, environment, commercial markets and sustainability are explored.

Researched and developed by Carly Davenport Acker, Cultural Strands/Woven Visions facilitated a national body of practitioners and educators for a two day public program. Renowned fibre artist and living …

Fragility Of Love, Diana Wood Conroy

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Orbophone: A New Interface For Radiating Sound And Image, Damien Lock, Gregory M. Schiemer

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Orbophone is a new interface that radiates rather than projects sound and image. It provides a cohesive platform for audio and visual presentation in situations where both media are transmitted from the same location and localization in both media is perceptually correlated. This paper discusses the advantages of radiation over conventional sound and image projection for certain kinds of interactive public multimedia exhibits and describes the artistic motivation for its development against a historical backdrop of sound systems used in public spaces. One exhibit using the Orbophone is described in detail together with description and critique of the prototype, …

Emergence: The Generation Of Material Spaces In Anthony Mccall's "Line Describing A Cone", Su Ballard

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper begins from a belief that all media are material, and that in their specificity time-based media can introduce us to different kinds of relationships and experiences across material surfaces and forces within gallery spaces. To this end, it will demonstrate how a 16mm film installation within a gallery space presents materiality as emergent. The paper focuses on an artwork that draws on installation's cinematic legacy Line Describing a Cone by Anthony McCall (1973). Line Describing a Cone is currently undergoing a renaissance of sorts possibly because it invokes a particularly affective interactive experience that echoes many works being …

Playing With Audio: Towards A Genuine Relationship Between Game Play And Music, Mark Havryliv

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

A musical composition is like a game in that the rules and parameters controlling the structure of an aesthetic experience are devised prior to its realisation in performance. In a musical work, the composer specifies how these rules and parameters should be realised over time and an ideal performance is a manifestation of the composer’s artistic intentions. In a game, however, it is the player who determines its trajectory. In light of this, a game experience can be viewed as an exceptionally rich data source: a product of the designed dynamics of a game world and a player’s traversal, or …

The Necessity Of (Un) Australian Art History: Writing For The New World, Ian A. Mclean

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Australian artworld has never looked better. There are more art journals, exhibition spaces and art graduates than ever. Even globalisation has been a boon to local artists, especially indigenous ones. But there is a catch. There may be plenty of interesting artists from Australia but few aspire to make Australian art. If Rex Butler is right, the desire now is for 'unAustralian' art.

Wall Paintings In The Icarus Street Tomb, Pafos, Diana Wood Conroy

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Wall painting extended the impressive effect of the vaulted architecture of the Icarus Str. tomb, placing a decorative skin of vibrant garlands, flowers, and birds over the shapely arched niches. Varied images painted on the two arcosolia on the right of the tomb entrance, and on the elegant central arcosolium opposite, show the long span of the tomb's use.

Relations For The Back Country: Sensory Landscapes, Diana Wood Conroy

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Explores sensory modes of experiencing landscapes, contrasting settler travels through arid country with Aboriginal practices. Draws on Constance Classen's idea of senses supplying conceptual models of society's thinking.

Cambodian Journalism 'Flying Blind', Eric Loo

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

With freedom comes great responsibility, says a famous movie script. Not so with the Cambodian press. The many publications owned by as many factions are unrestrained in slandering their adversaries. Everyone’s fair media prey – except for the King. Unbridled reporting with no clear ethical guidelines often sees public decency being violated, which has caused near zero public faith in the media.

Ada Emerge Symposium, Dunedin, November 2005, Su Ballard, Stella Brennan

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Aotearoa Digital Arts is New Zealand/Aotearoa's only digital artists' network. Instigated in 2003 by Stella Brennan and Sean Cubitt during Brennan's stint as inaugural Digital Artist in Residence at Waikato University's Screen and Media Department, ADA has grown to claim a particular place in the local context. ADA was born of the observation that although new media artists were often highly networked in terms of both their own practice and their professional relationships, there was no national organisation drawing together those with a common interest in digital art. This recognition suggested the irreversible importance of place against the frictionless communication …

Who Is John Citizen?, Ian A. Mclean

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Like the Jewish-American author Philip Roth, Gordon Bennett’s art is at once intensely autobiographical and self-effacing. Each plays with the rhetoric of identity precisely to deny the identity game any oxygen or legitimacy as if nothing is more boring (or dangerous) than its heavy-handed politics. Roth denies he is a Jewish writer: Bennett denies he is an Aboriginal artist: for both their art is a means to escape the reductive logic of identity politics by showing its essentialisms to be discursive fictions or, as Bennett once said, a 'hall of mirrors'.