Arts and Humanities Commons^™

An Immersive Study Of The Artistry Of Gilbert Biberian —Guitarist, Composer, And Pedagogue— And Creative Responses From A Musical Apprenticeship, Stephanie J. Darcey

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project examines the music of Istanbul-born British classical guitarist and composer Gilbert Biberian (1944-2023) and the potential of this music to stimulate original composition using an intuitive approach. Biberian is recognized as one of the most original and creative guitar composers from the second half of the twentieth century. His musical language embraces and integrates traditional tonality, jazz, post-tonal idioms, and the music of the Middle East. There are three strands to this project: an overview of Biberian’s life, philosophy, and music; a musical apprenticeship with Biberian on technique and musicianship; and also on my compositions. There will be …

The Health Outcomes And Health Service Needs Of The Martu And Nyiyaparli People Of Northwest Western Australia: A Grey Literature Review, Keith Mcnaught, Colette Rhoding, Michelle J. Schwager

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

Introduction: Health outcomes for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples are very poor. This is considerably worse in remote regions. The East Pilbara, where the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of the Martu and Nyiyaparli people reside, is one such remote region.

Methods: This review explored the grey literature relating to the health services and health outcomes of the Martu and Nyiyaparli people. Search strategies included specific search terms as well as the systematic search of specific websites likely to inform this review. To ensure relevance of the data, the review incorporated documents published in the last five years …

Review Of Alcohol And Drug Treatment For Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Marguerite Tracy, Bradley Freeburn, Kylie Lee, Julie Woods, Kate Conigrave

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

This review provides an overview of treatments for problem alcohol and other drug (AOD) use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes information on the available research and discusses core principles for providing treatment. The review outlines how effective mainstream treatment approaches can be adapted to be more suitable for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of being or worldview. It also highlights that services, such as those offered by Aboriginal community controlled health organisations are in a unique position to offer culturally secure treatment approaches. The barriers to accessing treatment are discussed as well as recommendations for …

Gender Equity In Early Childhood Picture Books: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Frequently Read Picture Books In Early Childhood Classrooms In Australia And The United States, Helen Adam, Laurie Harper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Children’s picture books contribute to children’s development of gender identity and can impact aspirations and expectations of roles in families and society. However, the world represented in children’s books reflects predominantly middle class, heterosexual, male heroes and characters. This paper reports on a cross-cultural study investigating gender representation in frequently read picture books across eight early learning centres in the United States and Australia. Forty-four educators working with 271 children participated. Data were collected from book audits and observations. Unique to this study is the presentation of a new data analysis instrument, Harper’s Framework of Gender Stereotypes Contained in Children’s …

"Having It Both Ways: Containing The Champions Of Feminism In Female-Led Origin And Solo Superhero Films", Jessica Taylor, Laura Glitsos

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In this article, we consider the emerging trend of solo, female-led superhero films, and their repeated location in aesthetically distinct pasts or “closed moments.” This pastness, we contend, serves to distinguish the concerns of the protagonists, which are often read as feminist, as redundant for the contemporary audience. This framing is in keeping with a postfeminist cultural context, wherein feminist values and successes are celebrated, while simultaneously declared irrelevant.

We examine the historical or closed settings in Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Captain Marvel (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and consider how this collective investment in the past …

Fagotte Forgotten? The Bassoon In The Early Symphonies Of Mozart, Haydn And Contemporaries In The 1760s And 1770s, Katherine J. Walpole

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research project investigates the role of the bassoon in the basso of the early symphonies of Mozart, Haydn and Contemporaries in the 1760s and 1770s. It draws on surviving primary source material pertaining to bassoonists and orchestral practices across Europe before 1780. Autograph scores of Haydn, Mozart and his contemporaries usually scored early Classical symphonies for pairs of oboes, horns, two violin sections, viola and basso. Modern scholars have described these compositions as symphonies for pairs of oboes, pairs of horns and strings, and have translated basso to mean cellos and basses. Eliminating the eighteenth-century term basso has also …

The Space Between Writing And Dancing: Dancingwords/Wordsthatdance, Lara Dorling

Theses : Honours

This practice-led research investigates the figurative space between writing and dancing through a looped feedback cycle. The project explores the ‘conversation’ between writing and improvisational dance and how it forms a responsive process named dancingwords/wordsthatdance. Conducted in sessions lasting 30 minutes at a time, this project asks: how can writing and dancing intersect to create a broader and clearer understanding of embodied knowledge, improvisation, creative research process and personal practice? This research project involved solo studio investigation and an hour-long interview with dancer, writer, researcher, and choreographer Dr Jo Pollitt, who is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the ECU School …

The Toy Brick As A Communicative Device For Amplifying Children’S Voices In Research, Kylie J. Stevenson, Emma Jayakumar, Harrison See

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article arises from recent industry-partner research between the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, the LEGO Group, and Edith Cowan University (ECU), examining new ways of communicating children’s perspectives of digital citizenship to policy makers and industry in a project called Digital Safety and Citizenship Roundtables: Using Consultation and Creativity to Engage Stakeholders (Children, Policy Influencers, Industry) in Best Practice in India, South Korea, and Australia. We posed the research question: What are children’s everyday experiences of digital citizenship in these countries, and how might these contribute to digital citizenship policy and practice? In research roundtables, we …

From Real Life To Story – And Back Again: Using Autobiographical Fiction Writing To Understand Self, Others And Family Generations, Alberta N. Adji

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Writing autobiographically includes complicated responsibilities to the subjects involved: to family members, friends, colleagues, and even cultural communities. This article explores creative developments occurring during the process of writing an autobiographical novel called ‘The longing’, which is drawn from a recollection of intergenerational lived experiences of a middle-class Chinese Indonesian family from 1956 to 2018. I reflect on my strategies and approaches on tackling challenges that arose while using autobiographical material and autofictional techniques to write fiction and communicating cultural complexities for it allows agreeable distance between the author and her writing subject. In the article, I also argue that …

Reading The Cultural Landscape In Suburban Boorloo/Perth: A Visual Inquiry, Sharon B. Callow

Theses : Honours

In suburban spaces, front yards are meaningful sites to examine settler understandings of, and responsibilities toward place. This exegesis and accompanying visual inquiry forms a creative critique of settler practices that have impacted Noongar people, their culture and Country. Using decolonising and alter-political perspectives alongside a practice-led methodology, the current state of domestic land practices, as evidenced by front yards in Boorloo/Perth, have been interrogated through site- specific research.

Settler-Australians, the non-Indigenous descendants of colonial arrivals and subsequent migrants, have benefitted from colonisation and the commodification of Indigenous land. Urban sprawl and the development of suburban housing estates has involved …

Playing Music: Reconsidering Game Pieces Through Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design, Izabelle French

Theses : Honours

Musical compositions that utilise game-like qualities and mechanics are commonly often referred to as “game pieces”. The history of the game piece spans across a long history, including “parlour games” of the Classical era, children’s games, and experimental Surrealist games of the early twentieth century. Ever since the emergence of Postmodernism, the boundaries of what a game piece can artistically achieve have greatly expanded, thanks to the work of composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Jennifer Walshe, and James Saunders. Following in their stead, this thesis offers a new and novel framework for considering and creating game …

Comparing Classical And Jazz Vocal Techniques, Styles, And Pedagogies: The Inquisitions And Experiences Of A Classically Trained Soprano Venturing Into The Realm Of Jazz Vocal Study, Charis O. Postmus

Theses : Honours

The music industry is always evolving, finding fresh ways of combining and presenting artforms, and adapting to meet the changing demands of audiences. Within this landscape, classical singers must actively work to maintain relevancy and expand their skillset. Cross-over and cross-genre singing is a tempting option for many, as it grants versatility and enables singers to move between two community networks. For singers who have only ever trained classically, ‘crossing over’ into the jazz genre can be intimidating. This is not helped by the lack of literature discussing cross-training or jazz vocal technique.

Through literature review and qualitative research methodology, …

Re-Enactment As Conversation: Yoshiko Shimada’S Becoming A Statue Of A Japanese Comfort Woman, Vahri Mckenzie, Jen Webb

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

‘Since Plotinus’, writes Joseph Tanke (2019, p. 486), ‘Western art has been consecrated to beauty, and beautiful art has been understood as the achievement of good form’. But alongside this interest in beauty and form, art has been committed to politics and perspectives, equity and rights. Consequently, and particularly since the start of the modern era, artists frequently initiate or participate in ‘difficult conversations’. . . .

Director Training: A Mine Field Or Brave New World?, Gabrielle Metcalf, Andrew Lewis

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The relative paucity of research on directing reflects the way in which the practice of directing occurs–behind closed-doors (Trousdell 1992). Despite the power afforded to directors, the literature is often comparatively silent on how a director leads a production. Whilst delineating the role of the director can be problematic, the training of directors is a minefield. Unlike actor training where a myriad of theories and methods guide us, the dearth of pedagogical frameworks for teaching directors has resulted in an ad hoc approach at best. Two case studies, conducted by the authors, within the context of conservatoire actor training, formed …

Survey Of Attitudes Toward Performing And Reflecting On Required Team Service-Learning (Sasl): Psychometric Data And Reliability/Validity For Healthcare Professions Students In Preclinical Courses, Lon J. Van Winkle, Shane L. Rogers, Bradley O. Thornock, Brian D. Schwartz, Alexis Horst, Jensen A. Fisher, Nicole Michels

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: Previously we assessed healthcare professional students’ feelings about team-based learning, implicit bias, and service to the community using an in-house paper survey. In this study, we determined whether this survey is a reliable and valid measure of prospective medical students’ attitudes toward required service-learning in an Immunology course. To our knowledge, no published questionnaire has been shown to be dependable and useful for measuring such attitudes using only eight survey items. Methods: Fifty-eight prospective medical students in Colorado (CO) and 15 in Utah (UT) completed the same Immunology course using remote technology. In addition to the usual course content, …

Careful And Curious: A Transformative Ethos For Artistic Evaluation, Vahri Mckenzie, Denise Thwaites, Cathy Hope

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The logic of government subsidy recognises that there are forms of value not suitably captured by exchanges of the free market. Yet there remains a growing impetus for arts organisations and individual artists to measure and articulate the specific value of their practices through formal processes of evaluation. In the context of government subsidy, evaluation typically misses opportunities to capture unforeseen insights that artists and communities may articulate through alternative forms of evaluation. This article offers a conceptual discussion and illustrative example of how more open and exploratory evaluation methodologies may intersect with existing government frameworks. We draw on the …

Exploring Nate Smith’S Approach To Improvising On The Two-Piece Drum-Kit Through Analysis Of Selected Performances With The Fearless Flyers, Zachary S. Wise

Theses : Honours

Nate Smith is a highly acclaimed contemporary drummer, songwriter, and composer who displays virtuosic facility and pushes the boundaries of creativity within the contemporary funk and jazz- fusion drumming landscape. In performances with dynamic funk band The Fearless Flyers, Smith uses an uncommon, simplified drum set-up comprising just the kick, snare, and hi-hat (termed the ‘two-piece drum kit’), which introduces a range of challenges around maintaining creativity and the listener’s interest through just three distinct voices. This study investigates Smith’s approach to improvising on this restricted kit through transcription and analysis of six improvisations from selected studio and live performances …

A Musical Analysis Of Tosin Abasi's Contemporary Guitar Techniques, Thumping And Selective Picking, On The Madness Of Many (2016), Ashton Weaver

Theses : Honours

The progressive metal genre has gained popularity over the past fifteen years, attracting virtuosic musicians navigating complex meter, harmony, and technically demanding melodies. Guitarists within this genre often use extended techniques to generate innovative sounds and create unique compositions.

Award-winning, modern guitar hero Tosin Abasi embodies this individualistic virtuosity within the band Animals As Leaders, releasing five albums with the group. The extended techniques “Thumping” and “Selective Picking” have been pioneered by Abasi, with contemporary guitarists adopting these techniques following the release of Abasi’s educational DVD Thump! (Guitar Messenger, 2016). Despite the growing popularity of “Thumping” and “Selective Picking,” their …

Chopin’S Polonaise In Ab Major, Op.53: Constructing An Informed Interpretation, Arielle X. Lu

Theses : Honours

This dissertation centers around Chopin’s Polonaise in Ab Major and charts the various steps undertaken in forming an interpretation of the work. Four approaches inform the interpretation: 1) early prints and manuscripts, 2) later 19th-century performer editions, 3) analysis of historic recordings, and 4) interacting with relevant secondary literature. The results offer both new findings in relation to the broader field of Chopin studies and also offer scholar-performers new possibilities and paradigms in the performance of Chopin’s piano music.

Risky Business: Policy Legacy And Gender Inequality In Australian Opera Production, Caitlin Vincent, Katya Johanson, Bronwyn Coate

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The field of cultural policy has seen a shift towards considerations of diversity, with government bodies increasingly leveraging funding to combat inequality within organisations. A barrier to this aim is a lack of quantitative data, which would provide a means to evaluate the impact of specific policies in practice. This article investigates the relationship between gender inequality at an organisational level and cultural policy at a sectoral level through a case study of Australia’s state-funded opera companies. Drawing on production data from 2005 to 2020, we consider women’s representation as conductors, directors, and designers at the state companies through the …

Designing For Circularity: Sustainable Pathways For Australian Fashion Small To Medium Enterprises, Lisa Westover Piller

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose:

Australians consume twice the global average of textiles and are deeply engaged in a linear take/make/waste fashion model. Furthermore the Australian fashion sector has some unique supply chain complications of geographical distances, sparse population and fragmentation in processing and manufacturing. This research aims to examine how Australian fashion small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are overcoming these challenges to run fashion businesses built around core principles of product stewardship (PS) and circularity.

Design/methodology/approach:

SMEs make up 88% of the Australian apparel manufacturing sector. This qualitative exploratory study included in-depth interviews with three Australian fashion SMEs engaged in circular design practice, …

The Cartographies Of Place: Approaches To Audio-Visual Composition Incorporating Aspects Of Place, Wing S. Tsang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Incorporating aural and visual elements of a place in a composition serves as a powerful way of exploring the intersection of time, history and geography associated with a location. The combination of these elements acts as an invitation for deeper engagement by offering multiple perspectives of place. One way of exploring these intersections is through incorporating aspects of place—in the form of field recordings, field footage and cartographical information—into audio and audio-visual work, where spatial and physical information can be situated as a way of representing an individual’s surroundings and subjective realities of place. This practice-led exegesis aims to explore …

Deconstructing Motherhood And Fatherhood: An Exploration Of Same-Sex Parents’ Experiences And Construction Of Their Parenting Roles, Jenine M. Giles

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Dominant discourses regarding motherhood and fatherhood are entrenched in Australian culture and are often implied during public discussions of families with same-sex parents. Using a post structuralist approach, this project aimed to identify how parents in same-sex relationships experience and construct their parenting roles through combinations of dominant and alternative discourses of families, motherhood, and fatherhood. Following ethics approval, participants were recruited primarily through communication with Australian LGBTQIA+ community organisations and publications. Twenty-nine respondents each participated in one one-on-one semi-structured interview, which was audio- and video-recorded with their consent. The participants were eighteen years of age or older, in a …

Beyond The Stomp: The Nobbs Suzuki Praxis As An Australian Variant Of The Suzuki Method Of Actor Training, Antje Diedrich, Frances Barbe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article provides a brief overview of the Nobbs Suzuki Praxis (NSP), an Australian variant of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training (SMAT) developed by John Nobbs in collaboration with Jacqui Carroll from the mid-1990s onwards. After a brief introduction to SMAT and the context in which NSP evolved from it, the article outlines NSP’s key differences in exercise practice and design, particularly in the use of signature physical and vocal tools, and the increased use of structured improvisation within NSP formats. It goes on to examine two concepts specific to NSP–‘feeling’ and ‘opposites and paradox’–and outlines how these enable …

Psychological Flow Training: Feasibility And Preliminary Efficacy Of An Educational Intervention On Flow, Cameron Norsworthy, James A. Dimmock, Joanna Nicholas, Amanda Krause, Ben Jackson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Despite there being an increasing number of applied flow studies across scientific disciplines, there exists no consistent or broadly applicable intervention to promote flow experiences. This study provides a detailed account of a new educational flow training program developed following recent advancements in the flow literature that have provided a more parsimonious understanding of flow experiences and antecedents. Guided by CONSORT guidelines for feasibility trials, we conducted a single-group, non-randomized feasibility trial of an educational flow training program (N = 26). We assessed participant retention, perceptions about and experiences of the program, perceptions about the flow education training, and preliminary …

Collecting And Classifying Data On Audience Identity: The Cultural Background Of Festival Audiences, Katya Johanson, Hilary Glow, Mark Taylor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article investigates the issues and tensions involved in collecting data from audiences to describe their diversity. It uses data collected as part of a survey of festival audiences to examine (1) how people choose to describe their identity in an open-text question and (2) how classifying complex responses to questions about ethnic or cultural background has implications for analysis. First, data provided through an open-text question in the festival survey were used to establish two classification systems. The results show patterns in the relationship between how people choose to identify themselves and their arts knowledge and appetite. It also …

No Time To Read? How Precarity Is Shaping Learning And Teaching In The Humanities, Helena Kadmos, Jessica Taylor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Humanities educators are frequently frustrated by students’ poor engagement in reading. The contemporary student experience is characterised by disruption and precarity. Similarly, is that of teachers who work in casual employment. This discussion is located within broader conversations around the neoliberal university, but aims to make more visible ways that teaching and learning are increasingly shaped by precarity, and consequences for the humanities. It describes what precarity in higher education looks like and considers the kinds of strategies that students and their teachers are positioned to develop by virtue of engaging in education under such conditions, amid chaos, making these …

Timing Is Everything, But Does It Really Matter? Impact Of 8-Weeks Morning Versus Evening Iron Supplementation In Ballet And Contemporary Dancers, Caitlin Attwell, Alannah Mckay, Marc Sim, Cory Dugan, Joanna Nicholas, Luke Hopper, Peter Peeling

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The effectiveness of a morning versus evening oral iron supplement strategy to increase iron stores was explored. Ballet and contemporary dancers with serum ferritin (sFer) < 50 g/L (n = 14), were supplemented daily with 105 mg elemental oral iron in either the morning (FeAM) or evening (FePM) for 8 weeks. A control group (n = 6) with sFer > 50 g/L were given no supplement over the same period. Dancers’ sFer were measured at baseline and post-intervention. Assessment of daily training load, dietary intake, and menstruation were made. A significant interaction (p < 0.001) showed the within group sFer change over the 8-week intervention in FeAM (+25.9 ± 10.5 g/L) and FePM, (+22.3 ± 13.6 g/L) was significantly different to CON (−30.17 ± 28.7 g/L; both p = 0.001). This change was not different between FeAM and FePM (p = 0.778). sFer levels within FeAM and FePM significantly increased over the 8-weeks; however, they significantly decreased in the CON group (all p < 0.05). Post-intervention sFer levels were no longer different between the three groups (p > 0.05). Training load, dietary intake, and number of menstrual cycles incurred were similar between FeAM and FePM (p > 0.05). Oral iron supplementation in either the morning or evening appears equally effective in increasing sFer levels in dancers with sub-optimal iron status.

Conversations With Rain: Proposing Poetic And Non-Linear Interpretation Strategies In The Art Gallery, Lilly Blue, Jo Pollitt, Mindy Blaise

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Conversations with Rain aims to disrupt conventional socio-constructivist and cognitive notions of the child familiar in museum settings by rethinking children’s relations with art objects and weather worlds. Our rationale suggests that poetic and non-linear interpretation strategies, combined with artist studio practices that heighten presence and attention, expand the potential of more porous entanglements for children with the world, and potentially transform our climate futures. Disrupting didactic Gallery programming and environmental ‘learning about’ practices, we propose responsive, participatory, multisensory, open-ended, and poetic opportunities that recognise the unfixed, iterative, and tacit knowledges of the child. Building a body of research through …

The Servant Of God As A Proactive Manager: A Team Service Solution Model For Meeting Covid-19 Challenges In Indonesia, Muner Daliman, Jonathan James

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life have died in Indonesia from Covid−19; work practices have been disrupted and various changes have occurred, including the sphere of service in churches, foundations, schools, and universities. The study aims to understand the concept of the proactive manager as a servant of God: a representative and spokesman for God who is obliged to plan, implement, and evaluate what he/she is doing in carrying out what God wills during the challenges of the Covid−19 era in Indonesia. The research method used was content analysis from secular and biblical texts. The results …