Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Activating Rural Infrastructures In Regional Communities: Cultural Funding, Silo Art Works And The Challenge Of Local Benefit, Emily Potter, Katya Johanson, Molan D'Arcy

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article examines the issues involved in publicly funded regional arts initiatives, through two contrasting examples of art works that creatively repurpose grain silos in rural Australia: the Silo Art Trail in north-west Victoria, and the silo art practices of the small town of Natimuk in the same region. Via desktop analysis supported by observation and interviews, we consider these initiatives in the context of a turn to arts-led regeneration and creative place-making in rural and regional development approaches and the role of public cultural policy within this. With the majority of public funding for cultural and creative projects in …

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, …

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 …

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.

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’. . . .

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 …

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 …

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 …

‘Keep The Music Going’: How The Isolation Tour 2020 Maintained Community And Cultural Connectedness During The 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown In Western Australia, Brigitta Scarfe, Amy Budrikis, Clint Bracknell

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social isolation measures had a profound impact on communities worldwide. In regional and remote Western Australia, the use of online platforms has become increasingly important for maintaining social and emotional well-being. This article examines the role of ‘The Isolation Tour 2020’ Facebook page in providing a lifeline for its mostly Aboriginal audience to stay connected with culture, Country, and one another during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Western Australia. The authors conducted an in-depth interview with one of the administrators of the page and supplemented this with a thematic analysis of publicly available Facebook data. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Kind Regards: Negotiating Connection To Country And Place Through Collective Storying, Wendy Somerville, Vahri Mckenzie, Lisa Fuller, Naomi Joy Godden, Ashley Harrison, Renae Isaacs-Guthridge, Bethaney Turner

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Within this paper we explore the process and outcomes of a year-long exchange that investigates how active learning can emerge through collective place-based storying. Beginning with Country as our guide, we shared, responded, yarned, listened and revisited one another's contributions. Using the "threads"of an extended email exchange and online yarning sessions, we wove together this collaborative work to present findings generated from the creative practice of storying and sharing knowledge. This work required ongoing openness to vulnerability; we resisted the urge to remain silent and risked being wrong. Our responses, and the writing styles reflecting them, incorporate both academic and …

The Experiential Salience Of Music In Identity For Singing Teachers, Melissa Forbes, Jason Goopy, Amanda E. Krause

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Professional musicians with strong identities in music may also have a high degree of music in their identities. Accordingly, a rigid identification with work may be problematic for musicians, particularly when forces beyond their control change their work circumstances. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 singing teachers, representing a subset of professional musicians, and used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the ways in which they enacted music in their identities. The framework of musical identities in action was used to interpret the findings, revealing the dynamic, embodied, and situated complexity of music in participants’ identities. Music …

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 …

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 …

How “Open” Are Australian Museums? A Review Through The Lens Of Copyright Governance, Paul L. Arthur, Lydia Hearn, Isabel Smith, Nikos Koutras

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Museums are increasingly employing innovative digital techniques to curate, link, and market collections, enabling new kinds of public engagement to better connect with popular culture. By embracing contemporary modes of delivery to open access to their collections, museums are signalling a drive toward greater democratisation of knowledge and information through increased interaction and accessibility. Yet with this has come a series of copyright and legal complexities. This paper reviews current copyright barriers for museums in Australia and examines how international examples offer potential models and ways forward. The authors conclude that recent copyright modernisation reviews offer the museum sector an …

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 …

Investigating Pre-Professional Dancer Health Status And Preventative Health Knowledge, Joanna Nicholas, Sara Grafenauer

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: Dance is a highly demanding physical pursuit coupled with pressure to conform to aesthetic ideals. Assessment of health status and preventative health knowledge of pre-professional dancers may help inform educational strategies promoting dancers’ health and career longevity. The aim of this research was to establish a baseline understanding of dance students at a single pre-professional institution based on metrics focused on current health, nutrition, lifestyle, and wellbeing while also gauging knowledge of longer-term health implications. Methods: Adopting a cross-sectional study design, the Dance-Specific Energy Availability Questionnaire was tailored for Australian participants and administered online. Results: The response rate was …

Factors Influencing Australian Muslims’ Attitudes Toward Christian-Muslim Dialogue: The Case Of Sunni Muslims Of Adelaide And Uniting Church Christians, Gregory Macdonald, Mohamad Abdalla, Nahid Afrose Kabir

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Since the implementation of a multicultural policy in the 1970s, religious diversity in Australia has increased. Research has demonstrated that intergroup contact is essential for managing diverse multicultural societies. This is because, given the right conditions, intergroup contact will reduce prejudice and build trust between groups. Given the importance of intergroup contact, policy makers and researchers have identified interfaith dialogue’s importance to the success of multicultural societies. However, there is very limited research that explores interfaith dialogue from the perspectives of adherents, in this case Christians and Muslims in the Australian context. This paper focuses on interfaith dialogue between Christians …

Dis/Orientating The Early Childhood Sensorium: A Palate Making Menu For Public Pedagogy, Alex Berry, Jo Pollitt, Narda Nelson, Denise Hodgins, Vanessa Wintoneak

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper shares a multilayered retrospective story of an international exhibit curated for the Climate Action Childhood Network Colloquium as part of a commitment among exhibit curators to reveal the complexities of unpalatable climate futures. In the format of a tasting menu, we offer a sampling of the exhibit installations as a menu of potential alterpolitics in the making. Facing intensifying inequitable climate presents and futures, our intention is that this invitation might create openings for the intersection of local and global concerns. We gesture toward collective but tentative responses for thinking climate action pedagogies through the metaphor of a …

Rethinking The Robe River Dispute 1986-7 – De-Unionisation In Australia’S Pilbara Iron Ore Industry In The Early Neoliberal Period, Alexis Vassiley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The Robe River dispute of 1986-7 was the anti-union New Right’s first attempt to defeat union power at a large workforce in Australia. This occurred during an industrial relations period of ‘cooperation’ between unions, employers and government under Australia’s social contract – the Accord. The dispute was also the first successful attack of its kind in Western Australia’s highly strike-prone Pilbara iron ore industry. Despite its subsequent victory, Robe River management was in a weak position during the dispute, and successful industrial action was a viable prospect. Unionists at the Robe River company were the most militant in the industry. …

Health Promotion In An Australian Aboriginal Community: The Growing Strong Brains ® Toolkit, Wendy Simpson, Darlene Robinson, Elaine Bennett, Cecily Strange, Vicki Banham, Jenny Allen, Rhonda Marriott

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

AIM: The aim of this paper is to describe the implementation and evaluation of the Growing Strong Brains® (GSB) toolkit in a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia (WA) over a 2-year period, 2018-2019. BACKGROUND: Ngala, a community service organisation in WA, developed the GSB toolkit in 2014, a culturally appropriate and interactive resource to build knowledge of early childhood development within Aboriginal communities. This was in response to evidence that a higher percentage of children in Aboriginal communities were developmentally vulnerable compared to the rest of the population. The GSB toolkit promotes awareness and understanding of early brain development …

Access To Urban Leisure: Investigating Mobility Justice For Transgender And Gender Diverse People On Public Transport, Shahin Shakibaei, Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Literature on mobility justice suggest that socially disadvantaged people experience uneven access to movement. The theme of diversity in terms of gender and its interplay with mobility and leisure have attracted some scholarly attention. However, research into transgender and gender diverse mobilities and its impact to leisure access remains limited, particularly from non-Western perspectives. This paper endeavors to fill this gap by investigating transgender and gender diverse mobilities in Istanbul, Turkey. Drawing upon 49 qualitative interviews with gender diverse and transgender public transport users in Istanbul, this study contributes to a scholarly discussion exploring the relationship between gender diversity, mobility, …

Exhibiting Slavery: Biographical Approaches, Paul L. Arthur, Isobel Smith

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Within museums, interpretation and curation have increasingly employed personal stories and intimate storytelling to present broader narratives about the past. This article explores some of the opportunities and challenges of biographical storytelling in museums and public sites of memory that engage with the issue of slavery, analysing Australian exhibitions alongside international contexts and theories of museology, historiography and memory. It will look at representations of historical and modern slavery in Australia, as well as global representations of the transatlantic slave trade and other traumatic histories such as the Holocaust. The discussion explores the potential for personal counter-narratives, the reimagining of …

The Digital Sabbath And The Digital Distraction: Arts-Based Research Methods For New Audiences, Lisa F. Paris, Julia Morris, John Bailey

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Despite the known affordances of Arts-Based Research Practice within the international education environment, its use remains relatively uncommon in Western Australia. The reasons for this are likely the contested nature of quality criteria by which Arts-Based Practice is evaluated as well as the challenges as well associated with the dissemination of research findings. Mixed-methods research is increasingly recognised as an appropriate and practical approach for education phenomena, and within this domain, inquiry that combines traditional qualitative and arts-based strategies offers the education researcher advantages that are not readily available through other approaches. As professional artists and researchers we share our …

Wanji-Wanji: The Past And Future Of An Aboriginal Travelling Song, Myfany Turpin, Calista Yeoh, Clint Bracknell

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Classical Aboriginal culture in Australia consists of many different kinds of ceremonies, including travelling ceremonies that are often shared across linguistic and geographical boundaries. Each of these ceremonies is made up of dozens of different verses. Perhaps the most widely known travelling ceremony is one referred to in some areas as ‘Wanji-wanji’. This was known over half the country and dates back at least 170 years, as evidenced in eleven legacy recordings and fieldwork interviewing more than 100 people across the western half of Australia. Like any oral tradition, the names of such ceremonies vary from place to place and …

Temptations, Techniques And Typologies: Insights From A Western Australian Sample Of Young People Who Burgle, Suzanne Rock, Natalie J. Gately, James Mccue, Nathalie St Martin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

A significant amount of property crime is committed by young people. In this novel qualitative study, 50 young people were interviewed to obtain an insight into their motivations to burgle. Decisions were based on peer pressure, opportunity and perceived need. Bennett and Wright’s typologies of adult burglars were applied to young burglars. Young burglars were more prone than adults in Bennett and Wright’s study to commit opportunistic burglaries, but were deterred by similar target characteristics. The social and psychological factors are strong motivators for youth burglary and should guide the development of intervention and deterrence strategies.