Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Portraits Of Vulnerable Ghosts: Contemporary Landscape Photography In Context

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

In this paper creative immortality and experiential transcendence as forms of symbolic immortality are placed within a historical and contemporary landscape context. The thesis sets forward the argument that despite the best intentions for schematics of remembrance, these forms remain elusive and inherently mutable. Investigations into the sense of loss of self-inherent in the landscape are defined as a sort of experiential transcendence and approaches the sublime from a position of perceived narrative and yearning for connection with the greater movements of the earth and sky. An argument is made for the return to a level of reverence and understanding …

Messy Never-Endings: Curating Inconversation As Interdisciplinary Collaborative Dialogue, Lyndall Adams, Renee Newman-Storen, Neil Ferguson, Christopher Kueh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper will explore the curation of a collaborative exhibition amongst creative higher degree by research candidates (from the School of Communications and Arts and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts), arts practitioners and researchers from different art forms and discipline backgrounds. It will look at the conversations between artists and researcher collaborators working together to produce a broad range of creative works, culminating in an exhibition titled In Conversation, to be staged at Edith Cowan University’s Spectrum Project Space in October 2014.

The context of the inConversation exhibition aims to inform and expand on current debates about the …

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid: Exploring The Rhetoric Of The Monster In Political And Horror Posters Of The 20th Century, Julia Lane

Theses : Honours

Australia’s current social and political climate takes us back to a time when there was a strongly perceived fear of the other. This fear is heavily reflected by the monsters which we, as a society, create. This research unearths the constructed monsters of the 20th Century for a critical assessment of what makes a monster. More specifically, it focuses on depictions of monsters within political and horror poster designs. The purpose of this research is to identify and respond to the rhetoric apparent within and between poster images, specifically concerning the cultivation of fear of the other through the …

Cultures Of Practice Within Design: An Exploration Of The Differences And Similarities Between Photography And Painting As Representational Practices, Alun John Price

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Contemporary designers and photographers face many challenges as the profession rapidly develops. This is especially the case in in the Western Australian context. A review into the recent history of the Western Australian design profession is evidence that designers and photographers are consistently shifting between commercial and self-expressive practice. However, the urge to keep up with technological advancement has masked conscious development of this shift, which is a key to self-realisation and improvement for a designer and photographer. This lack of conscious questioning limits holistic development in design practice. This research reflects on myself as a designer developing a response …

A Leap In The Dark: Identity, Culture And The Trauma Of War Mediated Thorough The Visual Arts Of North-East European Migrants And Émigrés To Australia After 1945, Eileen Whitehead

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis explores the contribution to the cultural life of post-war Australia by migrant artists from north-eastern Europe. It researches the lives and work not only of displaced artists arriving in the mass exodus from Europe after the Second World War, but also second and third generation artists descended from original migrant families, and much later émigré artists.

Art histories written to date about the post-war period provide little coverage of the contributionto the art and culture of Australia by migrant artists from north-eastern Europe. The coverage in the literature written about the visual art produced by established Australian artists …

Natural Dimension Vii - Part 1, Sue Kalab

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

My endeavour is to catch that tenderness, the expression, the indescribable element that gives the beauty to the moment of the image. Energy, interest, and that ‘other’- the magical ingredient that makes a work art. My intention is not just to show the fluffy white cuteness of the seven cygnets, but to particularly illustrate the devotion of the parent birds.

Song For Trees & Rain, Sue Kalab

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

No abstract provided.

Watermark, Richard Tipping

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Richard Tipping’s Watermark, commissioned in 2000 for the Powerhouse Centre for the Live Arts in Brisbane. The location is at New Farm, a part of the sites of massive floodings of the Brisbane River in previous years. Watermark is made of plate steel which is powder-coated, with a length of 15 metres and height of 1.8 and depth of 1.5. From the statement on the plaque: Watermark (2000) by Richard Tipping This sculpture is meant to evoke the power of the Brisbane River sweeping around this curve at New Farm, triggering memories of the massive floods of 1893 and 1974, …

Bridging The Gap: Scenario-Based Design As A Solution For Delayed Access To Users, Paul Haimes, Joo H. Jung, Stuart Medley

Research outputs 2013

Scenario-based design (Carroll & Rosson, 2002) is a Human-Computer Interaction methodology for considering the needs of potential users, without their direct input. Scenario-based design gives the interface designer the ability to create scenarios of use, along with postulations on the various types of users, expressed in the form of personas (Grudin & Pruitt, 2002). These scenarios and personas can be useful in the context of a design project, where real world issues preclude the direct involvement of users at a critical stage. By ‘walking through’ informal narrative descriptions in the form of a story, scenario-based design focuses on human activity …

Traces Of Departure And Arrival, Lyndall Adams

Research outputs 2013

This paper traces the consequences of dislocation for studio arts-practice. I recently found myself in Perth, far from my home of 20 years and with directional vertigo, looking east to my old life and west to the Indian Ocean. In order to make sense of this move I used the studio to resolve/recollect/ trace my sense of movement, change, loss and vertigo. The multiple departures and arrivals on this journey are articulated as catalysts to studio production. We rarely speak about the spaces between such departures and arrivals and the effects those spaces have on the lived body. The space …

The Dangers In Design Thinking, Alun J. Price

Research outputs 2013

Over the past few years there has been an increased use of the term Design Thinking (DT). Organisations such as The NextDesign Leadership Institute and its related design consultancy, Humantific have been using the term in various projects such as the ‘Design Thinking Made Visible’ project (Humantific, 2011). The term Design Thinking gained popularity after the Stanford University Engineering School ran a course on it in 2005 (Christoph, Leifer & Plattner, 2011). Many of the processes used by designers adopting this approach seem to come from non-design disciplines. Much of what has been taught in management schools for many years …

Designing With Images: Using A Realism Continuum To Choose Pictures For Communication Tasks, Stuart Medley

Research outputs 2013

Graphic design has historically been concerned with giving identity to clients’ projects. But what of its own identity? Graphic design and typography have become interchangeable terms, to the detriment of any theoretical position on pictures. This paper explains the necessity of a theory of pictures specific to the graphic design discipline. Bamford (2003) says there can’t be a vocabulary of images since it would be as limitless as the imagination and graphic skills of humanity. But a search for a vocabulary of images is a red herring for graphic design. Typography is less about what is spoken and more about …

Service Design 101: The Joy And Challenge Of Introducing Service Design Into An Undergraduate Design Curriculum, Christopher Kueh, Stuart Medley, Alun Price

Research outputs 2013

This paper describes the introduction of service design into a university design course that previously promoted itself as industry-based and practice-driven—but which had not necessarily kept pace with the contemporary meanings of these terms. The followings discuss the need to teach service design in Western Australia. These are being highlighted through the latest development in business community, government and NGOs that seek innovation and sustainability. Edith Cowan University Design Department therefore is committed to teach socially-focused projects (such as wayfinding; civic identity; designing out crime) connect students with the public and real clients through collaborative practice and social design workshops. …

Mobile Games With Intelligence: A Killer Application?, Philip Hingston, Clare Bates Congdon, Graham Kendall

Research outputs 2013

Mobile gaming is an arena full of innovation, with developers exploring new kinds of games, with new kinds of interaction between the mobile device, players, and the connected world that they live in and move through. The mobile gaming world is a perfect playground for AI and CI, generating a maelstrom of data for games that use adaptation, learning and smart content creation. In this paper, we explore this potential killer application for mobile intelligence. We propose combining small, light-weight AI/CI libraries with AI/CI services in the cloud for the heavy lifting. To make our ideas more concrete, we describe …

The Hd Magazine: Graphists And Wordsmiths, Hanadi Haddad, Stuart Medley

Research outputs 2013

HD Magazine is a cross-disciplinary initiative, seeking to bring together students from the fields of Journalism and Graphic Design (from 1st year through to 4th year). Its creation allows students to share knowledge and skills, showcase their work and contribute to establishing a sense of community within the School of Communications and Arts (SCA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU). HD Magazine is bi-annually published (four issues to date), with future stages of development including online publication and collaboration with students from interactive media development and creative writing. From a design perspective, HD Magazine is also an investigation into visual literacy, …

Design Thinking Practice And Research: Building Research Culture In Undergraduate Studies, Christopher Kueh

Research outputs 2013

The relationships between design practice and research in university education is an on-going discussion. The expansion and development of design fields such as Design Thinking has generated discussions between research and practice (see Kimbell, 2011; Sangiorgi, 2010). This sees the urge to develop strong research culture in both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. This paper presents and discusses a Design Thinking framework in cultivating research culture in undergraduate Design courses at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Western Australia.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Votes: Graphicacy Skills For Political Debate, Amanda Rainey, Stuart Medley

Research outputs 2013

Political campaigns are greatly influenced by changes in technology and communication, from FDR’s ‘Fireside Chats’ to JFK’s embrace of television. Now a combination of technologies allows almost everyone to create, reproduce, transform, and share images with friends and family, or with the world. Individuals and grassroots organisations can communicate using images alongside mainstream media, corporations and governments. There is now a great need for all of us to develop the visual literacy – or graphicacy – required to interpret and recreate images, to communicate as educated equals in this new political environment. Political advertising can use graphic design to make …

Drawn From Artists’ Lives: An Empirical Study Of The Situation And Realisation Of Professional Visual Art Practices In The Western Australian Field Of Cultural Production, Duncan Robert Mckay

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis presents the findings of empirical research on the working lives of visual artists living and working in Western Australia. No detailed studies of this kind have previously been undertaken in a Western Australian context, though a series of national, economically framed studies have surveyed Australian artists working in a variety of art forms about their working lives on five occasions since the early 1980s. Collectively the reports published from these five studies make up the most comprehensive picture of artists’ economic activity that has been available to policymakers and others involved in arts and culture in this country …

To See The World Clearly: - Painting, The Camera Obscura And The Lens Of Spinoza, Paul Uhlmann

Research outputs 2012

My practice-led PhD research project seeks to find ways to create immersive painting installations to invoke contemplation of immanence, interconnectedness and impermanence in the mind of the viewer. In this paper I will discuss the methodology of my practice-led research as it relates to the concept of sensation (Deleuze) in relation to the body and to painting. In addition to this I will outline ways in which Spinoza’s monist concept of ‘one substance’ has illuminated and influenced my thinking and work. Central to this concept is the notion that mind and matter are not two separate things but one thing. …

An Examination Of Creative Performative Labour As A Tactics Of Resistance To Controlled Pedestrian Passage Through Public Urban Space, Dani Andree

Theses : Honours

This research within this exegesis has developed out of the idea that pedestrian passage through public urban space is characterised by slippages in the perception of time and the senses. This concept is theoretically framed by Marc Augé’s notion of “non-place” (1995) and Michel de Certeau’s (1984) unconscious phenomenology of walking the city street. This exegesis examines the development of a reflexive unconscious language within a visual arts practice, as a tactics of resistance to controlled pedestrian passage. This theoretical framework, along with Alex Villar’s “Temporary Occupations”, forms part of a reflexive praxis that examines the progression of my creative …

The Dialectics Of Textile Hand Production : In Search Of Poetic Content : An Enquiry Into The Position Of The Traditional Textile Crafts, Jane Donlin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis frames the significance of traditional textile hand production as a means of furthering the concept of aesthetic socio-cultural development. It approaches the traditional textile crafts in relation to the proposition that contemporary society is post-traditional and has broken away from nature. By examining the concept of tradition and the processes by which society transforms from the pre-modern context into the late modern, the changing nature of the crafts is explained. The research also examines wider social losses, gains and unforeseen consequences that occur in the continuous process of social transformation. My art praxis is contextualised within the framework …

Online Metacognitive Tool Development: Final Development, Joseph Luca, Mark Mcmahon

Research outputs pre 2011

The authors of this paper have been developing an online metacognitive tool over the past four years through a process of iterative design and development stages using Design-Based research. Based on feedback from students, tutors and peers, the application has now been finally developed and is available for public download. The application helps students working in teams reflect on their learning strategies through a process of planning, monitoring and evaluation, and allows students to reflect on their performance.

Making The Invisible, Visible : Exploring Liminality Of Mind And Body Through Glass, Naomi Hunter

Theses : Honours

It is through the discipline of visual arts that I research the subject of the mind-body relationship and the notion of liminality- this is the space in-between. To that end, the aim of this research is to investigate and construct a visible means of exhibiting liminal space. This creative work will be used as a metaphor for the synergy between body and mind, which I contend occurs within an internal liminal space. I investigate these concepts through the double articulation of creative practice and a written exegesis, based on the following research questions: 'In what ways can glass be used …

World War Ii Prisoner Of War Visual Art : Investigating Its Significance In Contemporary Society, Eileen Whitehead

Theses : Honours

This study examines closely some of the artworks produced by Howard Taylor, Ronald Searle and Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack while they were interned as prisoners of war (POWs) during World War II (WWII). It examines the significance of their POW and post-war artworks in the context of their experiences in WWII, the institutional representation of WWII POW art generally and, more broadly, the context in which wars shape the creative output of imprisoned soldiers and civilians. It further examines how POW artwork has influenced the choice of subject matter for some contemporary artists. I discuss a certain invisibility of POW artwork …

Unmasking Albany : Addressing Social Issues Through Mask-Work With Young People In A Western Australian Regional Centre, Fleur Hockey

Theses : Honours

My research looked at whether mask-work could be used to address social issues affecting young people in a Western Australian regional centre. It consisted of a case study, where I ran a six day workshop series in two Albany primary schools, with students who had been selected by their school to participate. Throughout the workshops, the young participants each made a full expressive mask, learnt how to perform in different mask styles, developed a character and took part in a small performance at their school. I employed a performance ethnography methodology and utilised methods such as participant observation, structured interviews …

Navigate Your Way Through A Sea Of Data, Korin S. Gath

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

No abstract provided.

In The Game : An Exploration Of The Concept Of Immersion In Video-Games And Its Usage In Game Design, Cesar Manuel Saez Ojeda

Theses : Honours

This thesis outlines a research project whose aim was to develop a design taxonomy for the creation of immersion in video-games. These guidelines can then be used in-sync with different stages in video-game design and development to ensure an immersive experience. Integral to this is the 'suspension of disbelief' the end user experiences when fully immersed in a video-game (Holland, 2002; Mediacollage.com, 2006). A review of the literature has identified the major contributing theory to the concept of immersion as flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). Flow embodies cognitive elements of involvement such as concentration on a task, completing a challenge, having control …

From Cannibal To Consumer: The Shifting Poetic Metaphor Of The Vampire, Emma Margetts

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Vampire is a parasitic demon who has ·haunted humanity for thousands of years. Feeding off the living, this bloodsucking, animated corpse could generally be said to embody human fears surrounding death and sexuality. Appearing in a variety of mythologies around the world, the vampire has been connected with excessive and/or repressed desire, the subconscious and dark side of human nature. The vampire and associated metaphors' reflect social boundaries and express forbidden desires, in particular, when the figure appeared in late-Gothic literature of the 18th-century novel. The transitions occurring within the vampire's iconography over the last 200 years of Western …

Fieldwork/Fieldwalking: Art, Sauntering And Science In The "Walking Country", Perdita Phillips

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

fieldwork/fieldwalking is a contemporary art project exploring practices of walking and science in the field. 11 explores the themes of walking and-fieldwork in art, and as art. Whilst the. sociology of science in the laboratory has been well theorised, less has been said about the field in the natural sciences. And, equally, the most recent and provocative walking art is found in urban areas, in a fabric dominated by the patterns of human settlement. How could new walking art be made in non-urban places? The project set out to investigate how these two, fieldwork and walking, could be combined in …

Application Of Binaural Recording In The Video Game Industry, Max Leong

Theses : Honours

The video game industry is one of entertainment technologies' largest growing industries. There are thousands of games in the market covering a variety of different genres. There is also a high level technical sophistication in current games along with the game console that runs it. Games are realistic with astonishingly life like graphics. The backing audio and music tracks are performed by leading orchestras and written by renowned composers. Great technological strides have been made in the areas of graphic and audio design. The end user expects the very best and the video game industry is constantly improving software and …