What young children say about art : a comparative study

Given the opportunities, young children can be prolific in their productions of drawings and paintings. In the study reported in this paper, we had two questions about this. Why do young children draw and paint? And, what does this prolific activity do? We consider that particular ways of seeing art position children, and children use their artistic activities to position themselves, producing their identities. We interviewed a group of children in Hong Kong, aged between 4 and 5 years, (n=27), and a group of children in Brisbane, Australia, who were of similar ages (n=15). The cross-cultural dimension added another dimension to our thinking and conversations around art and young children.

Political selection and the relative age effect

In this paper we present substantial evidence for the existence of a bias in the distribution of births of leading US politicians in favor of those that have been the oldest in their cohort at school. This “relative age effect” has been proven to influence performance at school and in sports,but evidence on its impact on people’s vocational success has been rare. We find a marked break in the density of birthdate of politicians using a maximum likelihood test and McCrary’s (2008) nonparametric test. We conjecture that being relatively old in a peer group may create long term advantages which can create a significant role in the ability to succeed in a highly competitive environment like the race for top political offices in the USA. The magnitude of the effect we estimate is larger than what most other studies on the relative age effect for a broader (adult) population find, but is in general in line with studies that look at populations in high-competition environments.

Open in art, nature and emergence

The interactive art system +-now is modelled on the openness of the natural world. Emergent shapes constitute a novel method for facilitating this openness. With the art system as an example, the relationship between openness and emergence is discussed. Lastly, artist reflections from the creation of the work are presented. These describe the nature of open systems and how they may be created.

Exploration and reflection in interactive art : glass pond

Glass Pond is an interactive artwork designed to engender exploration and reflection through an intuitive, tangible interface and a simulation agent. It is being developed using iterative methods. A study has been conducted with the aim of illuminating user experience, interface, design, and performance issues.The paper describes the study methodology and process of data analysis including coding schemes for cognitive states and movements. Analysis reveals that exploration and reflection occurred as well as composing behaviours (unexpected). Results also show that participants interacted to varying degrees. Design discussion includes the artwork's (novel) interface and configuration.

Emergence and the art system ‘plus minus now’

Emergence is discussed in the context of a practice-based study of interactive art and a new taxonomy of emergence is proposed. The interactive art system ‘plus minus now’ is described and its relationship to emergence is discussed. ‘Plus minus now’ uses a novel method for instantiating emergent shapes. A preliminary investigation of this art system has been conducted and reveals the creation of temporal compositions by a participant. These temporal compositions and the emergent shapes are described using the taxonomy of emergence. Characteristics of emergent interactions and the implications of designing for them are discussed.

Emergence in interactive art

This thesis is concerned with creating and evaluating interactive art systems that facilitate emergent participant experiences. For the purposes of this research, interactive art is the computer based arts involving physical participation from the audience, while emergence is when a new form or concept appears that was not directly implied by the context from which it arose. This emergent ‘whole’ is more than a simple sum of its parts. The research aims to develop understanding of the nature of emergent experiences that might arise during participant interaction with interactive art systems. It also aims to understand the design issues surrounding the creation of these systems. The approach used is Practice-based, integrating practice, evaluation and theoretical research. Practice used methods from Reflection-in-action and Iterative design to create two interactive art systems: Glass Pond and +-now. Creation of +-now resulted in a novel method for instantiating emergent shapes. Both art works were also evaluated in exploratory studies. In addition, a main study with 30 participants was conducted on participant interaction with +-now. These sessions were video recorded and participants were interviewed about their experience. Recordings were transcribed and analysed using Grounded theory methods. Emergent participant experiences were identified and classified using a taxonomy of emergence in interactive art. This taxonomy draws on theoretical research. The outcomes of this Practice-based research are summarised as follows. Two interactive art systems, where the second work clearly facilitates emergent interaction, were created. Their creation involved the development of a novel method for instantiating emergent shapes and it informed aesthetic and design issues surrounding interactive art systems for emergence. A taxonomy of emergence in interactive art was also created. Other outcomes are the evaluation findings about participant experiences, including different types of emergence experienced and the coding schemes produced during data analysis.

New Voices, New Visions

New Voices, New Visions brings together a collection of papers that engage with the ideas of nation, identity and place. The title New Voices, New Visions harks back to earlier scholarship that endeavoured to explore these issues. It therefore makes links between old and new stories of Australian identity, tracing the continuities, shifts and changes in how Australia is imagined. The collection is deliberately interdisciplinary, gathering work by historians, literary and film scholars, communication and cultural theorists, political scientists and sociologists. This mixed perspectives enables the reader to trace ideas, concepts and theories across a range of disciplines and understand the distinctive ways in which different disciplines engage with ideas of nation, space and Australian identity. The book is written in an engaging and accessible manner, making it an excellent text for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of Australian Studies. It will be especially useful for the growing number of students living outside Australia who engage with Australian literature and culture. The book provides a range of topics that introduces students to key issues and concepts. It also situates these ideas in historical context. New Voices, New Visions engages with key contemporary issues in everyday Australian life: environment and climate change, immigration, consumerism, travel and cities. It explores these various topics by considering case studies, both contemporary and historical. For example the issue of attitudes to Asia are analysed through art; the topic of national symbols through the case of the crocodile; approaches to immigration via a popular reality television programme.

Training opportunities in public art

Craft practitioners and designers have been involved in the production of civic art commissions for many centuries, either as recognised art workers or anonymous artisans. However, it has only been in the last couple of decades that Australia has formally acknowledged the role of public art through the development of government policy and professional accredited training

The social mechanism of political deliberation and citizen participation in Guangdong China

Many studies have focused on why deliberative institutions should be established in order to develop Chinese people’s citizenry skills; however few focus on the social conditions and public sentiments that shape the development of deliberative mechanisms. Skills and awareness of citizenry is not only brought into being by deliberative institutions that are set up by the government, but evolve through interplays between technologies and social changes. As a test-bed for economic reform Guangdong is increasingly identified by translocality and hybrid culture. This is framed by identity conflict and unrests, much of which is due to soaring wealth polarisation, high volumes of population movement, cultural collisions and ongoing linguistic contestations. These unrests show the region’s transformation goes beyond the economic front. Profound changes are occurring at what anthropologists and philosophers call the changing social conciseness or moral landscape (Ci, 1994; Yan, 2010). The changing social moralities are a reflection of the awareness of individuals’ rights and responsibilities, and their interdependencies from dominant ideologies. This paper discusses Guangdong’s social and cultural characteristics, and questions how existing social conditions allow the staging of political deliberation by facilitating political engagement and the formation of public opinion. The paper will investigate the tragedy of Xiao Yueyue in Foshan, Guangdong, where ‘right’ and ‘responsibility’, ‘self’ and ‘other’ define the public sentiments of deliberation and participation.

Guerrilla research tactics: alternative research methods

This case-study explores alternative and experimental methods of research data acquisition, through an emerging research methodology, ‘Guerrilla Research Tactics’ [GRT]. The premise is that the researcher develops covert tactics for attracting and engaging with research participants. These methods range between simple analogue interventions to physical bespoke artefacts which contain an embedded digital link to a live, interactive data collecting resource, such as an online poll, survey or similar. These artefacts are purposefully placed in environments where the researcher anticipates an encounter and response from the potential research participant. The choice of design and placement of artefacts is specific and intentional. DESCRIPTION: Additional information may include: the outcomes; key factors or principles that contribute to its effectiveness; anticipated impact/evidence of impact. This case-study assesses the application of ‘Guerrilla Research Tactics’ [GRT] Methodology as an alternative, engaging and interactive method of data acquisition for higher degree research. Extending Gauntlett’s definition of ‘new creative methods… an alternative to language driven qualitative research methods' (2007), this case-study contributes to the existing body of literature addressing creative and interactive approaches to HDR data collection. The case-study was undertaken with Masters of Architecture and Urban Design research students at QUT, in 2012. Typically students within these creative disciplines view research as a taxing and boring process, distracting them from their studio design focus. An obstacle that many students face, is acquiring data from their intended participant groups. In response to these challenges the authors worked with students to develop creative, fun, and engaging research methods for both the students and their research participants. GRT are influenced by and developed from a combination of participatory action research (Kindon, 2008) and unobtrusive research methods (Kellehear, 1993), to enhance social research. GRT takes un-obtrusive research in a new direction, beyond the typical social research methods. The Masters research students developed alternative methods for acquiring data, which relied on a combination of analogue design interventions and online platforms commonly distributed through social networks. They identified critical issues that required action by the community, and the processes they developed focused on engaging with communities, to propose solutions. Key characteristics shared between both GRT and Guerrilla Activism, are notions of political issues, the unexpected, the unconventional, and being interactive, unique and thought provoking. The trend of Guerrilla Activism has been adapted to: marketing, communication, gardening, craftivism, theatre, poetry, and art. Focusing on the action element and examining elements of current trends within Guerrilla marketing, we believe that GRT can be applied to a range of research areas within various academic disciplines.

Come together : forging publics in Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art

The Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Brisbane, Australia’s third largest city, recently staged ‘21st Century: Art of the First Decade’. The gallery spaces were replete with a commissioned slide by Carsten Höller, an installation of Rivane Neuenschwande’s I Wish Your Wish (2003), a table of white Legos, a room of purple balloons and other participatory or interactive artworks designed to engage multiple publics and encourage audience participation in a variety of ways. Many of the featured projects used day-to-day experiences and offered new conceptions about art practice and what they can elicit in their public – raise awareness about local issues, help audiences imagine different ways of negotiating their environs or experi-ence a museum in a new way. At times, the bottom floor galleries resembled a theme park – adults and children playing with Legos and using Höller’s slide. This article examines the benefits and limitations of such artistic interventions by relating the GoMA exhibition to Brisbane City Council’s campaign of ‘Together Brisbane’ (featuring images of Neunenschwande’s ribbons); a response to the devastation brought to the city and its surrounds in January 2011. During the Brisbane floods, GoMA’s basement was damaged, the museum closed and upon reopening, visitor numbers soared. In this context, GoMA’s use of engaged art practice – always verging on the ephemeral and ‘fun’ – has been used to project a wider notion of a collective urban public. What questions does this raise, not only regarding the cultural politics around the social and participatory ‘turn’ in art practice, but its use to address a much wider urban public in a moment of crisis.

Cutting on action : interference strategies in contemporary art practice

The domestication of creative software and hardware has been a significant factor in the recent proliferation of still and moving image creation. Booming numbers of amateur image-makers have the resources, skills and ambitions to create and distribute their work on a mass scale. At the same time, contemporary art seems increasingly dominated by ‘post-medium’ practices that adopt and adapt the representational techniques of mass culture, rather than overtly reject or oppose them. As a consequence of this network of forces, the field of image and video production is no longer the exclusive specialty of art and the mass media, and art may no longer be the most prominent watchdog of mass image culture. Intuitively and intentionally, contemporary artists are responding to these shifting conditions. From the position of a creative practitioner and researcher, this paper examines the strategies that contemporary artists use to engage with the changing relationships between image culture, lived experience and artistic practice. By examining the intersections between W.J.T. Mitchell’s detailed understanding of visual literacy and Jacques Derrida’s philosophical models of reading and writing, I identify ‘editing’ as a broad methodology that describes how practitioners creatively and critically engage with the field of still and moving images. My contention is that by emphasising the intersections of looking and making, ‘reading’ and ‘writing’, artists provide crucial jump cuts, pauses and distortions in the medley of our mediated experiences.

Contemporary Australia : women, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane 21 April–22 July 2012

'Contemporary Australia: Women' is the second in a series of triennial exhibitions at the Gallery of Modern Art in Queensland, providing a survey of contemporary art practices across the country. This exhibition's focus on women artists comes in the wake of a number of high profile international exhibitions looking at women artists in both contemporary and historical contexts. This review situates the exhibition within this field and considers its significance.

"What is contemporary art? A review of two books by Terry Smith'

What is contemporary art and what are the key components of contemporary culture? This review demonstrates where Terry Smith provides important answers to this question. The books thus help to improve understanding of how art has changed in recent decades and how a global culture now shapes its parameters. This review does not however concur that Smith provides a convincing case for a complete cultural paradigm transformation.

Wherefore art thou, inclusion? Analysing the development of inclusive education in New South Wales, Finland and Alberta

Over the last two decades, moves toward “inclusion” have prompted change in the formation of education policies, schooling structures and pedagogical practice. Yet, exclusion through the categorisation and segregation of students with diverse abilities has grown; particularly for students with challenging behaviour. This paper considers what has happened to inclusive education by focusing on three educational jurisdictions known to be experiencing different rates of growth in the identification of special educational needs: New South Wales (Australia), Alberta (Canada) and Finland (Europe). In our analysis, we consider the effects of competing policy forces that appear to thwart the development of inclusive schools in two of our case-study regions.