Conceptual fashion : design, practice and process

While Conceptual fashion design practices have been a pervasive influence in fashion since the early 1980s, there is little academic analysis that might explain how they are distinct from conventional fashion design practices. In addition, fashion practitioners have not historically contributed to fashion research. As a result, contemporary fashion practitioners have difficulty setting critical contexts and expanding their creative work as there is little relevant literature available from practitioner perspectives. This project uses practice-led research to develop a discourse for understanding Conceptual fashion design process and how it relates to more conventional fashion design practices. In this exegesis I use Conceptual art as a lens to expand understandings of Conceptual fashion and my own creative practice. This analysis demonstrates that there are valuable connections to be drawn between Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion practice. In particular, these connections reveal the differences between the way Conceptual and more conventional fashion designers relate to the conceptual and the visual in their design process. This exploration demonstrates that while fashion is a visual field, Conceptual fashion designers produce a more ‘intellectual’ type of fashion that uses the visual to communicate ideas that question the nature of fashion. I explore the relevance of these ideas through application and experimentation in my creative practice projects by drawing from systems and rules identified in the work of early Conceptual artists and contemporary Conceptual fashion designers.

Building citizens : participatory planning practice and a transformative politics of difference

Decision makers frequently use separate participatory activities to involve marginalised groups. This approach can generate valuable insights, but it has limitations. We discuss the benefits and limits through two examples involving young people, and outline how the approach can be modified, thereby building citizens who are responsive to other perspectives.

Nurses' experiences of practice and political reform in long-term aged care in Australia : implications for the retention of nursing personnel

Keywords gerontological nursing;health care reform;health policy;long-term care;recruitment and retention Aim  The aim of the study was to explore registered nurses’ experiences in long-term aged care in light of the political reform of aged care services in Australia. Background  In Australia, the aged care industry has undergone a lengthy period of political and structural reform. Despite reviews into various aspects of these reforms, there has been little consideration of the effect these are having on the practice experiences and retention of nursing staff in long-term care. Methods  In this critical hermeneutic study, 14 nurses from long-term care facilities in Australia were interviewed about their experiences during the reform period. Results  The data revealed a sense of tension and conflict between nurses’ traditional values, roles and responsibilities and those supported by the reforms. Nurses struggled to renegotiate both their practice roles and values as the reforms were implemented and the system evolved. Nursing management support was an important aspect in mediating the effect of reforms on nursing staff. Conclusion  This research highlights both the tensions experienced by nurses in long-term aged care in Australia and the need to renegotiate nursing roles, responsibilities and values within an evolving care system. This research supports a role for sensitive and proactive nursing management during periods of industry reform as a retention strategy for qualified nursing personnel.

Evidence-based practice and rural nursing : A literature review

This literature review is an exploration of issues related to evidence-based practice and rural nursing. Given the contribution that nursing research can make to improved client care in rural areas, it is important that nurses’ awareness and understanding of evidence-based practice be enhanced, and that strategies for fostering the development of clinically relevant programs of nursing research be identified for rural health services. The review highlights the deficiencies in the current metropolitan-based approaches to evidence-based practice that may disadvantage rural clients and nursing practitioners, because they do not accommodate the inherent differences in rural and metropolitan healthcare cultures. It emphasises the need to seek approaches to research-based practice that arise from the specific needs of the rural setting.

Orchids, intersex and the auto/biographical project

Auto/biographical documentaries ask audiences to take a ‘leap of faith’, not being able to offer any real ‘proof’ of the people and events they claim to document, other than that of the film-maker’s saying this is what happened. With only memory and history seen through the distorting lens of time, ‘the authenticity of experience functions as a receding horizon of truth in which memory and testimony are articulated as modes of salvage’. Orchids: My Intersex Adventure follows a salvaging of the film-maker’s life events and experiences, being born with an intersex condition, and, via the filming and editing process, revolving around the core question: who am I? From this transformative creative documentary practice evolves a new way of embodying experience and ‘seeing’, playfully dubbed here as the ‘intersex gaze’.

Telling bodies, mapping knowledge : recontextualising the dancer’s corporeality using a modular choreographic model

Creative Development: The Body and Light. Within the current cultural climate, the independent choreographer struggles to pursue and establish their artistic career outside the infrastructure of mainstream dance companies. The independent choreographer is challenged to articulate alternative choreographic models without the support of that infrastructure. My research examines that challenge by exploring my own independent choreographic practice through a number of performance-based dance projects. This exploration will be underpinned by theoretical research to enable clarification of the tacit understandings of an embodied practice and the point of intersection between practice and theory so as to articulate alternative choreographic models. As a starting point for that enquiry, an example is provided of how questions that emerge from within the choreographic practice can be discussed in terms of research through an initial investigation exploring light in relation to the moving body and the implications of atmospheres.

Practice and procedure - District Court Act 1967 s79 - transfer of proceeding pending in Magistrates Court to District Court

In Lambert v Surplice [2004] QDC 092 McGill DCJ considered the extent to which the court should exercise a discretion on an application under s79 of the District Court Act 1967 to transfer a proceeding pending in the Magistrates Court to the District Court.

Practice and procedure - Disclosure of documents - application of UCPR r222 to documents referred to in exhibit to affidavit

In Century Drilling Limited v Gerling Australia Insurance Company Pty Limited [2004] QSC 120 Holmes J considered the application of a number of significant rules impacting on the obligation to disclose under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999

Practice and procedure - Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 s45 - duty of claimant to cooperate with insurer

In Suncorp Metway Insurance Limited v Brown [2004] QCA 325 the Queensland Court of Appeal considered the extent of the duty of cooperation imposed on a claimant under s45 of the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld). The issue is an important one because it affects virtually all claims made under the Act.

Practice and Procedure - Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 - whether "urgent need" under s43 to start proceeding notwithstanding non-compliance with chapter 2 part 1

In Lamb v State of Queensland [2003] QDC 003 McGill DCJ considered an application under s43 of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002. That provision permits the court to give a claimant leave to start a proceeding notwithstanding non-compliance with part 1 of chapter two of the Act, "if the court is satisfied there is an urgent need to start the proceeding."

Practice and Procedure - Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 r 212(2) - whether draft expert reports must be disclosed

In Mitchell Contractors Pty Ltd v Townsville-Thuringowa Water Supply Joint Board [2004] QSC 329, Douglas J considered the issue of broad significance for litigation practitioners of whether draft expert reports fall within the description in r212(2) of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) of documents "consisting of a statement or report of an expert" and are therefore not privileged from disclosure.

Practice and Procedure - offers to settle - no costs benefit if no compromise

In Jones v Millward [2005]QCA76 the Queensland Court of Appeal held that an offer to settle under the UCPR will not attract a costs benefit unless it involves some element of compromise

Practice and Procedures - Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 ss 39 and 57

In Bermingham v Priest [2002] QSC 057 jones J considered the position of persons seeking to claim damages where the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 applies prior to its amendment by the Motor Accident Insurance Amendment Act 2000, and where proceedings are brought close to expiration of the statutory limitation period.

Practice and Procedures - costs - offer to settle by plaintiff under UCPR r360 for amount of claim plus costs

In JLG Industries Inc v Teetree Pty Ltd [2002] QDC 031 the court considered the implications in terms of costs of an offer to settle by the plaintiff under the UCPR where the element of compromise involved only acceptance of the amount of claim without interest.

Practice and Procedures - Cross v Queensland Rugby Football Union Ltd [2001] QSC 173

The decision of Chesterman J in Cross v Queensland Rugby Football Union Ltd [2001] QSC 173 (Supreme Court of Queensland, No 3426 of 1997), Chesterman J, 30.5.2001) opens the possibilities for delivering interrogatories, particularly in the context of interrogatories relating to an opponent's version of events.