Stripping Sight Bare : Alison Jones’ ‘Portraits by Proxy’

In this paper I analyse UK artist Alison Jones’ sonic interventions Portrait of the Artist by Proxy (2008), Voyeurism by Proxy (2008) and Art, Lies and Audio Tapes (2009). In Portrait of the Artist by Proxy, Jones – who, due to deteriorating vision, has not seen her reflection in a mirror in years – asks and trusts participants to audio-describe her own image back to her. In Voyeurism by Proxy, Jones asks participants to audio-describe erotic drawings by Gustav Klimt. In Art, Lies and Audio Tapes, Jones asks participants to audio-describe other artworks, such as W.F. Yeames’ And When Did You Last see Your Father?. In these portraits by proxy, Jones opens her image, and other images, to interpretation. In doing so, Jones draws attention to the way sight is privileged as a mode of access to fixed, fundamental truths in Western culture – a mode assumed to be untainted by filters that skew perception of the object. “In a culture where vision is by far the dominant sense,” Jones says, “and as a visual artist with a visual impairment, I am reliant on audio-description …Inevitably, there are limitations imposed by language, time and the interpreter’s background knowledge of the subject viewed, as well as their personal bias of what is deemed important to impart in their description” . In these works, Jones strips these background knowledges, biases and assumptions bare. She reveals different perceptions, as well as tendencies or censor, edit or exaggerate descriptions. In this paper, I investigate how, by revealing unconscious biases, Jones’ works renders herself and her participants vulnerable to a change of perception. I also examine how Jones’ later editing of the audio-descriptions allows her to show the instabilities of sight, and, in Portrait of the Artist by Proxy, to reclaim authorship of her own image.

Bringing skills and general competences back into technological education

In this paper we show that industry-based student training is not limited to work experience; work integrated learning, internship or extended vacation work. It is also about bringing back the lost parts of technological education. We experience the unilateral focus on theoretical knowledge at the expense of skills and general competences as one important challenge in technological education. The lacking facilitation and training of practical skills and general competences in the curricula and programs are identified, but many institutions have failed to address the problem. Today’s curricula in many ways reduce technology to abstract concepts, calculations and models, and create a gap between the academic programs and the practical applications in the society. We explore two (Australia and Norway) initiatives on industry-based student training and discuss how these initiatives address and bridge the gap. We argue that these initiatives of industry-based student training contribute to bringing skills and general competences back into technological education, and that the effects are not limited to increased employability, but also include increased academic performance.

Establishing sustainable and reliable smart grids

This paper addresses challenges part of the shift of paradigm taking place in the way we produce, transmit and use power related to what is known as smart grids. The aim of this paper is to explore present initiatives to establish smart grids as a sustainable and reliable power supply system. We argue that smart grids are not isolated to abstract conceptual models alone. We suggest that establishing sustainable and reliable smart grids depend on series of contributions including modeling and simulation projects, technological infrastructure pilots, systemic methods and training, and not least how these and other elements must interact to add reality to the conceptual models. We present and discuss three initiatives that illuminate smart grids from three very different positions. First, the new power grid simulator project in the electrical engineering PhD program at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Second, the new smart grids infrastructure pilot run by the Norwegian Centers of Expertise Smart Energy Markets (NCE SMART). And third, the new systemic Master program on next generation energy technology at østfold University College (Hiø). These initiatives represent future threads in a mesh embedding smart grids in models, technology, infrastructure, education, skills and people.

Contribution of industry-based student learning performance for the STEM education

We hypothesized that Industry based learning and teaching, especially through company assigned student projects or training programs, is an integral part of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. In this paper we show that industry-based student training and experience increases students’ academic performances independent to the organizational parameters and contexts. The literature on industry-based student training focuses on employability and the industry dimension, and neglects in many ways the academic dimension. We observed that the association factors between academic attributes and contributions of industry-based student training are central and vital to the technological learning experiences. We explore international initiatives and statistics collected of student projects in two categories: Industry based learning performances and on campus performances. The data collected were correlated to five (5) universities in different industrialized countries, e.g., Australia N=545 projects, Norway N=279, Germany N=74, France N=107 and Spain N=802. We analyzed industry-based student training along with company assigned student projects compared with in comparisons to campus performance. The data that suggests a strong correlation between industry-based student training per se and improved performance profiles or increasing motivation shows that industry-based student training increases student academic performance independent of organizational parameters and contexts. The programs we augmented were orthogonal to each other however, the trend of the students’ academic performances are identical. An isolated cohort for the reported countries that opposed our hypothesis warrants further investigation.

ANZAC Day media representations of women in Perth, 1960 – 2012

The annual Anzac Day observance is a focus for articulating popular notions of Australian national identity. Early Anzac Day observations were characterised by a diversity of observational modes, many distinctly masculine and militarist in character; including sports, competitions and marches. It was from the late 1920s that the now characteristic structure of the day (dawn service - march -follow-on - afternoon celebrations including eating, drinking and playing of the gambling game two-up, illegal on every other day of the year} became the dominant form. 1 Widely believed to have experienced an extended nadir in the 1960s and 1970s, since the 1980s Anzac Day has arguably become the single most important national event in the Australian calendar, involving probably the largest-numbers of Australians, many of them young, in the same temporal observance in a multitude of locations across the country and around the world.2 To date, there is a rich literature around Anzac Day observations and meanings focussing on its cultural I folkioric role'; the production of (masculinised) national identity;pilgrimage;' popular memory I history;' and the contemporary reshaping of the Anzac myth by and for indigenous participants.'