Hunger

Poet's statement: My father died of pancreatic cancer a few years ago, and since then other family members and friends have developed cancer. Some have recovered, perhaps temporarily, while for others the prospect is one of inevitable decline, raising questions about when the point is reached where death is preferable to life. This poem expresses the ambiguity of visceral urges which could be towards either continued life or a relieving death.

Shadowlands (Directed by Caroline Heim)

The controversial love affair of CS Lewis, Oxford scholar and writer of the Narnia Chronicles, is set in a constellation of music, sculpture and mime. CS Lewis’s intriguing relationship with poet Joy Davidman moves, inspires and confronts us with the big questions. Beauty contrasts with the ephemeral land of the shadows. Crossbow’s adaption of William Nicholson’s soulful and witty play explores the joy and the grief of “experience: that most brutal of teachers.” Showcasing the abilities of Brisbane and Sydney actors, the company that brought you The Miracle Worker and Anne of the Thousand Days, will quicken your senses and stir your heart with Shadowlands. All performances have a tactile tour of the stage 20 minutes before the start time of the show. Special signed performance for hearing impaired patrons Thur 5 Aug 2pm

Voices of the Unheard

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. Horace - Roman lyric poet and satirist 65BC – 8 BC This quotation from Horace could well be the chorus to a medley of songs sung by people who face extraordinary adversity and have gained emotional resilience through music making. In this chapter we present three composition ventures that are stories or verses in a new song and whose chorus summarises the nature of the resilience factors present in the narratives. We are aware that words on a page like this can have the effect of filtering out the engaging nature of musical experience and reduce music to a critique or an evaluation of its aesthetic value. This disjuncture between language and the ephemeral, embodied experience is a problem for those who use these creative processes in therapeutic and salutogenic ways (Antonovsky, 1996) for public health. The notion of salutogenic health, put simply, delineates it from therapy in that the processes focus upon wellness rather than therapy. Whilst we include evidence from the fields of community music therapy (Pavlicevic, 2004; Leitschuh et al., 1991), neuroscience (Bittman et al., 2001) and community music (Bartleet et al., 2009) the framework for a salutogenic health outcome in community music is one which seeks to employ music practices and the qualities of music making that provide positive health benefit to communities –to enhance health and well being rather than the “treatment” of disorders. It is essentially a holistic and interdisciplinary study. Therapy and salutogenic health are not mutually exclusive as both depend upon the qualities of music experience to affect change. Collecting, analysing and presenting evidence of change in human behaviour that can be directly attributed to creative music making is a problem of evaluation.

Byron's back from the dead? : revenants of Romanticism in contemporary young adult fiction

Often identified as the origin of today’s children’s literature, Romanticism offers a particular context for interrogating boundaries between child and adult. Since the turn of the nineteenth century, however, Western society has “invented” the teenager to figure and to police the boundary between childhood and adulthood. In due course, twenty-first-century young adult (YA) novels such as Susan Davis’s Mad, Bad and Totally Dangerous (2004) and Cara Lockwood’s Wuthering High: A Bard Academy Novel (2006) have combined the Romantic and the adolescent in narratives which turn on supernatural invocation of Romantic authors as “really” present in contemporary adolescent lives. These novels tell stories of adolescence in which the self comes to be known via embodied encounters with dead authors, in particular, with Byron. Where “Byron scholarship has worked hard to disassociate the poet from this kind of pop-Gothic depiction, seeing it as the inevitable but regrettable offspring of nineteenth-century Byromania” (McDayter 30), contemporary YA fiction suggests that it is precisely via pop-Gothic depictions that today’s adolescents may first come to know the Romantic in general and the Byronic in particular. This paper reads these novels in the context of current anxieties about cultural illiteracy and educational “failure” in order to consider what work is being undertaken in the name of Byron, and to shed light on the ways in which cultural education may be taking place far beyond the realms of schools or cemeteries for today’s young readers.

‘Wide Atlantic Ocean’ : acting methods and cultural translation in mainstream theatre

A recent production of Nicholson’s Shadowlands at the Brisbane Powerhouse could have included two advertising lines: “Outspoken American-Jewish poet meets conservative British Oxford scholar” and “Emotive American Method trained actor meets contained British trained actor.” While the fusion of acting methodologies in intercultural acting has been discussed at length, little discussion has focussed on the juxtaposition of diverse acting styles in production in mainstream theatre. This paper explores how the permutation of American Method acting and a more traditional British conservatory acting in Crossbow’s August 2010 production of Shadowlands worked to add extra layers of meaning to the performance text. This sometimes inimical relationship between two acting styles had its beginnings in the rehearsal room and continued onstage. Audience reception to the play in post-performance discussions revealed the audience’s acute awareness of the transatlantic cultural tensions on stage. On one occasion, this resulted in a heated debate on cultural expression, continuing well after the event, during which audience members became co-performers in the cultural discourses of the play.

The lily, client and measure of Bruno Taut’s Glashaus

The Glashaus is considered a significant exemplar of early modernist architecture and is generally accepted as having had Expressionist origins. However, current research has revealed that the design origins of this important building are not fully understood. While the historical record acknowledges the contributions of the bohemian poet Paul Scheerbart and the art critic Adolf Behne, the role of the Glashaus’ architect, Bruno Taut, has been moderated. In an attempt to rectify this situation this article proposes that the design origins of the Glashaus can be found in a strong architect-client interaction. It is argued that the Glashaus’ client, the Deutsche Luxfer Prismen Syndikat under the directorship of Frederick Keppler, exerted a significant influence on its design. In order to showcase the glazed products of Luxfer in the best manner possible, Keppler insisted that the design feature a glazed dome, electric lighting, a fountain as well as a cascade. Given the detailed stipulations of this brief, Taut had few options other than to offer interpretations of precedent that derived from the Victoria regia lily and Gothic proportioning. By expounding this architect-client relationship, this article expands our understanding of the Glashaus, and reinvigorates our understanding of this important early example of modern architecture.

Plagiarism 2.0 : the new economy of academic dishonesty

As a writer, teacher and scholar of ‘the knowledge economy’ in the broadest sense, plagiarism fascinates me. I first encountered plagiarism in my Year 12 English class. We had been working for weeks writing poems and had submitted them to our teacher Mr How for assessment. Mr How was generally a pleasant individual who I remember as one of my favourite school teachers; however, he did not suffer fools easily. The time arrived for each of us to read our work to the class. Year 12 poetry being what it usually is, most of our efforts tended to blur into an angsty, slightly pretentious, self-important mess (similar to staff meetings in many university departments). However, one student’s poem stood out. It was emotive, insightful and economical in its use of language … and best of all, it did not suck! The poem’s author was one of the class’ biggest jocks, and not usually one to display such sensitivity, so we were all a little taken aback by what we were hearing. Stunned silence! At the poem’s conclusion, Mr How congratulated the student on such an excellent effort and produced a copy of the collected works of Emily Dickenson (if I remember correctly) from under his desk. He asked the student to turn to a page he had marked and recite the poem printed there. It was, of course, the same one the student had passed off as his. This time, there was no stunned silence: just the sound of remorseful sobs from our jock-poet-plagiarist who had been exposed in front of his classmates.

Take a journey to saga country, Reykjavik, Iceland

A travel article about a journey to Reykholt in Western Iceland, once the farm of saga author Snorri Sturluson. A TRIP back into snowbound Iceland's past in search of a famed warrior-poet throws up some old memories and fresh revelations for Kari Gislason "The fish must sing." An odd idea, I know - one uttered by a merchant in a novel by Halldor Laxness. But it said no more than what every Icelander since the settlement had known. If you were going to live on the edge of the world, it paid to do something to remind the rest of the world you were still here...

"Rebirth: Combined art performance"--Shirin Madg & Sweet Sound Ensemble

Vanessa Mafe-Keane was invited to participate as choreographer in Iranian singer Shirin Madg 's project, Rebirth: Combined art performance. This project integrated singing, music, visual-art, film, dance and is based on the dissident poetry of female Iranian poet, Forough Farrokhzad. The choreographic dance movement focused on simple, lyrical, flowing classical dance forms that also incorporated everyday gestures and actions performed by two Queensland dancers, Caitlin MacKenzie and Abby Johnson. The choreographic intention was not to attempt to re-create Iranian dance practices instead, to draw inspiration and reference specific movement qualities. This was achieved through the subtle inclusion of spinning movements and focusing attention on the dancers’ arms and upper torso. This fusion became an underlying theme reflected throughout the choreographic component. Additionally, this project presented an opportunity to draw on past experiences and problem-solve ways to construct choreographic work where the dancers and the musical assemble group could be staged side by side. This experience highlighted differing approaches to rehearsal protocols within disciplines, the practicalities of staging different artists, understanding musical cues and the diversity of audience engagement. Performances: BEMAC Multicultural Centre, Brisbane 06 February 2015 and Helensvale Cultural Centre, Gold Coast 07 February 2015

After the gold rush: Patent law and biological inventions

In response to scientific breakthroughs in biotechnology, the development of new technologies, and the demands of a hungry capitalist marketplace, patent law has expanded to accommodate a range of biological inventions. There has been much academic and public debate as to whether gene patents have a positive impact upon research and development, health-care, and the protection of the environment. In a satire of prevailing patenting practices, the English poet and part-time casino waitress, Donna MacLean, sought a patent application - GB0000180.0 - in respect of herself. She explained that she had satisfied the usual patent criteria - in that she was novel, inventive, and useful: It has taken 30 years of hard labor for me to discover and invent myself, and now I wish to protect my invention from unauthorized exploitation, genetic or otherwise. I am new: I have led a private existence and I have not made the invention of myself public. I am not obvious (2000: 18). MacLean said she had many industrial applications. ’For example, my genes can be used in medical research to extremely profitable ends - I therefore wish to have sole control of my own genetic material' (2000: 18). She observed in an interview: ’There's a kind of unpleasant, grasping, greedy atmosphere at the moment around the mapping of the human genome ... I wanted to see if a human being could protect their own genes in law' (Meek, 2000). This special issue of Law in Context charts a new era in the long-standing debate over biological inventions. In the wake of the expansion of patentable subject matter, there has been great strain placed upon patent criteria - such as ’novelty', ’inventive step', and ’utility'. Furthermore, there has been a new focus upon legal doctrines which facilitate access to patented inventions - like the defence of experimental use, the ’Bolar' exception, patent pooling, and compulsory licensing. There has been a concerted effort to renew patent law with an infusion of ethical principles dealing with informed consent and benefit sharing. There has also been a backlash against the commercialisation of biological inventions, and a call by some activists for the abolition of patents on genetic inventions. This collection considers a wide range of biological inventions - ranging from micro-organisms, plants and flowers and transgenic animals to genes, express sequence tags, and research tools, as well as genetic diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical drugs. It is thus an important corrective to much policy work, which has been limited in its purview to merely gene patents and biomedical research. This collection compares and contrasts the various approaches of a number of jurisdictions to the legal problems in respect of biological inventions. In particular, it looks at the complexities of the 1998 European Union Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions, as well as decisions of member states, such as the Netherlands, and peripheral states, like Iceland. The edition considers US jurisprudence on patent law and policy, as well as recent developments in Canada. It also focuses upon recent developments in Australia - especially in the wake of parallel policy inquiries into gene patents and access to genetic resources.

Patent law and biological inventions

In response to scientific breakthroughs in biotechnology, the development of new technologies, and the demands of a hungry capitalist marketplace, patent law has expanded to accommodate a range of biological inventions. There has been much academic and public debate as to whether gene patents have a positive impact upon research and development, health-care, and the protection of the environment. In a satire of prevailing patenting practices, the English poet and part-time casino waitress, Donna MacLean, sought a patent application - GB0000180.0 - in respect of herself. She explained that she had satisfied the usual patent criteria - in that she was novel, inventive, and useful: It has taken 30 years of hard labor for me to discover and invent myself, and now I wish to protect my invention from unauthorized exploitation, genetic or otherwise. I am new: I have led a private existence and I have not made the invention of myself public. I am not obvious (2000: 18). MacLean said she had many industrial applications. 'For example, my genes can be used in medical research to extremely profitable ends - I therefore wish to have sole control of my own genetic material' (2000: 18). She observed in an interview: 'There's a kind of unpleasant, grasping, greedy atmosphere at the moment around the mapping of the human genome ... I wanted to see if a human being could protect their own genes in law' (Meek, 2000). This special issue of Law in Context charts a new era in the long-standing debate over biological inventions. In the wake of the expansion of patentable subject matter, there has been great strain placed upon patent criteria - such as 'novelty', 'inventive step', and 'utility'. Furthermore, there has been a new focus upon legal doctrines which facilitate access to patented inventions - like the defence of experimental use, the 'Bolar' exception, patent pooling, and compulsory licensing. There has been a concerted effort to renew patent law with an infusion of ethical principles dealing with informed consent and benefit sharing. There has also been a backlash against the commercialisation of biological inventions, and a call by some activists for the abolition of patents on genetic inventions. This collection considers a wide range of biological inventions - ranging from micro-organisms, plants and flowers and transgenic animals to genes, express sequence tags, and research tools, as well as genetic diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical drugs. It is thus an important corrective to much policy work, which has been limited in its purview to merely gene patents and biomedical research. This collection compares and contrasts the various approaches of a number of jurisdictions to the legal problems in respect of biological inventions. In particular, it looks at the complexities of the 1998 European Union Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions, as well as decisions of member states, such as the Netherlands, and peripheral states, like Iceland. The edition considers US jurisprudence on patent law and policy, as well as recent developments in Canada. It also focuses upon recent developments in Australia - especially in the wake of parallel policy inquiries into gene patents and access to genetic resources.

Roy Kenzie Kiyooka

Roy Kenzie Kiyooka Canadian, born 1926 Roy Kiyooka was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1926. Throughout his career, he was known as a painter, photographer, sculptor, poet, musician, filmmaker and teacher. He studied at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary from 1946-49, and then at the Instituto Allende in Mexico in 1955. During the summers of 1958 - 1960 he attended the Emma Lake Workshops in Saskatchewan, where he worked closely with Barnett Newman and Clement Greenberg. In 1959 he executed his first series of abstract paintings, The Hoarfrost Series, which assume a disciplined minimal quality. In the late 1960's Kiyooka began to push beyond painting and created mixed media works, including collage, photography, film and poetry. Kiyooka’s art is born out of personal experience and through it he records his relationship to the surrounding landscape; a night in a motel, a trip to the coast, or hoarfrost on the trees. Through the unfolding of Kiyooka’s interior/exterior landscapes he shares his personal journeys with us all. The Art Gallery of Ontario's collection of Roy Kiyooka's work began with the purchase of two paintings; Barometer No. 2, in 1964 and Surya, in 1987.