Myopia : why study the mechanisms of myopia? Novel approaches to risk factors Signaling eye growth- how could basic biology be translated into clinical insights? Where are genetic and proteomic approaches leading? How does visual function contribute to an

On July 26–29, 2010 the 13th International Myopia Conference was held in Tübingen, Germany and included 17 separate symposia, each with 3–5 presentations. Here, in a single paper, the chairs of those Symposia describe the scientific advances noted at the conference and include the full abstracts of the individual myopia papers presented in each symposium along with the authors and their institutions. The 17 Symposia covered 7 topics: Why Study the Mechanisms of Myopia?; Novel Approaches to Risk Factors; Signaling Eye Growth- How Could Basic Biology Be Translated into Clinical Insights?; Where Are Genetic and Proteomic Approaches Leading?; How Does Visual Function Contribute to and Interact with Ametropia?; Does Eye Shape Matter?; Why Ametropia at All?

Giving solidity to pure wind: temporising as transformation

Jared Diamond asked the acclaimed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) why Aristotle didn’t come up with the theory of evolution. Mayr’s answer was ‘Frage stellen’ which Diamond translates as ‘a way of asking questions [sic]’ (Byrne 2013). The idea that a particular way-of-asking might generate a particular way-of-knowing and, indeed, a particular branch-of-knowledge, is utterly intriguing, especially when we frame the practice of creative writing in those terms: as a way of asking questions.Drusilla Modjeska unpacks the concept of ‘temporising’ in her article ‘Writing Poppy’ (Modjeska 2002: 75). This discussion invites us to consider the generative capabilities of the temporising space – as an imaginative space for writers, as an alternate way of asking questions … of seeing, being, knowing. In narrative, the questions that underpin the work do not necessarily appear in the surface-content of the text. In this way, the story is a metaphorical representation of the questions that lie beneath. As Aristotle suggests, metaphor relies on ‘an intuitive perception of the similarity [to homoion theorein] in dissimilars’ (Ricoeur 1977: 23). In narrative we contemplate a question, or an idea, within the context of a metaphorical other. This is a form of temporising: of ‘slip[ping] into other time frames’ as a means of ‘retreat[ing] and consider[ing]’ (Modjeska 2002: 75, 76). In narrative time, we consider one thing through an alternate temporal lens. We prevaricate in otherness.Fiction-making represents a very particular way of asking questions. With reference to the process of writing the short story – ‘Everything that matters is silvery white’ – it is clear that ‘making’ narrative is a way of asking questions that is assisted by the transformative temporising space.

Everything that matters is silvery white

When Jared Diamond asked acclaimed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr why Aristotle didn’t come up with the theory of evolution, Mays answered frage stellen or ‘a way of asking questions’ (ABC 2013). The idea that a particular way-of-asking might generate a particular way-of-knowing is applicable to the practice of creative writing. Modjeska unpacks the concept of ‘temporising’ (2002: 75), inviting us to consider the generative possibilities of the temporising space – as an imaginative space for writers – a way of asking questions.Research contributionThis work enacts the concept of temporising at the level of form and content, interrogating the connection between language and imagery, and the work of association and similarity and, following Aristotle, recognises the temporising space as a metaphorical playground. This method of asking questions involves alogical processes of association: supporting Freud’s ‘reciprocal relations’ between dissimilars (1900: 404) and Froeschels’ observation that ‘the subconscious [mind] considers similarity identical with identity’ (qtd. in Mavromatis 1987: 178).Research significanceThis work uses Modjeska’s analysis, and theories of subconscious processes of association, to enact an inquiry in the performative narrative space of the short story. It has been longlisted for the Australian Book Review’s Elizabeth Jolley Prize (2014) and the Séan Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition (Ireland) (2015), and was also a finalist in the Glimmer Train International Fiction Open Contest (USA) (2015).