Imagined terrain: literary nomadism in Venice and the Veneto

Many poets and writers have used Venice and, to a lesser extent, the Veneto as a creative topos. There is both the writing that might be said to belong to the Italian/Venetian literary tradition, as well as the non-Italian tradition of writing Venice, a phenomenon that spans English literature, in particular, from William Shakespeare’s time, to the Romantic period and into the present day. This paper explores my relationship to this creative topos and the writers and writing that are associated with it. In particular, it focuses on the notion of literary nomadism: a method for interacting with the literature of Venice and the Veneto that allows me to find intersections between my own work and that which already exists in a broad historical and literary terrain. Moving between and across the literatures of this region, I argue that it is possible to find multiple points of reference that guide and inform my own poetic responses to it, and which reflect my own subjective nomadism and in-between-ness. By taking such an approach I am able to map my hybrid, transnational and transcultural identity into this space, in order to locate myself—and my writing—in the ‘imagined terrain’ I have chosen as a creative topos.

A physarum-inspired vacant-particle model with shrinkage for transport network design

Physarum can form a higher efficient and stronger robust network in the processing of foraging. The vacant-particle model with shrinkage (VP-S model), which captures the relationship between the movement of Physarum and the process of network formation, can construct a network with a good balance between exploration and exploitation. In this paper, the VP-S model is applied to design a transport network. We compare the performance of the network designed based on the VP-S model with the real-world transport network in terms of average path length, network efficiency and topology robustness. Experimental results show that the network designed based on the VP-S model has better performance than the real-world transport network in all measurements. Our study indicates that the Physarum-inspired model can provide useful suggestions to the real-world transport network design.

Evaluating temporal changes in hydraulic conductivities near karst-terrain dams: Dokan Dam (Kurdistan-Iraq)

Dam sites provide an outstanding opportunity to explore dynamic changes in the groundwater flow regime because of the high hydraulic gradient rapidly induced in their surroundings. This paper investigates the temporal changes of the hydraulic conductivities of the rocks and engineered structures via a thorough analysis of hydrological data collected at the Dokam Dam, Iraq, and a numerical model that simulates the Darcian component of the seepage. Analysis of the data indicates increased seepage with time and suggests that the hydraulic conductivity of the rocks increased as the conductivity of the grout curtain decreased. Conductivity changes on the order of 10-8m/s, in a 20-yr period were quantified using the numerical analysis. It is postulated that the changes in hydraulic properties in the vicinity of Dokan Dam are due to suspension of fine materials, interbedded in small fissures in the rocks, and re-settlement of these materials along the curtain. Consequently, the importance of the grout curtain to minimize the downstream seepage, not only as a result of the conductivity contrast with the rocks, but also as a barrier to suspended clay sediments, is demonstrated. The numerical analysis also helped us to estimate the proportion of the disconnected karstic conduit flow to the overall flow.

Power to the virtuous? Civic culture in the changing digital terrain

Much scholarship laments a decline in civic participation and community social capital in a changing media world. But the concept of “civicness” remains important to functioning societies across the globe. This research borrows from the cultural turn in studies of media, communication and citizenship to examine civic as culture, anchored in the practices and symbolic milieu of everyday life. As its theoretical entry point, this research paper positions civic as virtue. Drawing on scholars from Aristotle to Pierre Bourdieu, civic virtue may be understood as a perceived moral obligation to serve the common good, especially the interests of a “community” in which individuals and/or groups are connected. In particular, the research extends Bourdieu's ideas to consider news media as a powerful institution alongside the state that may claim monopoly over the manipulation of civic virtue under certain social conditions. Civic virtue offers much in discussions about media power in the digital age and its relationship to the future viability and legitimacy of news media. The research draws on exemplars from a study into digitally mediated civic participation in a rural/regional Australian context to position certain local media as “keepers” and “conferrers” of civic virtue in the social settings they serve.

Corners, squares and urban identities: perceptions, attitudes and values

In February 2000, the new Victorian Labor Government announced that they were removing the western shard from Lab Architecture Studio's winning Melbourne Federation Square design. then under construction. The specific 'contested terrain' at the intersection of Flinders Street and Swanston Street Walk. Melbourne, allows the exploration of the politics of place construction over time, through an examination of Young and Jackson's Hotel [1861]. St Paul's Cathedral [1886). Flinders Street Station [1912]. the Westin Hotel [1999) and Federation Square. This site brings together architectural and social history, questions public space and identity, and looks at Melburnian's perceptions, attitudes and values. It further demonstrates that the fragmentation of the professions, and fragmentary histories. lead to the preservation of 'bits' of architecture and the destruction of the urban/landscape context, jeopardizing the Identity of place.

Cultural orienteering: a map for Anthony Browne`s into the forest

Bullen and Parsons identify Anthony Browne's picture book Into the Forest as a re-gendered retelling of 'Little Red Riding Hood' that expresses recent assumptions about childhood, risk and the resources children need to survive in today's world. In Browne's version, the forest is the terrain in which a young male protagonist imaginatively explores his anxiety about his father's unexplained absence.