Heritagescaping and the aesthetics of refuge: challenges to urban sustainability

The year 2012 marked the fortieth anniversary of UNESCO&rsquo;s Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, or World Heritage <br />Convention. Regarded by many as a hugely successful project, World Heritage has <br />provided a framework for safeguarding a wide array of historic built environments. <br />The choice of &ldquo;sustainable development and the role of communities&rdquo; as the theme of <br />the fortieth anniversary was, however, recognition of the significant problems and <br />challenges this arena of cultural and spatial governance has created for those living in <br />and around listed sites. Cities have proved particularly challenging, and resistant to <br />prescriptive modeling at the level of international policy. Evictions, punitive <br />legislation, rising living costs, and loss of community are the now familiar by���products of worldheritage that continue to go undocumented and ignored.<br />Against this backdrop, this chapter traces recent developments and trends surrounding urban heritage conservation, highlighting recent turns towards community���driven approaches and discourses of sustainability. It then raises the issue of gentrification, with a particular focus on where such problems take on critical importance: small���scale urban environments. Focusing on Galle in Sri Lanka, the final part of the chapter explores the emergence of a form of &ldquo;heritagescaping&rdquo; oriented by an aesthetics of solitude, tran-quility, and quiet comfort. In offering a contribution towards debates around urban sustainability and the role of heritage therein, it is argued that such processes present significant obstacles to the development of more community���based, culturally sustainable forms of heritage conservation.

"The whole reflected world shuddering": active aesthetics and contemporary Australian poetry

This article maps the landscape of contemporary Australian poetry, arguing that that we are witnessing a paradigmatic shift that now accommodates ancient storytelling and cultures alongside emergent poetic forms and communities. It considers how contemporary poems reflect key cultural movements while themselves enacting a movement towards new forms of knowing.

Mechanical behavior of irregular fibers part III : the flexural buckling behavior

Fiber buckling behavior is associated with fabric-evoked prickle, which affects clothing comfort and aesthetics. In this paper, the flexural buckling behavior of irregular or nonuniform fibers is studied using the finite element method (FEM). Fiber dimensional irregularities are simulated with sine waves of different magnitude, frequency, and initial phase. The critical buckling loads of the simulated fibers are then calculated from the FE model. The results indicate that increasing the level of irregularity will decrease the critical buckling load of fibers, but the effect of the frequency and initial phase of irregularity on fiber buckling behavior is complicated and is affected by fiber diameter and effective length.

Depression and its expression : art as problem solver

This workshop will focus on the ways in which ollr Journal Double Dialogues dealt with the question of the 'Anatomy of Pain'. In this workshop, by a process of demonstration and interaction, we will look at the theme of the representation of pain and engage with the ways in which different disciplines (psychological. visual, performative, philosophical. aesthetic and literary) explored this question. Emphasis will be given to the 'double dialogue' nature of the discourse in which practitioners of the arts have found a 'language' from aesthetics, history, theory, and philosophy that has succeeded in establishing a dialogue between the art-work and the discourse that might spring from the work itself or provide a relevant context. This session will draw on the e.xpertise of the audience for discussions and experiment within the Double Dialogue model.<br />

Crafting organization

The recent shift in attention away from organization studies as science has allowed for consideration of new ways of thinking about both organization and organizing and has led to several recent attempts to 'bring down' organizational theorizing. In this paper, we extend calls for organization to be represented as a creative process by considering organization as craft. Organizational craft, we argue, is attractive, accessible, malleable, reproducible, and marketable. It is also a tangible way of considering organization studies with irreverence. We draw on the hierarchy of distinctions among fine art, decorative art, and craft to suggest that understanding the organization of craft assists in complicating our understanding of marginality. We illustrate our argument by drawing on the case of a contemporary Australian craftworks and marketplace known initially as the Meat Market Craft Centre ('MMCC') and then, until its recent closure, as Metro! &Dagger; Stella Minahan was a board member and then the Chief Executive Officer of the Metro! Craft Centre.<br />

Haptics mouse for visually impaired

The research presented draws from the disciplines of electronics, mechanical engineering, biological sciences and aesthetics to create a handheld tactile mouse which can be used to aid data perception for visually impaired individuals. Visual information is presented to the user by means of small tactile array housed in a modified computer mouse. Varying frequencies of vibrations can represent a number of onscreen environmental changes, such as changes in colour, light intensity or the numerical values. The device is designed to operate either as an assisting tool which operates in conjunction with other interfacing aids, or as a stand alone system with a reduced function set.<br />

The square from inside out: Federation Square, Melbourne

This XXlst Annual Conference of SAHANZ offers a timely opportunity for celebrating and critically reflecting on Federation Square, Melbourne - a project that continually crosses the line between the purely experimental and the built form (A Benjamin, 2003) and offers an opportunity to identify and investigate the different, often competing, limits within the discipline of architecture. Here in this project, considered by the city of Melbourne to point to its future aspirations; and by the RAIA as demonstrating 'the strength of design and the leap into the unknown which is where good design always comes from' (I McDougall, 2003), different approaches to the possibilities of 'limit' as a contemporary concern can be fruitfully explored. Architectural masterpieces are daringly imaginative and each in their own way challenges architects, engineers, builders and technologists - those who are to realise the dream - and makes administrators, politicians and governments put their credibility on the line. So how does Federation Square contribute to contemporary architectural debate, specifically to Melbourne architecture? How has it dealt with thresholds? Where has It approached, crossed and/or exceeded boundaries? This paper will deal with design aesthetics in the realisation of the Lab architects 'vision' in the context of historical, urban and political realities. Analysis will provide insights into the limitations imposed upon this architectural project and the limitations it now, in turn, imposes on the city. Two aspects will be dealt with: understanding Lab's overall vision, and juxtaposing the vision with the reality of Federation Square. The author's interview with Don Bates, principal Lab architecture studio, forms the frame argument about Federation Square in this paper.<br />

Teacher and peer assessment of creativity in technology education

This study, part of a PhD thesis, investigates a number of aspects relating to technology education, creativity and the assessment of creativity and aesthetics. Following tuitional sessions, panels of upper primary school children were involved in assessing the creative and aesthetic characteristics of technological products made by other children. Teachers assessed a selection of student drawings for creativity and these results were compared against the corresponding products assessed by the panels of Year 5 children. Subjects were administered a test on their knowledge of technology and these scores were compared to product creativity scores. The results showed high correlations between the assessor ranks for both creativity and aesthetics although there was generally more consistency with creativity. While some subjects produced both creative drawings and products, others showed creativity in only one outcome. A further finding of the investigation identified the relationship between students' knowledge of technology and the creative product constructed by the older children in the study.<br />

Organization, decoration

While organizational decoration has been of interest to those who study organizational artefacts, we suggest four ways in which decoration is worthy of fuller attention in organizational studies. First, decoration, ornament and embellishment are not only what we see, but also what we do as managers, consultants, writers and designers of both physical and project spaces. Second, and drawing on the art/craft debate, we note that decoration occupies contested and even liminal aesthetic position and that &lsquo;decorative art&rsquo; lies betwixt and between fine art and craft. Neither fully accepted nor fully marginalized, decoration is &lsquo;only applied&rsquo; and embodies shifting tensions between form and function. Third, we review the particular negotiations of these tensions at the Bauhaus, a controversial and highly influential aesthetic organization in early 20th century Germany. Fourth, we suggest that decoration, like disorganization, provides a source of complication for organizational studies that are neither pure nor parsimonious.<br />

Organizational decoration : a new metaphor for organization development

The authors call for the introduction of a new metaphor, organizational decoration, to provide a way of conceiving organizational development (OD) as an aesthetic endeavor. First, this is a response to recent calls for fresh and more interdisciplinary approaches to thinking about the practice of OD. Second, it is a provocation, for their choice of decoration is also a call for greater humility in OD&rsquo;s ambitions. Rather than seek a more strategic or architectural role for OD, organizational decoration works instead at the surface and in the realm of the aesthetic. And within that realm the authors have deliberately chosen decoration over design (a term far more familiar to OD) because decoration more closely represents the ordinary and often temporary contributions that the authors advocate. Implications of moving OD down-market are discussed.<br />

It's the e-thing : World of Warcraft meets Coke in China

The increasing sophistication of online computer games &ndash; entrancing aesthetics, challenge, and the promise of sociality and community &ndash; make them a compelling world for many players, locally and internationally. Games like 'World of Warcraft' provide a complex and satisfying universe where mythically imbued narratives, rules and mores provide a context for players to take on heroic or playful roles. Players can explore identities, create friendships and relationships, and establish a complete and separate space where trust and danger coexist, in ways experienced as both fantastic and safe. Yet such worlds are not value free, nor separated from &lsquo;real&rsquo; life. Ideologies implicit in the game (through its narrative roles and architecture, mythic references and occasions for decision making and action) prestructure choices about character building, orientations and allegiances amongst players, and drive towards particular sets of values and moralities. These features, plus the huge numbers of players worldwide, mean that massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) provide a seductive but largely untapped market to the advertising industry. What is happening with convergences of this kind? And what do they mean for young players of computer games, particularly massively multiplayer and other online games, where communal play, distributed knowledge networks, and relationships, establish strong bonds and allegiances within the game, with cross-overs between on and offline values, identities and community.<br />

Personal, social and environmental determinants of educational inequalities in walking: a multilevel study

<b>Objective:</b> To investigate the contribution of personal, social and environmental factors to mediating socioeconomic (educational) inequalities in women&rsquo;s leisure-time walking and walking for transport. <br /><b>Methods:</b> A community sample of 1282 women provided survey data on walking for leisure and transport; educational level; enjoyment of, and self-efficacy for, walking; physical activity barriers and intentions; social support for physical activity; sporting/recreational club membership; dog ownership; and perceived environmental aesthetics and safety. These data were linked with objective environmental data on the density of public open space and walking tracks in the women&rsquo;s local neighbourhood, coastal proximity and street connectivity. <br /><b>Results:</b> Multilevel modelling showed that different personal, social and environmental factors were associated with walking for leisure and walking for transport. Variables from all three domains explained (mediated) educational inequalities in leisure-time walking, including neighbourhood walking tracks; coastal proximity; friends&rsquo; social support; dog ownership; self-efficacy, enjoyment and intentions. On the other hand, few of the variables examined explained educational variations in walking for transport, exceptions being neighbourhood, coastal proximity, street connectivity and social support from family. <br /><b>Conclusions:</b> Public health initiatives aimed at promoting, and reducing educational inequalities in, leisure-time walking should incorporate a focus on environmental strategies, such as advocating for neighbourhood walking tracks, as well as personal and social factors. Further investigation is required to better understand the pathways by which education might influence walking for transport. <br />

Lifecycle environmental impact and cost analyses of steel bridge piers with seismic risk

Lifecycle approaches have found their wide applications in analyzing, evaluating and assessing technologies and management methods in the infrastructure systems. While environmental problems such as global warming have become a serious issue in the world, researchers and practicing engineers in civil engineering have to pay attention to environmental impacts as well as function, safety, cost and aesthetics in the<br />whole lifecycle of civil infrastructures. In addition to the normal lifecycle activities accompanied with operation and aging, the effects of natural hazards such as earthquakes with a low occurrence probability but a high<br />hazard loss require a full consideration in determining both lifecycle cost and lifecycle environmental impact. In this research, an approach is proposed to predetermine the lifecycle environmental impact and costs of bridges from their construction and maintenance as well as the losses and recovery after natural hazards. Based on this research, it becomes possible to quantitatively outline the roles of bridge construction, maintenance and earthquake in both environmental impact and cost in the whole lifetime of a bridge, especially their constituent parts from seismic losses and recoveries.

Perceived environment attributes, residential locaction, and walking for particular purposes

<b>Background</b><br />Identifying environmental factors that can influence physical activity is a public health priority. We examined associations of perceived environmental attributes with walking for four different purposes: general neighborhood walking, walking for exercise, walking for pleasure, and walking to get to and from places.<br /><br /><b>Methods</b><br />Participants (n =399; 57% women) were surveyed by mail. They reported place of residence, walking behaviors, and perceptions of neighborhood environmental attributes.<br /><br /><b>Results</b><br />Men with the most positive perceptions of neighborhood &ldquo;aesthetics&rdquo; were significantly more likely (odds ratio [OR]=7.4) to be in the highest category of neighborhood walking. Men who perceived the weather as not inhibiting their walking were much more likely (OR=4.7) to be high exercise walkers. Women who perceived the weather as not inhibiting their walking were significantly more likely to be high neighborhood walkers (OR=3.8) and those with moderate perceptions of &ldquo;accessibility&rdquo; were much more likely to do more walking for pleasure (OR=3.5).<br /><br /><b>Conclusions</b><br />Different environmental attributes were associated with different types of walking and these differed between men and women. Approaches to increasing physical activity might usefully focus on those attributes of the local environment that might influence particular subsets of walking behavior.<br />