Trauma and holocaust video testimony : the intersection of history, memory, and judgment in the interview process

This article analyzes video testimonies recorded at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne,Australia, which address the highly complex and sensitive issue of “privileged” Jews. The so-called privileged Jews include prisoners in the Nazi-operated camps and ghettos who held positions that gave them access to material and other benefits, while compelling them to act in ways that have been judged detrimental to fellow inmates. Although the issue of “privileged” Jews has been largely neglected, it relates to a crucial facet of the Holocaust and has vast implications for its aftermath. The ethical dilemmas facing these victims may be closely linked to what Lawrence Langer has termed choiceless choices, which challenge conventional notions of “judgment” and “responsibility.” This problem is also the primary subject of Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s essay titled “The Grey Zone,” which is arguably the most influential essay ever written on the Holocaust. Levi argues that one should abstain from judging individuals who confronted such extreme circumstances, positioning prisoners with “privileged” positions at the threshold of representation and understanding. However, moral evaluations of “privileged” Jews have a strong impact on Holocaust testimonies, whether these were constructed during the war or recorded long after the survivors’ experiences. The examples of video testimonies explored in this article reveal that this is particularly the case when interviewees are former “privileged” Jews and interviewers are themselves Holocaust survivors. The article argues that when confronted with such an emotionally and morally fraught issue, judgment may itself be seen as a “limit of representation.”

Enhancing the creative process for learning in primary technology education

When undertaking design and technology activities, children are provided with opportunities to create solutions to problems in new and innovative ways. The mental processes involved in the generation of new ideas may be enhanced when children’s attention is not focussed and is allowed to wander in a relaxed and uncompetitive environment. Research indicates that the two mental states, generative and non-generative, cannot exist simultaneously. This paper reports on a research project which investigated the impact on children’s thinking when a period of non-focussed thinking became part of the technology process. The results support the previous proposition that a child’s non-generative/analytical mental state needs to give way to a generative state so that a child can be more fully creative. Moreover, from this study that documented children’s ideas during their involvement in a design and technology activity, teachers are urged to provide an incubation period as part of the technological process in the classroom, so that children’s creativity can be fostered.

History, memory, and the politics of programming : the video work of Richard Fung

Richard Fung, a Toronto-based video artist and cultural critic, was born in Trinidad in 1954, and attended school in Ireland before immigrating to Canada to study at the University of Toronto. Richard Fung has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and has been a visiting professor in the Department of Media Study at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He is currently the coordinator of the Centre for Media and Culture in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Strategic thinking and the creative process in event management

This thesis asserts that event management requires strategic and creative thinking. This is necessary to envision alternative approaches in an evolving communications landscape. Using a rich, qualitative analysis with one major case study, the conclusion is that events must shift from an operationally led to a strategically informed creative process.

Improvisation in visual art practice using a photographic process

In this article I discuss how I have come to understand embodied processes in my visual art practice using photography. I danced professionally for 25 years and performed in various contexts including classical ballet repertoire, contemporary dance, and commercial dance. I choreographed for various productions working with a group of dancers for seven years before studying visual art. I experienced a particular sense of embodiment as a live performer in which prescribed movements were learnt, performed and repeated as if second nature. Transitioning into a conceptually based visual art practice the creative process was flipped around. Using painting, sculpture, performance (in a different context) and photographic methods I explored ideas from which forms such as video/audio installations, photography, performance art and painting emerged mostly in a gallery context. Although I still think of forms of movement as content, in a visual art practise the idea or concept invokes form.

Pragmatic dramaturgy: the creative management of limits in performance-making processes.

This thesis proposes the lens of pragmatic dramaturgy as a way of understanding the complex interactions between process and performance that define theatre practice, and investigates the ways in which performance making practice is shaped by encounters with a range of limits that impact the creative process.

The artist and the computer : understanding the creative user

This paper is focused on understanding the creative computer user for the purposes of informing the design of future creativity support systems and related software. We present an investigation of a successful Australian artist, Jill Lewis, who paints on canvas. In particular, we highlight the interesting part that existing digital technology plays in her creative practice, and we identify and describe in detail two specific uses of this technology. We terml these uses "electronic collaging" and "media switching". We go on to attempt to relate this artist's creative process to two theoretical models of the creative process.

Sublime : process and mediation

The research challenged traditional notions of the transcendental sublime by identifying the material basis of the experience through the practice of painting. Material interaction within the creative process revealed new insights, illuminated through the sublime experience. The sublime was indicated as a materially-based, generative experience mediating between subject and world.

Memory and heritage

The thesis looks at how people use memory and heritage to construct their identity. The conclusion is that memory, heritage and identity are fluid and their construction is dependent on socio-politico-economic circumstances. The thesis therefore calls for the involvement of local stakeholders in the interpretation of heritage places.

Sublime: process and mediation

The Sublime: Process and Mediation expounds on the concept of a 'Material Sublime' as relevant to the development of artistic practice. The author maintains that the creative process is generative, highlighting the connection between nature, the body, and latent forms of knowledge as revealed through material interaction significant in the activity of painting.  She argues for a co-emergence maintaining the sublime experience traverses a liminal space wherein binary oppositions such as the distinction between mind and matter are negotiated.   

Embodying provenance

An interview with choreographer Russell Dumas discussing his dance practice and his work with dancers in the context of the European-Australian dance politics and culture.

Choreography, or framed kinaesthetics

This catalogue essay defines, for a visual art audience, the notion of choreography in dance with an emphasis on modern dance. Intersections with and differences between historical approached to dance-making and approaches in the visual arts are discussed.

Creative architectural design with children: a collaborative design project informed by Rhodes's theory

Since the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, there has been global consensus that children need to be involved in the planning and design of their environment. There exist various international initiatives that support collaborative design with children, with co-design projects conducted in different areas of the world. Evolving from the global context of co-design, this project explores creativity in relation to architectural design with children. Between October and December 2011, a team of architecture students from Deakin University worked with children from Roslyn Primary School (both institutions located in Victoria, Australia) to design a playground structure. Informed by Rhodes’s (1961) theory, creativity in this co-design project was addressed through the four dimensions of creative designers, creative context, creative process, and creative design outcomes. The findings of this study corroborate Rhodes’s theory of creativity, and suggest that it is useful to engender creative architectural design with children.

Seven seas of memory

Seven Seas of Memory, in partnership with Lembrança Productions and in collaboration with Australian Unity Aged Care Facilities. Artist residency 15 July – 15 September with Performances on 15/9/2015 at Victoria Grange Vermont South