Dirt Babylon

Construction of a school room installation and immersive performance as part of Dirt Babylon Glebe Park (commissioned by Robyn Archer for the Centenary of Canberra) in collaboration with Rebecca Rutter and ex- Splinters artists, November 2013

Shilpa’s filthy hands

The celebrity Big Brother race row centers, in part, on the preparation, handling and consumption of food. While the ritual of formal and informal dining is a key trope of the series, in this instance it is used to construct notions of difference and Otherness. Eating/not eating Indian becomes a symbol of purity and danger: of Shilpa's filthy natural self that somehow lurked beneath her glamorous exterior. If one eats Indian one is consuming the Other, with the potential to be taken over or spoiled by it. Shilpa, then, comes to stand for a complex and contradictory mix of Eastern/Oriental gender stereotypes. However, at the same time, the racialised grammar of representation used to mark her out as Other draws attention to the white bodies attempting to deny her wholeness. In choosing to eat/not eat Indian one opens up a dynamic space for an interrogation of whiteness to emerge. In fact, Jade, Jo, and Danielle become inferior signifiers of national identity in an age of global consumption. By contrast, Shilpa becomes 'surplus value', a supericonic sign that resists the name calling, fetishisation, marginalisation demanded by those on the show. The Big Brother race row may well be a text that directly speaks to the new post-colonial communication flows in place in the contemporary age.

Frequency dependence of ultrasonic wool scouring

Conventional aqueous scouring of greasy wool promotes wool felting and can be energy and water intensive. Ultrasonic wool scouring could be an alternative technology to minimise the negative impact, provided that the cleaning efficiency and fibre quality are not compromised. This study  examined the influence of ultrasonic irradiation frequency and ultrasonic power variations on wool scouring performance at different liquor ratios. Scoured fibre, residual ash content, residual grease content, whiteness and yellowness were evaluated. The impact of liquor degassing on wool scouring effectiveness was studied. Fibre surface damage was also assessed in this work. It was observed that while there was no significant influence of ultrasonic frequency on the whiteness or yellowness of the scoured fibres, wool scoured at frequencies of 28 kHz and 80 kHz had more grease and dirt removed than that scoured at 45 kHz. Low ultrasonic power and degassed bath liquor increased wool grease removal ability. Ultrasonic treatment caused scale cracking/peeling in some wool fibres. More severe cuticle damage was observed in fibres scoured at the lower frequency. This damage resulted in increased dye uptake by the fibres.

Adapting ultrasonic assisted wool scouring for industrial application

Scouring is the first stage of wool processing and is essential for determining the quality of fiber. Traditional aqueous scouring is a method that emulsifies and removes contaminants (such as wool grease, suint, and dirt) from the fiber surface; however, it promotes wool felting and is energy and water intensive. This study has shown that modification of the traditional wool scouring line by introducing an ultrasonic device could be a viable alternative for the wool scouring industry. A standard six-bath wool scouring line was retrofitted with two ultrasonic panels working at 80 kHz in bath 2. Scouring was carried out in three modes: conventional mode without the transport rake, ultrasonic mode without the transport rake, and conventional mode with the transport rake. Fiber samples after scouring were measured for color index, residual grease content, and residual ash content. Ultrasonic scouring was found to improve removal of grease and ash from the wool fiber. Modifications were proposed for the design of an industrial scouring line including the addition of fiber transport and dunking rollers and number of baths for the installation. © The Author(s) 2014.

No photography please

Rather than represent the world merely by photographic means, handmade moving-image artists seek to create new ways of seeing by staging a variety of interventions into the material makeup of celluloid. Handmade artists tattoo film’s skin not only with scratches and paint, but also with blood, dirt, paper, candy, sand, nail polish remover, and seawater. Seeking media not normally found in a filmmaker or artist’s studio, they mine their own bodies and backyards for things to make into moving images.

This program highlights rarely-seen works of artisanal film production from the Coop’s collection. Some of the works are wonderfully constructive, building up the visual surface of the film by combining found footage with painterly abstraction. Others are destructive, subjecting film to a variety of elemental and material stresses. Taken together, these films not only exhibit the diversity of handmade practices and concerns, they also provide a framework for rethinking how cinema can be made through its unmaking.

In other words, handmade cinema—in concept, material, and execution—is counter-cinema.

Maximum power point tracking methods for PV systems

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is an important consideration in photovoltaic (PV) systems. These systems exhibit variable nonlinear current–voltage (I–V) and power–voltage (P–V) characteristics which vary with environmental conditions. The optimum operation of a PV system occurs when the system operates at the unique maximum power point (MPP) for the given environmental conditions. Key environmental conditions include the irradiance on the cell, temperature of the cell and any shading phenomenon. Shading can occur due to objects, dust or dirt and module mismatch arising from damage or manufacturing tolerances. These shading effects introduce further nonlinearity into the I–V and P–V characteristics of the system. An extensive variety of MPPT techniques has been proposed which vary from simple estimation techniques to advanced tracking techniques. In this chapter, the criteria for assessing the performance of MPPT methods are defined followed by a complete description and discussion of both techniques designed for uniform environmental conditions and those designed for nonuniform environmental conditions.