Modern dance, domestic life and civil society

In her book The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt (2000) Seyla Benhabib uses the concept of an ‘alternative genealogy of modernity’ to help her both to understand Arendt’s political philosophy and to rethink the potential for civil society to become a progressive political force at the beginning of the twenty first century. The idea of an alternative genealogy of modernity refers to a heterogeneity of social and political forms, spaces and acts that might be used to remap and redefine a modernity whose dominant topology has been shaped by the binary division between so-called public and private spheres. Alternative modernities have already been elaborated and explored from a range of different perspectives including feminist and postcolonial ones: for example, in Rita Felski’s Gender of Modernity (1995) and Dipesh Chakrabarty’s Provincialising Europe (2000). In this paper I want to elaborate upon the idea of an alternative genealogy of modernity from my perspective as a dancer. Thinking through the sociality of art and, more specifically, of some historical dance-making practices can make visible alternative spaces and processes of the (potentially) political. In the West, the modes of art-making form part of an as yet not fully explored arena of the social and of social practices. Modernist and Romantic ideologies have tended to preclude attention to the specific sociabilities of art-making. On the one hand Modernist ideology and art discourses have promoted the idea of an art work’s ‘autonomy’: its radical separation from the social relationships, the bodies and the conditions of its making. On the other hand Romantic ideology, still pervasive in popular conceptions of art practices, construes creation as interiority and individualistic expression. Socialist feminist and Marxist discussions of art have emphasized the social conditions of art-making but these have tended to be concerned with the social inequalities instituted within the public/private split rather than seeking to destabilize that division itself by posing questions of differences within the social. In my discussion below I draw on aspects of early modern dance practice and creation in taking up Benhabib’s concern to mobilise an alternative genealogy of modernity towards a renewal and reactivation of civic life. This project involves unsettling clear distinctions between the so-called ‘public’ and ‘private’ but, at the same time, as Benhabib cautions ‘the binarity of public and private spheres must be reconstructed and not merely rejected’. (2000:2006)

Flushing away professionalism : is it unsustainable?

Recently, a family was denied the right to subdivide their four-hectare property on the outskirts of Melbourne, Victoria into nine residential allotments ranging in size from 4000 m2 to 6600 m2. Unsuccessful applications and approaches in the past, prior to our commissioning in late 2003, had been rejected on the basis of assessments of poor land capability, onerous wet weather storage requirements and a curious 60 m buffer from a nearby intermittent watercourse. Restriction on the type of interim wastewater systems deemed suitable for five allotments was also a major issue. The site did not have mains power and had no sewer connections. The water authority and Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (V CAT) order, prior to commissioning of the authors, asserted that "reticulated sewer is the preferred infrastructure for the area under investigation". However, the requirements imposed followed the letter of the guidelines rather than the principles. Various professional reports had already been produced on behalf of both the client and the regulator. A review of these indicated that the project had not been assessed in accordance with standard practices, had unusually restrictive assumptions, and did not accord with government policies on ecologically sustainable development.
The paper highlights the importance of sustaining professional and ethical practices to avoid costly litigation. Some professionals may have been in breach of the Institution of Engineers' Code of Ethics; others may have been in need of professional development. The question also arises whether the regulator had sought to use these adverse reports in order to satisfy unrelated planning issues.
While the writers managed to succeed in convincing the VCAT that these restrictions were unnecessary, the client ultimately had to comply with the regulator's wishes because of financial pressures. This unnecessary regimentation raises the issue of how best to safeguard lay people of moderate means against the practices of professional people who know or should know better.

The cost of housing : more than just dollars

Australians were recently awarded the dubious honour of building the largest homes in the world. Our new homes are now seven percent larger than those in the United States and nearly three times larger than those in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the price of an average residential property is now five times what it was 20 years ago. Although incomes have risen over the same period, they have not kept pace with rising house prices. In terms of disposable income, the cost of housing has almost doubled. While traditional housing affordability is measured in terms of house prices and incomes, a broader and more encompassing perspective also indicates that we can no longer ‘afford’ to build houses as we have done in the past. The environmental impact of modern Australian housing is significant. Australians have resisted the need for increased urban density as their capital city populations grow and new houses have been built on the outskirts of the existing cities, encroaching on the greenwedge and agricultural lands, destroying and degrading existing fauna and flora. The houses built have increased carbon emissions because of their size, embodied energy and reliance on the motor car. This paper discusses the environmental ‘affordability’ of current Australian housing and argues that this must be considered alongside traditional affordability criteria so that a more holistic approach to the issues is adopted.

‘Stanley Schupak doesn’t live here anymore’: un/becoming transsexual and coming home in Duncan Tucker’s Transamerica

This article analyses the representation of male-to-female transsexuality as represented in Duncan Tucker's film Transamerica (2005). Using a combination of transgender theory and textual analysis this article argues that there is a normativising agenda in this film that makes transsexuality pallatable for non-transgender (or cisgender) audiences by aligning it with idealised (and conservative) conventions in Western culture for women, those of motherhood, heterosexuality, and family-centricity.

Intra urban air temperature distributions in historic urban center

The study investigates the urban heat island effect in Malaysian historic town Malacca through seven mobile traverses, as carried out on 10 December 2011. It aims to identify the intra-urban air temperature differences between heritage core zone, new development area and outskirts of the city. Air temperature variations were also analyzed across three different zones; namely the outskirts, the heritage site and the city center district. Heat index values were then calculated based on air temperature and relative humidity to gauge the level of outdoor thermal comfort within the study area. Based on the indications, one may conclude that the heritage place’s core zone is currently threatened by escalating temperatures and that its current temperature range falls within the “caution” and “extreme caution” categories. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between the peak temperatures of the old city quarters and newer areas; despite the disparities in their urban forms. Therefore, it is hoped that the study, with its implications, will be able to influence future environmental consideration in heritage city of Melaka.

From the inside to the outside. Architecture Venice Biennales 2014 and 2016

The comparison between the Position Statements of the latest two Venice Biennale of Architecture, Fundamentals, directed by Rem Koolhaas in 2014 and Reporting from the front that Alejandro Aravena prepares for 2016, is an evident sign of the internal stress that architectural practice has been suffering during the last decade. Koolhaas intensively focused on the immediate past whilst Aravena presents a Biennalle strongly decided to explore possible alternatives for the future of Architecture. The first one tried to define the core, theessence, the most elemental particles that utterly compose Architecture. The second looks at the boundaries, the periphery, the outskirts, the limits of the discipline. Fundamentals was theoretical, personal, abstract, compact and aesthetic. Reporting from the front will be practical, collective, concrete, permeable and ethical. This fertile antagonism or counterpoint between both approaches is too frequently understood as incompatible. However, as a matter of fact the coexistence of these two different perspectives within architectural practice is the mostdistinctive feature of the complex contemporary architectural landscape. The insertion of the analysis of both position statements within the historical evolution of the Venice Bienale since 1980, allows a reinterpretation of the antagonism between the two exhibitions and evidences some lines of thought and action in the architectural world. Following the war industry terminology that Report from the front has chosen, Aravena identifies with precision the theatre of operations; the space and time that is requesting an urgent response from architecture.Previously Koolhaas had defined the armament that Architecture has available to undertake this crucial mission: to define the role and relevance of Architecture in the immediate future. Until now, battles in the front have been a guerrilla warfare. More reactive than proactive. Battles for survival more than for experience. Necessary but, at the same time, insufficient. Valuable actions in radical contexts; heroic acts in extreme situations; occasional infiltrations that find their final reason for being in their own audacity. Time has come for these counterattackarchitectures to evolve from protests to proposals.