Embodying multiplicity : the independent dancer's moving identity

In this article, I argue for an acknowledgement of the significance of the dancer’s role in the creation of independent contemporary dance. I propose the term ‘moving identity’ to outline the independent contemporary dancer’s ‘way of moving’ which could be perceived as the accumulation of various factors including training approaches, choreographic movement traces and anatomical structures. The concept of the moving identity allows us to appreciate the dancer’s unique signature movement style as the collation of embodied experiences into a unique way of moving. However, the moving identity is also open to change when the dancer encounters new choreography and the choreographer. Professional dance training produces particular types of dancers, depending on the techniques with which they engage. I demonstrate how the independent contemporary dancer troubles this distinctiveness by engaging with a multitude of movement styles and approaches throughout a career. This leads me to a fresh description of the dancer’s activity through the lens of Deleuzean concepts of multiplicity and de-stratification. Finally, I propose a definition of the dancer as a fluid and mutable body-in-flux with the creative potential to significantly influence the outcome of the choreographic process.

Unmasking workshop ecology in applied performance

This practice-led research enquiry identifies, develops and illustrates workshop ecology in Applied Performance. It explores how Applied Performance forms are applied in and transformed through action in two distinct community-learning settings. The research is undertaken in two performance sites. The first, involving an executive leadership program addressing complex project management for Australia's Defence Materiel Organisation in Canberra, Australia. The second, a sexual health, HIV and AIDS education program to raise awareness and encourage the prevention of transmission of sexual diseases within Karkar Island, Papua New Guinea. The research strategies draw upon a mixed method approach involving practice-led research participant observation. The findings from each performance site show how the workshop ecology shapes and transforms performance forms as they are applied and influences the degree to which they are effective. It is anticipated that the findings from this research will assist Applied Performance practitioners to more carefully consider workshop ecology in the design and delivery of Applied Performances.

Intercultural dance : exploring a Finnish migrant connection with indigenous cultures through dance

This research is a dance-based, autoethnographic study which explores my connection with place as a Savolainen woman born on Kalkadoon country; an Australian-born Finn. Edward Relph states 'the more profoundly inside a place the person feels, the stronger will be his or her identity with that place' (1976, 49). I am interested in how a sense of "place identity" has informed my choreographic practice. Autoethnography is important because it places the research within a lived experience: my insider account of a lived experience within the White Australia Policy through my lens as a first generation Australian-born Finn. It also speaks to the space in-between for those, like me, who feel they do not fit into mainstream identity but look like they do. By exploring my lived experience through dance autoethnography, new understandings of my place identity within a cultural, social and political context have emerged. Ellis and Flaherty state ‘subjectivity is situated such that the voices in our heads and the feelings in our bodies are linked to political, cultural, and historical contexts’ (1992, 4). In order to begin my rehearsal process, I wanted a cultural framework which related to connection with land to guide the research. My investigations led me to the Maori examples of "Tikanga Maori" (Tikanga are the customs and traditions), in particular the "Pepeha" (Introduction) and allowed me to challenge my choreographic practice through this cultural framework.

Imagining neighbourhood-based community : an autoethnography

This research is an autoethnographic investigation of consumption experiences, public and quasi-public spaces, and their relationship to community within an inner city neighbourhood. The research specifically focuses on the gentrifying inner city, where class-based processes of change can have implications for people’s abilities to remain within, or feel connected to place. However, the thesis draws on broader theories of the throwntogetherness of the contemporary city (e.g., Amin and Thrift, 2002; Massey 2005) to argue that the city is a space where place-based meanings cannot be seen to be fixed, and are instead better understood as events of place – based on ever shifting interrelations between the trajectories of people and things. This perspective argues the experience of belonging to community is not just born of a social encounter, but also draws on the physical and symbolic elements of the context in which it is situated. The thesis particularly explores the ways people construct identifications within this shifting urban environment. As such, consumption practices and spaces offer one important lens through which to explore the interplay of the physical, social and symbolic. Consumer research tells us that consumption practices can facilitate experiences in which identity-defining meaning can be generated and shared. Consumption spaces can also support different kinds of collective identification – as anchoring realms for specific cultural groups or exposure realms that enable individuals to share in the identification practices of others with limited risk (Aubert-Gamet & Cova, 1999). Furthermore, the consumption-based lifestyles that gentrifying inner city neighbourhoods both support and encourage can also mean that consumption practices may be a key reason that people are moving through public space. That is, consumption practices and spaces may provide a purpose for which – and spatial frame against which – our everyday interactions and connections with people and objects are undertaken within such neighbourhoods. The purpose of this investigation then was to delve into the subjectivities at the heart of identifying with places, using the lens of our consumption-based experiences within them. The enquiry describes individual and collective identifications and emotional connections, and explores how these arise within and through our experiences within public and quasi-public spaces. It then theorises these ‘imaginings’ as representative of an experience of community. To do so, it draws on theories of imagination and its relation to community. Theories of imagined community remind us that both the values and identities of community are held together by projections that create relational links out of objects and shared practices (e.g., Benedict Anderson, 2006; Urry, 2000). Drawing on broader theories of the processes of the imagination, this thesis suggests that an interplay between reflexivity and fantasy – which are products of the critical and the fascinated consciousness – plays a role in this imagining of community (e.g., Brann, 1991; Ricoeur, 1994). This thesis therefore seeks to explore how these processes of imagining are implicated within the construction of an experience of belonging to neighbourhood-based community through consumption practices and the public and quasi-public spaces that frame them. The key question of this thesis is how do an individual’s consumption practices work to construct an imagined presence of neighbourhood-based community? Given the focus on public and quasi-public spaces and our experiences within them, the research also asked how do experiences in the public and quasi-public spaces that frame these practices contribute to the construction of this imagined presence? This investigation of imagining community through consumption practices is based on my own experiences of moving to, and attempting to construct community connections within, an inner city neighbourhood in Melbourne, Australia. To do so, I adopted autoethnographic methodology. This is because autoethnography provides the methodological tools through which one can explore and make visible the subjectivities inherent within the lived experiences of interest to the thesis (Ellis, 2004). I describe imagining community through consumption as an extension of a placebased self. This self is manifest through personal identification in consumption spaces that operate as anchoring realms for specific cultural groups, as well as through a broader imagining of spaces, people, and practices as connected through experiences within realms of exposure. However, this is a process that oscillates through cycles of identification; these anchor one within place personally, but also disrupt those attachments. This instability can force one to question the orientation and motives of these imaginings, and reframe them according to different spaces and reference groups in ways that can also work to construct a more anonymous and, conversely, more achievable collective identification. All the while, the ‘I’ at the heart of this identification is in an ongoing process of negotiation, and similarly, the imagined community is never complete. That is, imagining community is a negotiation, with people and spaces – but mostly with the different identifications of the self. This thesis has been undertaken by publication, and thus the process of imagining community is explored and described through four papers. Of these, the first two focus on specific types of consumption spaces – a bar and a shopping centre – and consider the ways that anchoring and exposure within these spaces support the process of imagining community. The third paper examines the ways that the public and quasi-public spaces that make up the broader neighbourhood context are themselves throwntogether as a realm of exposure, and considers the ways this shapes my imaginings of this neighbourhood as community. The final paper develops a theory of imagined community, as a process of comparison and contrast with imagined others, to provide a summative conceptualisation of the first three papers. The first paper, chapter five, explores this process of comparison and contrast in relation to authenticity, which in itself is a subjective assessment of identity. This chapter was written as a direct response to the recent work of Zukin (2010), and draws on theories of authenticity as applied to personal and collective identification practices by consumer researchers Arnould and Price (2000). In this chapter, I describe how my assessments of the authenticity of my anchoring experiences within one specific consumption space, a neighbourhood bar, are evaluated in comparison to my observations of and affective reactions to the social practices of another group of residents in a different consumption space, the local shopping centre. Chapter five also provides an overview of the key sites and experiences that are considered in more detail in the following two chapters. In chapter six, I again draw on my experiences within the bar introduced in chapter five, this time to explore the process of developing a regular identity within a specific consumption space. Addressing the popular theory of the cafe or bar as third place (Oldenburg, 1999), this paper considers the purpose of developing anchored relationships with people within specific consumption spaces, and explores the different ways this may be achieved in an urban context where the mobilities and lifestyle practices of residents complicate the idea of a consumption space as an anchoring or third place. In doing so, this chapter also considers the manner in which this type of regular identification may be seen to be the beginning of the process of imagining community. In chapter seven, I consider the ways the broader public spaces of the neighbourhood work cumulatively to expose different aspects of its identity by following my everyday movements through the neighbourhood’s shopping centre and main street. Drawing on the theories of Urry (2000), Massey (2005), and Amin (2007, 2008), this chapter describes how these spaces operate as exposure realms, enabling the expression of different senses of the neighbourhood’s spaces, times, cultures, and identities through their physical, social, and symbolic elements. Yet they also enable them to be united: through habitual pathways, group practices of appropriation of space, and memory traces that construct connections between objects and experiences. This chapter describes this as a process of exposure to these different elements. Our imagination begins to expand the scope of the frames onto which it projects an imagined presence; it searches for patterns within the physical, social, and symbolic environment and draws connections between people and practices across spaces. As the final paper, chapter eight, deduces, it is in making these connections that one constructs the objects and shared practices of imagined community. This chapter describes this as an imagining of neighbourhood as a place-based extension of the self, and then explores the ways in which I drew on physical, social, and symbolic elements in an attempt to construct a fit between the neighbourhood’s offerings and my desires for place-based identity definition. This was as a cumulative but fragmented process, in which positive and negative experiences of interaction and identification with people and things were searched for their potential to operate as the objects and shared practices of imagined community. This chapter describes these connections as constructed through interplay between reflexivity and fantasy, as the imagination seeks balance between desires for experiences of belonging, and the complexities of constructing them within the throwntogether context of the contemporary city. The conclusion of the thesis describes the process of imagining community as a reflexive fantasy, that is, as a product of both the critical and fascinated consciousness (Ricoeur, 1994). It suggests that the fascinated consciousness imbues experiences with hope and desire, which the reflexive imagining can turn to disappointment and shame as it critically reflects on the reality of those fascinated projections. At the same time, the reflexive imagination also searches the practices of others for affirmation of those projections, effectively seeking to prove the reality of the fantasy of the imagined community.

It started with a KISS

This is the essay prepared for the exhibition titled 'Hot Chocolate' held at the SASA Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia, 24 October - 29 November, 2012. Below are the words that start the essay and which provide a glimpse of the artworks in the exhibition. By agreeing to work together in this exhibition, the artists in Hot Chocolate delivered across an eclectic assortment of academic enquiry: • the politics of identity • the politics of desire • fetishisation of racial and othered bodies • origin and place • the politics of skin • events, moments, and ephemerality • need We too, talked, laughed, cried and worked through these issues in relation to the artworks submitted, including Pamela’s work, and to the theory and literature we have read and utilised in our words with each other and communities. We begin this piece by reflecting on the writings of bell hooks, whose words kissed us awake and stirred us at the start of our respective formal research journeys. We align her words with some of our activism, advocacy, academic and community work. We will weave the magical lyrics from the 1970s iconic band Hot Chocolate throughout this essay.

Criminal desistance : life opportunities and hermeneutic circles of self-definition

The emic perspective of criminal desistance (ex-offenders’ personal explanations of how they gave up crime) is largely ignored by criminology. This thesis attempts to address this absence of the storyteller’s perspective by inviting desisters to participate in the exploration and interpretation of their individual desistance journeys. Significant attention is drawn to the importance of philosophical self-enquiry to personal change. This detailed journey through the desistance stories of five ex-offenders has produced an emphatic re-statement of the need for the non-judgemental listener as the beginning point of cathartic healing in damaged lives.

Framing fashion curation : a theoretical, historical and practical perspective

This research project frames an emerging field – fashion curation – through a theoretical, historical, and practical enquiry. Recent decades have seen fashion curation grow rapidly as a form of praxis and an area of academic attention, predominantly in museums and universities. Within this context, two major models for conceptualising the role of the fashion curator have emerged: the institutional and the independent curator. This project proposes and applies a third model: the adjunct fashion curator. In developing this model my project seeks to move the growing dialogue around fashion curation away from exclusively focusing on the museum. By proposing a third curatorial model for fashion, this research draws on the past of fashion display and exhibition for its context, while simultaneously exploring the adjunct model through my curatorial practice. The impact of sites of display, the role of gender, and the relationship between art and fashion are explored as pivotal themes in the development of fashion curation and thus provide contextual grounding for the proposal of the adjunct curatorial model. Alongside a theoretical and historical account of fashion curation, I conduct a practice-led inquiry that explores these themes through five exhibition projects and one photographic series. I argue that the introduction and application of the adjunct model enables curatorial practitioners to sensitively work around the dominant museum model, and circumvent the divide between institutional and independent curation. Introducing the adjunct model allows the curator to develop personalised narratives relating to the experience of fashion and clothing as an exhibited phenomenon in a variety of institutional and non-institutional sites. Hence this research project contributes to a developing field by proposing a valuable and nuanced model for fashion curation.

The adventure of the refrain : composing with improvised music

This practice-based inquiry investigates the process of composing notated scores using improvised solos by saxophonists John Butcher and Anthony Braxton. To compose with these improvised sources, I developed a new method of analysis and through this method I developed new compositional techniques in applying these materials into a score. This method of analysis and composition utilizes the conceptual language of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari found in A Thousand Plateaus. The conceptual language of Deleuze and Guattari, in particular the terms assemblage, refrain and deterritorialization are discussed in depth to give a context for the philosophical origins and also to explain how the language is used in reference to improvised music and the compositional process. The project seeks to elucidate the conceptual language through the creative practice and in turn for the creative practice to clarify the use of the conceptual terminology. The outcomes of the research resulted in four notated works being composed. Firstly, Gravity, for soloist and ensemble based on the improvisational language of John Butcher and secondly a series of 3 studies titled Transbraxton Studies for solo instruments based on the improvisational-compositional language of Anthony Braxton. The implications of this research include the application of the analysis method to a number of musical contexts including: to be used in the process of composing with improvised music; in the study of style and authorship in solo improvisation; as a way of analyzing group improvisation; in the analysis of textural music including electronic music; and in the analysis of music from different cultures—particularly cultures where improvisation and per formative aspects to the music are significant to the overall meaning of the work. The compositional technique that was developed has further applications in terms of an expressive method of composing with non-metered improvised materials and one that merges well with the transcription method developed of notating pitch and sounds to a timeline. It is hoped that this research can open further lines of enquiry into the application of the conceptual ideas of Deleuze and Guattari to the analysis of more forms of music.

The need for and appropriate application of spatial data for disaster management and strengthening community resilience

It is only in recent years that the critical role that spatial data can play in disaster management and strengthening community resilience has been recognised. The recognition of this importance is singularly evident from the fact that in Australia spatial data is considered as soft infrastructure. In the aftermath of every disaster this importance is being increasingly strengthened with state agencies paying greater attention to ensuring the availability of accurate spatial data based on the lessons learnt. For example, the major flooding in Queensland during the summer of 2011 resulted in a comprehensive review of responsibilities and accountability for the provision of spatial information during such natural disasters. A high level commission of enquiry completed a comprehensive investigation of the 2011 Brisbane flood inundation event and made specific recommendations concerning the collection of and accessibility to spatial information for disaster management and for strengthening community resilience during and after a natural disaster. The lessons learnt and processes implemented were subsequently tested by natural disasters during subsequent years. This paper provides an overview of the practical implementation of the recommendations of the commission of enquiry. It focuses particularly on the measures adopted by the state agencies with the primary role for managing spatial data and the evolution of this role in Queensland State, Australia. The paper concludes with a review of the development of the role and the increasing importance of spatial data as an infrastructure for disaster planning and management which promotes the strengthening of community resilience.

Learner strategy instruction and student uptake of strategies in a Japanese as a foreign language context

The Japanese language is recognised as being more difficult than European languages, needing three times more tuition time to reach comparable levels of proficiency. Encouraging Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) students to become aware of, and effectively use, learner strategies is one way to assist them become more controlled, effective learners leading to enhanced language learning. This thesis investigates the development and implementation of a JFL curriculum implemented in a university course for students learning JFL. The curriculum was developed specifically to assist beginner university students with the development of learner strategies appropriate for a JFL reading context. The theoretical underpinning of the study was informed by Educational Criticism (Eisner, 1998), which aims to describe, interpret and evaluate the processes of interaction between the teacher, the learner and the curriculum and the students' learning processes in a tertiary JFL classroom. The study investigated the effect on student learning processes of a JFL reading program that incorporated explicit learner strategy instruction and identified factors that enhanced or impeded the development of learner strategy knowledge. The participants in the study were 29 students enrolled in the course, 10 of whom volunteered to undertake additional tasks, and the two teachers who implemented the curriculum. Data collection involved a number of different strategies to observe the students' participation in the classroom and learning experiences. Learning processes were investigated through TOL protocols, classroom observations, course evaluations, interviews, and learner strategy use measurement instruments (SILL, SILK and SORS) to document student uptake of learner strategies. The design of the study and its applied focus recognised my expertise as a JFL teacher, curriculum writer and researcher, an approach that aligns with the purpose of a Professional Doctorate. Four general thematics, or principles, were identified in this study: „h Explicit learner strategy instruction provides the context for students to develop awareness of learner strategies and take control of their learning; „h Collaborative learning and interaction with teachers offers students the opportunity for shared knowledge construction; „h Reflection offers teachers and students the opportunity to reflect on their own learning style and strategy knowledge, and raises awareness of other available strategies; and „h Diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds have an impact on curriculum implementation and student uptake of learner strategies. The study¡¦s methodological contribution is that it is one of the first in Australia to use Educational Criticism (Eisner, 1998) as a research methodology. The findings contribute to theoretical knowledge in the fields of Applied Linguistics, Second Language Teaching and Learning, Second Language Acquisition and JFL Teaching and Learning by offering new knowledge on the importance of learner strategies in the beginner JFL classroom, the potential of explicit strategy instruction, the value of reflection for both teachers and students, and the important role of the teacher in the process of curriculum implementation. The general principles identified and the findings of this in-depth study of a JFL classroom can be drawn upon to inform other teaching practice situations, and invite practitioners from not just Japanese, but from other language areas and other disciplines, to examine and improve their own practices, and suggest further research questions to pursue this line of enquiry.

Online or conventional democracy? The Ashgrove election and networked journalism

This study focuses on new media use in democratic discourse, specifically in the Queensland state electoral division of Ashgrove, 2011. This site was chosen to make an enquiry into the place of mass media in public decision- making, asking the question: did online media provide an extension of democracy, and what would be journalism’s role in democratic discourse? The study utilises a survey of 280 constituents, a review of pertinent news coverage, and extensive interviews with a panel of informants. In the outcome, it found those most equipped to utilise online media showed a lack of will to get involved in deeper political, social engagements. It also sees younger demographics forming news habits, not usually in step with traditional political avenues, based on familiarity with online processes, while consciously marginalising the need for trustworthiness in this set- ting. These issues are considered together with one leading proposal as to where the future of new media might be heading. It assesses the notion of professional and amateur collaboration by employing the model articulated by Beckett, called ‘networked journalism’.

Artscience in practice : exploring the critical and creative potentials of transdisciplinary art and science practice using a methodological and conceptual framework of creative becoming

In response to a growing interest in art and science interactions and transdisciplinary research strategies, this research project examines the critical and conceptual affordances of ArtScience practice and outlines a new experiential methodology for practice-lead research using a framework of creative becoming. In doing so, the study contributes to the field of ArtScience and transdisciplinary practice, by providing new strategies for creative development and critical enquiry across art and science.

Curiosity to cupboard : self reported disengagement with energy use feedback over time

This paper discusses findings made during a study of energy use feedback in the home (eco-feedback), well after the novelty has worn off. Contributing towards four important knowledge gaps in the research, we explore eco-feedback over longer time scales, focusing on instances where the feedback was not of lasting benefit to users rather than when it was. Drawing from 23 semi-structured interviews with Australian householders, we found that an initially high level of engagement gave way over time to disinterest, neglect and in certain cases, technical malfunction. Additionally, preconceptions concerned with the “purpose” of the feedback were found to affect use. We propose expanding the scope of enquiry for eco-feedback in several ways, and describe how eco-feedback that better supports decision-making in the “maintenance phase”, i.e. once the initial novelty has worn off, may be key to longer term engagement.

Storylines of institutional responses to climate change as a transformative stressor : the case of regional planning in South East Queensland, Australia

Institutional responses to climate change stresses through planning will require new and amended forms of governance. Institutional framing of change imperatives can significantly condition associated governance responses. This paper builds on scholarly conversations concerning the conceptual role of ‘storylines’ in shaping institutional responses to climate change through governance. It draws on conceptual perspectives of climate change as a ‘transformative stressor’, which can compel institutional transformation within planning. The concepts of storylines and transformative stressors are conceptually linked. The conceptual approach is applied to an empirical enquiry focused on the regional planning regime of South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. This paper reports and examines three institutional storylines of responding to climate change through planning governance in SEQ. It concludes that the manifestation of climate change as a transformative stressor in SEQ prompted institutional transformation, leading to a dominant storyline focused on climate adaptation as an important facet of regional planning governance.

Understanding the signature pedagogy of the design studio and the opportunities for its technological enhancement

This paper presents an analysis of the studio as the signature pedagogy of design education. A number of theoretical models of learning, pedagogy, and education are used to interrogate the studio for its advantages and shortcomings, and to identify opportunities for the integration of new technologies and to explore the affordances that they might offer. In particular the theoretical ideas of signature pedagogies, conversational frameworks, and pedagogical patterns are used to justify the ‘unique’ status of the studio as a dominant learning environment and mode of delivery within design education. Such analysis identifies the opportunities for technological intervention and enhancement of the design studio through a re-examining of its fundamental pedagogical signature. This paper maps the dimensions and qualities that define the signature pedagogy against a range of delivery modes and technological media forms. Through such investigation it seeks to identify appropriate opportunities for technology; in essence offering a structure or framework for the analysis of future enquiry and experimentation.