Proceedings of the Interior Space in Other Places : An IDEA [Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators Association] Symposium [Edited Volume of Proceedings]

Conference curatorial outline The focus of this symposium was to question whether interior design is changing relative to local conditions, and the effect globalization has on the performance of regional, particularly Southern hemisphere identities. The intention being to understand how theory and practice is transposed to ‘distant lands’, and how ideas shift from one place to another. To this extent the symposium invited papers on the export, translation and adoption of theories and practices of interior design to differing climates, cultures, and landscapes. This process, sometimes referred to as a shift from ‘the centre to the margins’, seeks new perspectives on the adoption of European and US design ideas abroad, as well as their return to their place of origin. Papers were invited from a range of perspectives including the export of ideas/attitudes to interior spaces, history of interior spaces abroad, and the adoption of ideas/processes to new conditions. Paralleling this trafficking of ideas are broader observations about interior space that emerge through specificity of place. These include new and emerging directions and differences in our understanding of interiority; both real and virtual, and an ever-changing relationship to city, suburb and country. Keeping within the Symposium theme the intention was to examine other places, particularly on the margins of the discipline’s domain. Semantic slippage aside, there are a range of approaches that engage outside events and practices enabling a transdisciplinary practice that draws from other philosophical and theoretical frameworks. Moreover as the field expands and new territories are opened up, the virtual worlds of computer gaming, animations, and interactive environments, both rely on and produce new forms of expression. This raises questions about the extent such spaces adopt or translate existing theory and practice, that is the transposition from one area to another and their return to the discipline.

Interior spaces in other places [Introduction]

To comprehend other places through the lens of the ‘shifting’ interior – examining interior histories and theories, and by association, the constructed and performed practices of a range of interior conditions – is to enable speculation on the production and occupation of interior space in other territories and societies. Forms of inspiration are, as both keynote papers acknowledge, often overlooked; whether this is a result of western-centric approaches to aesthetics, or their methods of enquiry. Evidently as the Symposium papers demonstrate, the discussion is more complicated than it might at first appear and the observation of interior decoration/design as critical practice offers one way to engage.

Study protocol : Screening and treatment of alcohol-related trauma (START): a randomised controlled trial

Background: The incidence of mandibular fractures in the Northern Territory of Australia is very high, especially among Indigenous people. Alcohol intoxication is implicated in the majority of facial injuries, and substance use is therefore an important target for secondary prevention. The current study tests the efficacy of a brief therapy, Motivational Care Planning, in improving wellbeing and substance misuse in youth and adults hospitalised with alcohol-related facial trauma. Methods and design: The study is a randomised controlled trial with 6 months of follow-up, to examine the effectiveness of a brief and culturally adapted intervention in improving outcomes for trauma patients with at-risk drinking admitted to the Royal Darwin Hospital maxillofacial surgery unit. Potential participants are identified using AUDIT-C questionnaire. Eligible participants are randomised to either Motivational Care Planning (MCP) or Treatment as Usual (TAU). The outcome measures will include quantity and frequency of alcohol and other substance use by Timeline Followback. The recruitment target is 154 participants, which with 20% dropout, is hoped to provide 124 people receiving treatment and follow-up. Discussion: This project introduces screening and brief interventions for high-risk drinkers admitted to the hospital with facial trauma. It introduces a practical approach to integrating brief interventions in the hospital setting, and has potential to demonstrate significant benefits for at-risk drinkers with facial trauma.

Recruiting and engaging new mothers in nutrition research studies : lessons from the Australian NOURISH randomised controlled trial

Background: Despite important implications for the budgets, statistical power and generalisability of research findings, detailed reports of recruitment and retention in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are rare. The NOURISH RCT evaluated a community-based intervention for first-time mothers that promoted protective infant feeding practices as a primary prevention strategy for childhood obesity. The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed description and evaluation of the recruitment and retention strategies used. Methods: A two stage recruitment process designed to provide a consecutive sampling framework was used. First time mothers delivering healthy term infants were initially approached in postnatal wards of the major maternity services in two Australian cities for consent to later contact (Stage 1). When infants were about four months old mothers were re-contacted by mail for enrolment (Stage 2), baseline measurements (Time 1) and subsequent random allocation to the intervention or control condition. Outcomes were assessed at infant ages 14 months (Time 2) and 24 months (Time 3). Results: At Stage 1, 86% of eligible mothers were approached and of these women, 76% consented to later contact. At Stage 2, 3% had become ineligible and 76% could be recontacted. Of the latter, 44% consented to full enrolment and were allocated. This represented 21% of mothers screened as eligible at Stage 1. Retention at Time 3 was 78%. Mothers who did not consent or discontinued the study were younger and less likely to have a university education. Conclusions: The consent and retention rates of our sample of first time mothers are comparable with or better than other similar studies. The recruitment strategy used allowed for detailed information from non-consenters to be collected; thus selection bias could be estimated. Recommendations for future studies include being able to contact participants via mobile phone (particular text messaging), offering home visits to reduce participant burden and considering the use of financial incentives to support participant retention.

What makes an LMS effective : a synthesis of current literature

There is a growing number of organizations and universities now utilising e-learning practices in their teaching and learning programs. These systems have allowed for knowledge sharing and provide opportunities for users to have access to learning materials regardless of time and place. However, while the uptake of these systems is quite high, there is little research into the effectiveness of such systems, particularly in higher education. This paper investigates the methods that are used to study the effectiveness of e-learning systems and the factors that are critical for the success of a learning management system (LMS). Five major success categories are identified in this study and explained in depth. These are the teacher, student, LMS design, learning materials and external support.

Hanging out is hard to do : Methodology in non-avatar environments

Ethnography is now a well-established research methodology for virtual environments, and the vast majority of accounts have one aspect in common, whether textual or graphic environments – that of the embodied avatar. In this article, I first discuss the applicability of such a methodology to non-avatar environments such as Eve Online, considering where the methodology works and the issues that arise in its implementation – particularly for the consideration of sub-communities within the virtual environment. Second, I consider what alternative means exist for getting at the information that is obtained through an ethnographic study of the virtual environment. To that end, I consider the practical and ethical implications of utilizing existing accounts, the importance of the meta-game discourse, including those sources outside of the control of the environment developer, and finally the utility in combining personal observations with accounts of other ethnographers, both within and between environments.

Spatial clusters of suicide in Australia

Background: Understanding the spatial distribution of suicide can inform the planning, implementation and evaluation of suicide prevention activity. This study explored spatial clusters of suicide in Australia, and investigated likely socio-demographic determinants of these clusters. Methods: National suicide and population data at a statistical local area (SLA) level were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the period of 1999 to 2003. Standardised mortality ratios (SMR) were calculated at the SLA level, and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were applied to investigate the geographical distribution of suicides and detect clusters of high risk in Australia. Results: Male suicide incidence was relatively high in the northeast of Australia, and parts of the east coast, central and southeast inland, compared with the national average. Among the total male population and males aged 15 to 34, Mornington Shire had the whole or a part of primary high risk cluster for suicide, followed by the Bathurst-Melville area, one of the secondary clusters in the north coastal area of the Northern Territory. Other secondary clusters changed with the selection of cluster radius and age group. For males aged 35 to 54 years, only one cluster in the east of the country was identified. There was only one significant female suicide cluster near Melbourne while other SLAs had very few female suicide cases and were not identified as clusters. Male suicide clusters had a higher proportion of Indigenous population and lower median socio-economic index for area (SEIFA) than the national average, but their shapes changed with selection of maximum cluster radii setting. Conclusion: This study found high suicide risk clusters at the SLA level in Australia, which appeared to be associated with lower median socio-economic status and higher proportion of Indigenous population. Future suicide prevention programs should focus on these high risk areas.

miRDeep*: an integrated application tool for miRNA identification from RNA sequencing data

miRDeep and its varieties are widely used to quantify known and novel micro RNA (miRNA) from small RNA sequencing (RNAseq). This article describes miRDeep*, our integrated miRNA identification tool, which is modeled off miRDeep, but the precision of detecting novel miRNAs is improved by introducing new strategies to identify precursor miRNAs. miRDeep* has a user-friendly graphic interface and accepts raw data in FastQ and Sequence Alignment Map (SAM) or the binary equivalent (BAM) format. Known and novel miRNA expression levels, as measured by the number of reads, are displayed in an interface, which shows each RNAseq read relative to the pre-miRNA hairpin. The secondary pre-miRNA structure and read locations for each predicted miRNA are shown and kept in a separate figure file. Moreover, the target genes of known and novel miRNAs are predicted using the TargetScan algorithm, and the targets are ranked according to the confidence score. miRDeep* is an integrated standalone application where sequence alignment, pre-miRNA secondary structure calculation and graphical display are purely Java coded. This application tool can be executed using a normal personal computer with 1.5 GB of memory. Further, we show that miRDeep* outperformed existing miRNA prediction tools using our LNCaP and other small RNAseq datasets. miRDeep* is freely available online at http://www.australianprostatecentre.org/research/software/mirdeep-star

Teaching new product development to design led innovation

Recently many international tertiary educational programs have capitalised on the value design and business can have upon their interception (Martin, 2009; Brown, 2008; Bruce and Bessant, 2002; Manzini, 2009). This paper discusses the role that two teaching units – New Product Development and Design Led Innovation – play in forming an understanding of commercialisation needed in today’s Industrial Design education. These units are taught consecutively in the later years of the Bachelor of Industrial Design program at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. In this paper, each teaching unit is discussed in detail and then as a conglomerate, in order to form a basis of knowledge students need in order to fully capitalise on the value design has in business, and to produce a more capable Industrial Design graduate of the future.

Affecting interference

This collaborative project by Daniel Mafe and Andrew Brown, one of a number in they have been involved in together, conjoins painting and digital sound into a single, large scale, immersive exhibition/installation. The work as a whole acts as an interstitial point between contrasting approaches to abstraction: the visual and aural, the digital and analogue are pushed into an alliance and each works to alter perceptions of the other. For example, the paintings no longer mutely sit on the wall to be stared into. The sound seemingly emanating from each work shifts the viewer’s typical visual perception and engages their aural sensibilities. This seems to make one more aware of the objects as objects – the surface of each piece is brought into scrutiny – and immerses the viewer more viscerally within the exhibition. Similarly, the sonic experience is focused and concentrated spatially by each painted piece even as the exhibition is dispersed throughout the space. The sounds and images are similar in each local but not identical, even though they may seem to be the same from casual interaction, closer attention will quickly show this is not the case. In preparing this exhibition each artist has had to shift their mode of making to accommodate the other’s contribution. This was mainly done by a process of emptying whereby each was called upon to do less to the works they were making and to iterate the works toward a shared conception, blurring notions of individual imagination while maintaining material authorship. Empting was necessary to enable sufficient porosity where each medium allowed the other entry to its previously gated domain. The paintings are simple and subtle to allow the odd sonic textures a chance to work on the viewer’s engagement with them. The sound remains both abstract, using noise-like textures, and at a low volume to allow the audience’s attention to wander back and forth between aspects of the works.

Enacted Cartography : Formations - 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale

RESEARCH BACKGROUND Enacted Cartography documents 10 years of creative research practice by Ian Weir Research Architect and was developed as standalone exhibition to support Dr Weir’s selection by the Australian Institute of Architects to represent innovative architectural practice via the Institute’s review entitled Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture – which took the form of an exhibition and book presented in Venice, Italy for 13th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale). All works exhibited in Enacted Cartography are original works by Dr Weir and are generated either from or for the remote biodiverse landscapes of the Fitzgerald Bioregion on the south coast of Western Australia. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION As a creative work in its own right, the Enacted Cartography exhibition makes the following contributions to knowledge: 1. Expands understandings of architectural practice by presenting a geographically-specific but multimodal form of architectural practice - wherein practitioners cross over discipline boundaries into art practice, landscape representation, website design, undergraduate university teaching and community advocacy. 2. Contributes to understandings of how such a diverse multimodal form of practice might be represented through both digital media and traditional print media in an exhibition format. 3. Expands understandings of how architectural practitioners might work within a particular place to develop a geographically-specific sense of identity, a ‘landscape of resistance’. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Enacted Cartography was presented to an international audience during the 13th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale). The significance of Dr Weir’s research is evidence by his selected by the Australian Institute of Architects to represent innovation in architectural practice for the Biennale. Enacted Cartography addresses problems of national and international importance including: 1. The sustainable development of biodiverse remote landscapes; 2. The reconciliation of bushfire safety and biodiversity conservation; 3. The necessity for rethinking of architectural design methodologies to meet the complexity of landscape management and design; 4. It challenges orthodox forms of landscape representation (aerial photography, for example) which are demonstrably inadequate registrations of biophysical and cultural landscapes.

So what do Design students really think? Exploring perceptions of Learning Landscapes

This paper investigates learning environments from the view of the key users - students. Recent literature on designing Learning Landscapes indicates a near absence of the student voice, assuming that the majority of students are either uninterested or unable to express what they want or need, in a learning environment. The focus of this research is to reveal Architecture and Fashion Design students’ perceptions of their learning environments. Furthermore, this study questions the appropriateness of usual design of learning spaces for Design students, or if the environment needs to be specifically catered for the learning of different disciplines of Design, such as Architecture and Fashion Design. Senior Architecture and Fashion Design students were invited to participate in a qualitative mixed method study, including investigation into existing literature, questionnaires, focus groups and spontaneous participatory research. Through the analysis of data it was found that students’ perceptions validate discipline specific learning environments and contribute towards the development of a framework for the design of future Learning Landscapes, for Design education.

Shaky Ground

Shaky Ground was a solo exhibition of works by Charles Robb held at Ryan Renshaw gallery, Brisbane in 2012. The exhibition comprised three sculptural works: a white rotating roundel with a drawing of the artist as seen from above; an artificial rock with a spinning aniseed ball nestled in one of its fissures; and a sculptural portrait of the artist dressed in a protective dust suit which was mounted perpendicular to the wall. The works were derivations or reorientations of previously exhibited work and established an ambiguous field of associations with each other based on formal characteristics or their proximity to the production site and processes. In so doing, the work formed part of the artist's ongoing exploration of sculpture, subjectivity and autogenous approaches to art practice.

Of repetition and of song

Allyson Reynolds, for many years now, has been a keen student of nature. Nature’s forms have always been important to her work, but it would be wrong to see Reynolds as simply transcribing directly from the natural world. For this artist, nature and the natural world represents an elusive invitation and so Reynolds doesn’t so much paint from nature, although resemblance and imitation are clearly evident, as work to render visually and emotionally tangible this invitation. And for a viewer this is no small thing as the invitation is to become attuned and connect with nature as it exists in ourselves, that is to see as nature. Reynolds’ is inviting us as viewers to connect and participate with the nature of nature that is evident in ourselves through the act of perceiving. Reynolds’ work can do this because it is a work born of deep evocation. The sensibility from which it emerges or is transacted is poetic, intensely so, but more than that it works to make of viewing an act of poetry, through a celebration of seeing. Reynolds evocation is born of a deep feeling towards and contemplation of the natural world - it is as though the world lives in her and is now a seamless part of her creative vocabulary. In such personal work there is a profoundly felt and revealed sense of the intimate and like true intimacy it revels in both its dark and quiet, as well as its playful and light, aspects. What is special about Reynolds’ visual poetry is that it able to render this intimacy so accessible. It is an accessibility that is available for the viewer who is able to not only look but also surrender to that looking, accepting and working with the flow of thoughts and associations it occasions...