The value of storytelling

Considering the embodied carbon in existing buildings where expenditure has already occurred, the retrofitting of existing buildings presents a significant opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of our built environment. In Australia there is also a renewed awareness of the importance of our cultural heritage and the adaptive reuse of our historic buildings is increasingly discussed as a preservation strategy. The ‘design’ phase in building projects is credited with providing “an unparalleled window of opportunity to address environmental objectives” and fostering sustainable development, with up to 80% of overall environmental impacts determined by the decisions made at this stage. Both design and built environment professionals appreciate that a holistic and ‘whole systems’ approach is key in enabling transformation. The design process often comprises of many divergent and convergent activities, many of which seek to understand the people and context. The design process for heritage building adaptive reuse projects revolves around producing or referring to a conservation management plan that articulates what is and isn't heritage fabric. In an Australian context, and according to literature and the emerging results of a series of semi-structured interviews undertaken with designers of such projects, the key themes integral to success are: business case, vision, communication & collaboration, values, and storytelling.

Experience has no shadow : Bell tower III

I created Experience Has No Shadow (2010) following a successful Ausdance Qld choreographic grant in 2010, which comprised of two solos and a video-dance at the Performance Space at the Judith Wright Centre. The aim of the Bell Tower III residency was to research and construct a Stage One Development that explored choreographic approaches to oral histories. Like many first generation Australians, oral histories are the way memories and experiences of distant homelands often offer the only connection to cultural origins. Consequently, I drew on auto-ethnographic references in the form of family stories – specifically those of my mother’s family - told and retold by my mother and her family as East German refugees during World War II. While working on the video, I explored a way to make a direct connection to the past stories by using a recording of my mother’s voice. She is re-telling a favourite story about Salamo the circus horse that was sold to my great grandfather as a work horse. Rather than representing the text literally, I attempted to capture the intensity of the storytelling which accompanied abstract footage of Avril Huddy filmed through perspex glass producing animal-like shapes that continually blur and morph in and out of focus. Strangely, by tying the story in with the filmed images a whole new story seems to emerge. Two distinct solos were created in collaboration with the performers, Expressions Dance Company’s Elise May and QUT’s Avril Huddy. These were performed at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts, Performance Space, 1st April, 2010. The simplicity of its design became a key concept behind the work in terms of sets, spacing requirements, and costumes – almost minimalist. The choreographic process was conceived as highly collaborative, with commissioned music (and eventually lighting features) to act as equal partners in the performance.

Multiliteracies pedagogy : creating claymations with adolescent, post-beginner English language learners

In addressing literacy in high school education, it is important to foreground the particular issues faced by growing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs). In our increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this is a matter for all literacy teachers, as well as ELL specialists. In Australia, teachers of ELLs are experimenting with Multiliteracies pedagogy which provides rich opportunities to explore language learning experiences and outcomes that stretch beyond exercises in reproduction in written and oral modes only. This paper documents the practice of a high school teacher who uses a claymation project, producing a movie by stop-motion filming of clay figures, with a class of low-level English literacy learners. Drawing on observations of three particular students, the paper outlines a number of possibilities of this approach for English language learners. These include increased individual agency; enhanced engagement through collaboration; and the opportunity to explore various elements of multimodal text design.

We need to talk : feminism and food (GOMA Harvest Picnic)

This collaborative, participatory work by feminist collective LEVEL took place at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) as part of the official program of activities surrounding the exhibition 'Harvest', 2014. It took the form of a public picnic, where women and their friends were invited to share cooking recipes while also discussing the possible recipe for a gender revolution. Groups discussed their ideas, before a public reading of potential 'ingredients' and 'methods' outside the museum on the Maiwar Green.

Naik Naik

"Naik Naik, conceived and directed by Cheryl Stock, is a multi-site promenade performance in which the audience joins the artists in physically exploring the notion of ‘ascent’ through their upward journey from Fort A Famosa at the base of the hill to Site 1 of St Paul’s Hill at the summit. Beginning at dusk with vignette performances along the ascending path, the journey finishes on entering the church ruins at nightfall. An evocation of place through performative contemplations, this processional experience lingers on the traces of history that remain hidden or partially and silently exposed, interwoven with personal and cultural stories related to the sites, in a celebration of the present. Naik Naik brings together eight established and emerging professional artists whose disciplines range across dance, music, visual arts and media production. Excitingly, this will be the first performance at MAPFest arising from a pre-festival collaborative residency with development time in Malaysia for all artists to work on a new production from its inception. The collaboration has been based on ideas arising from site research as well as myths and local stories from longterm Melaka residents who contributed their knowledge and memories of the chosen sites. Naik Naik has been created by its artists in an acknowledgement of Melaka’s unique multicultural heritage and contemporary identity.

Making sense of inconsistencies in psycho-educational assessment: A case report

The case is presented of an 8-year-old young boy who was referred for psycho-educational assessment because of difficulties with writing. The paper provides an example of the way in which a case unfolds as further assessment data become available, and describes a number of challenging aspects of the assessment process. In this case, dilemmas arose when test results were inconsistent at different time points, and when the results were inconsistent with clinical observations. The case report illustrates the ways in which practitioners can collaborate to make sense of such discrepancies, with each contributing a slightly different perspective or set of skills that, in combination, assist to better understand a child’s difficulties.

How can partnerships between the universities and schools exploit new opportunities for pedagogies at the intersection of the arts/design and the sciences?

Driven by information accessibility-on-demand provided by the internet, education modes are changing from a teacher-led approach focused on content delivery and assessible outcomes, to a learner-based approach encouraging self-directed, peer-tutored, and cooperative learning. New pedagogies are required to extend learning beyond the classroom and traditional subject areas such as contemporary arts, in alignment with the cross disciplinary priorities of the Australian Curriculum and values of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. This research explores how partnerships with universities and cultural organisations are implicated in the generation of these new forms of pedagogy and contribute to the field of educational research within the context of Education Queensland’s Framework For Gifted Education. In particular, this paper explores a new pedagogical framework for highly capable year five to nine Queensland state school students at the intersection of arts, design and the sciences, which has arisen from an explicit secondary/ tertiary partnership between the Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Faculty and Precincts and the Queensland Academies Young Scholars Program. The Young Scholars Program offers experiences in the International Baccalaureate and Australian Curriculum contexts to enhance outcomes via global understanding, unique industry partnerships and 21st century pedagogical innovation based not on 'content' but tacit/experiential learning concepts including immersive, creative, intellectual and social strategies. These strategies for highly capable students are centred around authentic opportunities, primary resources, transdisciplinary learning and relationships with likeminded peers including tertiary arts, design and STEM educators and students, professionals and researchers. The presentation details case studies which are hands-on real time workshops involving inquiry based challenges in the arts, design and sciences, mathematics, history, creative writing and other disciplines, with content drawn from collections from public institutions, academic research and tertiary pedagogy. Both programs implicate student collaboration and creative production as methodology/data capture for ongoing action research, in alignment with the Framework For Gifted Education’s emphasis on evidence-based practices. They also challenge gifted students “to continue their development through curricular activities that require depth of study, complexity of thinking, fast pace of learning, high-level skills development and/or creative and critical thinking (e.g. through independent investigations, tiered tasks, diverse real-world applications, mentors)”(Education Queensland, 2011:3). This presentation highlights the strengths of the ongoing collaboration between QUT Creative industries Faculty and Queensland Academies, which not only provides successful extra curricular activities for gifted students towards a place in the International Baccalaureate Program, but also provides mentoring opportunities for tertiary students in their field of endeavor to assist with their own learning, and unique research opportunities for the Faculty as it focuses on excellence in arts, design and creative education and research. Education Queensland.(2011). Framework For Gifted Education Revised Edition 2011 (accessed Nov 19 2011)

100 futures now : designing sustainable futures

This presentation tells the story of an initiative in middle schooling at Kelvin Grove State College that begins in the Art studios, but reaches out to other disciplines and approaches, and to community and industry partners. It is inspired by the potential of 'future thinking' to become a compelling focus in contemporary art and design. Ethically it espouses a simple premise": every student in our classrooms now has a stake in creating livable, democratic and creative futures. Every student has the potential to be an active force in making that future. "100 Futures Now" is a project that envisages creative and imaginative students working in collaboration with artists and designers to visualize amazing futures and communicate their vision through art and design. "100 Futures Now" is one in a series of innovative curriculum initiatives at Kelvin Grove State College designed to build sustainable practice in arts education with the support of partners in industry and universities and with resident artists and designers. The model blends elements of art and design methodology to focus on the critical and creative thinking skills prioritised in ACARA and 21st century curriculum. The organisers are developing a sustainable model for working with resident artists that goes beyond a single arts intervention or extension/enrichment experience. In this model artists and designers are collaborators in the design of learning experiences that support future programs. This model also looks to transfer the benefits of residencies to the wider school community (in this case to middle schooling curriculum) and to teachers in other curriculum areas, and not exclusively to the immediate target group. In "100 Futures Now", story-making is the engine that powers the creative process. For this reason the program uses a series of imaginative scenarios, including those of speculative fiction and science, as departure points for inquiry, and applies the methodologies of arts and design practice to explore and express student story telling and story making. The story-making responses of student teams will naturally be expressed multimodally through visual art, design artifacts, installation, performance and digital works. The project’s focus on narratives and its modes of communication (performance/installation) are inspired by the work of experimental contemporary design practices and the speculative scenarios of U.K. based designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. Thanks to the support of an Arts Queensland Artist-in -Residence grant in 2014, resident artists and designers who work with a diversity of ideas and approaches ranging over science, bio-ethics, biodiversity, behavior and ethics, ambient sound, urbanism, food, and wearable design, will work with middle school students as catalysts for deeper thinking and creative action. All these rich fields for future speculation will become triggers for team inquiry into the deeper connections between the past, the present, and future challenges such as climate, waste, energy, sustainability and resilience. These imagined futures will form the platform for a critical, sustainability/design futures approach that will involve questioning assumptions and empowering students as agents rather than consumers of change.

We need to talk (Performance Space)

'We need to talk (Performace Space)' is a 3 channel audio work with round table and custom cushions, examining the discursive framework of LEVEL as a feminist art collective. It was included in the exhibition 'Sexes', curated by Bec Dean, Jeff Khan and Deborah Kelly, at Performance Space. The audio works feature recontextualised excerpts from a series of dinner party conversations, which focused on the role of women and feminism in the 21st century. Placed in a specially constructed ‘lazy susan’, this audio installation speaks of the experience of sharing information, ideas and experiences ‘around the table’. The fabric patterns on the floor cushions have been designed from banners created in collective workshops with women in Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia, as a way of translating personal statements and political ideas into the everyday.

The knowledge: a project by Boxcopy at Post-Museum, Singapore

‘The Knowledge’ was part of the Next Wave/Asialink project 'Invisible Structures: Australian artist collectives in Tokyo, Singapore and Yogyakarta' in January 2011. For this project, Brisbane ARI Boxcopy undertook a two-week residency at Post Musuem in Singapore. In this project, the Boxcopy artists Channon Goodwin, Joseph Breikers, Timothy P Kerr, Daniel McKewen, Raymonde Rajkowski, Tim Woodward, attempted to acquire an intimate knowledge of the city of Singapore by forming a free delivery company, The Boxcopy Publics Carriage Office of Singapore (BPCOS), which provided services around the city by foot, bike and public transport. In addition to committing to memory and documenting the streets and sites of Singapore, the BPCOS team also performed tasks such as delivering goods or messages, travel a particular route or visit a site, as requested by the people of Singapore. The project comprised this process of public interaction as well as an exhibition and website.

Great expectations : a project by Boxcopy for Federation Square, Next Wave Festival 2008

Part of the Next Wave MEMBRANE Project, Great Expectations draws attention to the parallels between our expectations of art and new technology to make the world a better place. The theme of the 2008 Next Wave Festival, ‘Closer Together’, refers to the way society is ― for the better or for the worse ― becoming increasingly connected by media and communication technologies. Sceptical of the acclaimed social achievements of new technologies, Boxcopy: Contemporary Art Space, a Brisbane-based artist-run initiative, explores the futility of human activities, including art production and consumption, with a collection of works created by young and emerging Brisbane artists. Works for this project include: Early machines such as the Commodore 64 were tape-based, and hence had their games distributed on ordinary cassettes (2009) by Tim Kerr & Extra Features (2008) by Tim Woodward; Spine (2008), Joseph Briekers; Whiteout (2008), Channon Goodwin; Explosive Revelations (2008), Daniel McKewen.

The hunt

"Information Thru Play: In 2010, responding to the success of The Threshold, Juxt Interactive again asked No Mimes Media, to partner in creating a transmedia experience to entertain and inform Cisco's Global Sales Force. The Hunt put employees at the center of a thriller where characters sent and responded to their emails, left phone messages, communicated through Facebook and Twitter, even asked them to retrieve items from a dead drop and to send them photographs and information. And while helping fictional characters Isabel and Keith escape an ancient secret organization, the sales force also learned about new Cisco technologies coming to market. Cisco had new demands for the 2010 experience. A geographically and culturally dispersed sales force raises challenges when it comes to introducing dozens of new products and technologies each year. Cisco wanted The Hunt to have global reach, to educate, to build collaboration, and to be fun. This demanded new ways of storytelling and new ways of thinking. The Hunt was quick and intense, unfolding in real time in just two weeks. Many experienced players were poised to participate and expectations were high. Many of the mechanics of the previous year's experience were repeated, and the audience ripped through the opening, discovering video clips and websites in minutes. The surprise was discovering Facebook and Twitter accounts, where characters responded to player postings and comments in real time. The Hunt involved audience members from countries around the world, including China, India, Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It highlighted new Cisco technologies like Pulse and Mediator, painlessly engaging the audience in what those technologies do and how they work. Players collaborated across silos, creating networks of cross-disciplinary experts. The Hunt pushed the boundaries of storytelling, with events unfolding on Twitter and Facebook, and in the real world where the audience had to use social engineering to find and secure a package with vital information. With thousands of players highly engaged around the world, The Hunt once again proved that transmedia experiences can effectively be used to not only meet the goals of a brand, but entertain their audience as well."

Improving national hospice/palliative care service symptom outcomes systematically through point-of-care data collection, structured feedback and benchmarking

PURPOSE Every health care sector including hospice/palliative care needs to systematically improve services using patient-defined outcomes. Data from the national Australian Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration aims to define whether hospice/palliative care patients' outcomes and the consistency of these outcomes have improved in the last 3 years. METHODS Data were analysed by clinical phase (stable, unstable, deteriorating, terminal). Patient-level data included the Symptom Assessment Scale and the Palliative Care Problem Severity Score. Nationally collected point-of-care data were anchored for the period July-December 2008 and subsequently compared to this baseline in six 6-month reporting cycles for all services that submitted data in every time period (n = 30) using individual longitudinal multi-level random coefficient models. RESULTS Data were analysed for 19,747 patients (46 % female; 85 % cancer; 27,928 episodes of care; 65,463 phases). There were significant improvements across all domains (symptom control, family care, psychological and spiritual care) except pain. Simultaneously, the interquartile ranges decreased, jointly indicating that better and more consistent patient outcomes were being achieved. CONCLUSION These are the first national hospice/palliative care symptom control performance data to demonstrate improvements in clinical outcomes at a service level as a result of routine data collection and systematic feedback.

Exploring Australian intensive care physicians clinical judgement during donation after cardiac death : an exploratory qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD) is one possible solution to the world wide organ shortage. Intensive care physicians are central to DCD becoming successful since they are responsible for making the clinical judgements and decisions associated with DCD. Yet international evidence shows health care professionals have not embraced DCD and are often reluctant to consider it as an option for patients. PURPOSE: To explore intensive care physicians' clinical judgements when selecting a suitable DCD candidate. METHODS: Using interpretative exploratory methods six intensive care physicians were interviewed from three hospital sites in Australia. Following verbatim transcription, data was subjected to thematic analysis. FINDINGS: Three distinct themes emerged. Reducing harm and increasing benefit was a major focus of intensive care physicians during determination of DCD. There was an acceptance of DCD if there was clear evidence that donation was what the patient and family wanted. Characteristics of a defensible decision reflected the characteristics of sequencing, separation and isolation, timing, consensus and collaboration, trust and communication to ensure that judgements were robust and defensible. The final theme revealed the importance of minimising uncertainty and discomfort when predicting length of survival following withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. CONCLUSION: DCD decisions are made within an environment of uncertainty due to the imprecision associated with predicting time of death. Lack of certainty contributed to the cautious and collaborative strategies used by intensive care physicians when dealing with patients, family members and colleagues around end-of-life decisions, initiation of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and the discussion about DCD. This study recommends that nationally consistent policies are urgently needed to increase the degree of certainty for intensive care staff concerning the DCD processes.

Tales of science and defiance : the case for co-learning and collaboration in bridging the science/emotion divide in water recycling debates

Although science is generally assumed to be well integrated into rational decision-making models, it can be used to destabilise consultative processes, particularly when emotions are involved. Water policies are often seen as debates over technical and engineering issues, but can be highly controversial. Recycled water proposals, in particular, can create highly emotive conflicts. Through a case study regarding the rejection of recycled water proposals in the south-east Queensland, Australia, we explore the influence of science and emotions in contemporary water planning. We highlight the dangers inherent in promoting technical water planning issues at the expense of appropriate consideration of citizen concerns. Combining the science–policy interface and stakeholder engagement literatures, we advocate for collaborative decision-making processes that accommodate emotions and value judgements. A more collaborative stakeholder engagement model, founded on the principles of co-learning, has the potential to broaden the decision-making base and to promote better and more inclusive decision-making.