Preparing for performance capture #1

This video article articulates two exercises that have been developed to respond to the need for preparedness in the growing field of Performance Capture. The first is called Walking Through (Delbridge 2013), where the actor navigates a series of objects that exist in screen space through a developed sense of the existing physical particularities of the studio and an interaction with a screen (or feedback loop). The second exercise is called The Donut (Delbridge 2013), where the performer continues to navigate screen space but this time does so through the literal stepping through of a Torus in the virtual – again with nothing but the studio infrastructure and the screen as a guide. Notions of Motion Captured performance infer the existence of an interface that combines performer with system, separating (or intervening in) the space between performance and the screen. It is precisely the effect and provided opportunity of the intermediary device on the practice, craft and preparedness of the actor as they navigate the connection between 3D screen space and the physical properties of the studio that is examined here. Defining the scope of current practice for the contemporary actor is a key construct of this challenge, with the most appropriate definition revolving around the provision of a required mixture of performance and content for live, mediated, framed and variously captured formats. One of these particular formats is Performance Capture. The exercises presented here are two from a series, developed over a three year study that contribute to our understanding of the potential for a training regimen to be developed for the rigors of Performance Capture.

Contemporary actor training in Australia

This professional doctorate included a major research project investigating the efficacy of acting methodologies taught at four leading Australian actor-training institutions - National Institute of Dramatic Art, Queensland University of Technology, Victorian College of the Arts, and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. This study represents the first review of its kind, in which the 'castability' of acting graduates from each of these schools was scrutinized by industry leaders. The study not only reveals the methodologies and philosophies of each school but determines an ideal set of practices for future consideration. The doctorate also included two practice-led projects examining the candidate's transition from actor and teacher of actors to theatre director. The candidate's qualitative study was also underpinned by reflective practice on her extensive professional experience as actor, teacher and director.

Motion capture and the future of virtual production

Motion capture continues to be adopted across a range of creative fields including, animation, games, visual effects, dance, live theatre and the visual arts. This panel will discuss and showcase the use of motion capture across these creative fields and consider the future of virtual production in the creative industries.

Agent-based model of passenger flows in airport terminals

Passenger flow studies in airport terminals have shown consistent statistical relationships between airport spatial layout and pedestrian movement, facilitating prediction of movement from terminal designs. However, these studies are done at an aggregate level and do not incorporate how individual passengers make decisions at a microscopic level. Therefore, they do not explain the formation of complex movement flows. In addition, existing models mostly focus on standard airport processing procedures such as immigration and security, but seldom consider discretionary activities of passengers, and thus are not able to truly describe the full range of passenger flows within airport terminals. As the route-choice decision-making of passengers involves many uncertain factors within the airport terminals, the mechanisms to fulfill the capacity of managing the route-choice have proven difficult to acquire and quantify. Could the study of cognitive factors of passengers (i.e. human mental preferences of deciding which on-airport facility to use) be useful to tackle these issues? Assuming the movement in virtual simulated environments can be analogous to movement in real environments, passenger behaviour dynamics can be similar to those generated in virtual experiments. Three levels of dynamics have been devised for motion control: the localised field, tactical level, and strategic level. A localised field refers to basic motion capabilities, such as walking speed, direction and avoidance of obstacles. The other two fields represent cognitive route-choice decision-making. This research views passenger flow problems via a "bottom-up approach", regarding individual passengers as independent intelligent agents who can behave autonomously and are able to interact with others and the ambient environment. In this regard, passenger flow formation becomes an emergent phenomenon of large numbers of passengers interacting with others. In the thesis, first, the passenger flow in airport terminals was investigated. Discretionary activities of passengers were integrated with standard processing procedures in the research. The localised field for passenger motion dynamics was constructed by a devised force-based model. Next, advanced traits of passengers (such as their desire to shop, their comfort with technology and their willingness to ask for assistance) were formulated to facilitate tactical route-choice decision-making. The traits consist of quantified measures of mental preferences of passengers when they travel through airport terminals. Each category of the traits indicates a decision which passengers may take. They were inferred through a Bayesian network model by analysing the probabilities based on currently available data. Route-choice decision-making was finalised by calculating corresponding utility results based on those probabilities observed. Three sorts of simulation outcomes were generated: namely, queuing length before checkpoints, average dwell time of passengers at service facilities, and instantaneous space utilisation. Queuing length reflects the number of passengers who are in a queue. Long queues no doubt cause significant delay in processing procedures. The dwell time of each passenger agent at the service facilities were recorded. The overall dwell time of passenger agents at typical facility areas were analysed so as to demonstrate portions of utilisation in the temporal aspect. For the spatial aspect, the number of passenger agents who were dwelling within specific terminal areas can be used to estimate service rates. All outcomes demonstrated specific results by typical simulated passenger flows. They directly reflect terminal capacity. The simulation results strongly suggest that integrating discretionary activities of passengers makes the passenger flows more intuitive, observing probabilities of mental preferences by inferring advanced traits make up an approach capable of carrying out tactical route-choice decision-making. On the whole, the research studied passenger flows in airport terminals by an agent-based model, which investigated individual characteristics of passengers and their impact on psychological route-choice decisions of passengers. Finally, intuitive passenger flows in airport terminals were able to be realised in simulation.

Postnatal depression in Central Vietnam

Postnatal depression (PND) is a significant global health issue, which not only impacts maternal wellbeing, but also infant development and family structures. Mental health disorders represent approximately 14% of global burden of disease and disability, including low and middle-income countries (LMIC), and PND has direct relevance to the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and creating global partnerships (United Nations, 2012; Guiseppe, Becker & Farmer, 2011). Emerging evidence suggests that PND in LMIC is similar to, or higher than in high-income countries (HIC), however, less than 10% of LMIC have prevalence data available (Fisher, Cabral de Mello, & Izutsu 2009; Lund et al., 2011). Whilst a small number of studies on maternal mental disorders have been published in Vietnam, only one specifically focuses on PND in a hospital-based sample. Also, community based mental health studies and information on mental health in rural areas of Vietnam is still scarce. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of PND, and its associated social determinants in postnatal women in Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Vietnam. In order to identify social determinants relevant to the Central Vietnamese context, two qualitative studies and one community survey were undertaken. Associations between maternal mental health and infant health outcomes were also explored. The study was comprised of three phases. Firstly, iterative, qualitative interviews with Vietnamese health professionals (n = 17) and postpartum women (n = 15) were conducted and analysed using Kleinman's theory of explanatory models to identify narratives surrounding PND in the Vietnamese context (Kleinman, 1978). Secondly, a participatory concept mapping exercise was undertaken with two groups of health professionals (n = 12) to explore perceived risk and protective factors for postnatal mental health. Qualitative phases of the research elucidated narratives surrounding maternal mental health in the Vietnamese context such as son preference, use of traditional medicines, and the popularity of confinement practices such as having one to three months of complete rest. The qualitative research also revealed the construct of depression was not widely recognised. Rather, postpartum changes in mood were conceptualised as a loss of 'vital strength' following childbirth or 'disappointment'. Most women managed postpartum changes in mood within the family although some sought help from traditional medicine practitioners or biomedical doctors. Thirdly, a cross-sectional study of twelve randomly selected communes (six urban, six rural) in Thua Thien Hue Province was then conducted. Overall, 465 women with infants between 4 weeks and six months old participated, and 431 questionnaires were analysed. Women from urban (n = 216) and rural (n = 215) areas participated. All eligible women completed a structured interview about their health, basic demographics, and social circumstances. Maternal depression was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) as a continuous variable. Multivariate generalised linear regression was conducted using PASW Statistics version 18.0 (2009). When using the conventional EPDS threshold for probable depression (EPDS score ~ 13) 18.1% (n = 78) of women were depressed (Gibson, McKenzie-McHarg, Shakespeare, Price & Gray, 2009). Interestingly, 20.4% of urban women (n = 44) had EPDS scores~ 13, which was a higher proportion than rural women, where 15.8% (n = 34) had EPDS scores ~ 13, although this difference was not statistically significant: t(429) = -0.689, p = 0.491. Whilst qualitative narratives identified infant gender and family composition, and traditional confinement practices as relevant to postnatal mood, these were not statistically significant in multivariate analysis. Rather, poverty, food security, being frightened of your husband or family members, experiences of intimate partner violence and breastfeeding difficulties had strong statistical associations. PND was also associated with having an infant with diarrhoea in the past two weeks, but not infant malnutrition or acute respiratory infections. This study is the first to explore maternal mental health in Central Vietnam, and provides further evidence that PND is a universally experienced phenomenon. The independent social risk factors of depressive symptoms identified such as poverty, food insecurity, experiences of violence and powerlessness, and relationship adversity points to women in a context of social suffering which is relevant throughout the world (Kleinman, Das & Lock, 1997). The culturally specific risk factors explored such as infant gender were not statistically significant when included in a multivariable model. However, they feature prominently in qualitative narratives surrounding PND in Vietnam, both in this study and previous literature. It appears that whilst infant gender may not be associated with PND per se, the reactions of close relatives to the gender of the baby can adversely affect maternal wellbeing. This study used a community based participatory research approach (CBPR) (Israel.2005). This approach encourages the knowledge produced to be used for public health interventions and workforce training in the community in which the research was conducted, and such work has commenced. These results suggest that packages of interventions for LMIC devised to address maternal mental health and infant wellbeing could be applied in Central Vietnam. Such interventions could include training lay workers to follow up postpartum women, and incorporating mental health screening and referral into primary maternal and child health care (Pate! et al., 2011; Rahman, Malik, Sikander & Roberts, 2008). Addressing the underlying social determinants of PND through poverty reduction and violence elimination programs is also recommended.

Complications of perioperative warfarin therapy in total knee arthroplasty

Patients presenting for knee replacement on warfarin for medical reasons often require higher levels of anticoagulation peri-operatively than primary thromboprophylaxis and may require bridging therapy with heparin. We performed a retrospective case control study on 149 consecutive primary knee arthroplasty patients to investigate whether anti-coagulation affected short-term outcomes. Specific outcome measures indicated significant increases in prolonged wound drainage (26.8% of cases vs 7.3% of controls, p<0.001); superficial infection (16.8% vs 3.3%, p<0.001); deep infection (6.0% vs 0%, p<0.001); return-to-theatre for washout (4.7% vs 0.7%, p=0.004); and revision (4.7% vs 0.3%, p=0.001). Management of patients on long-term warfarin therapy following TKR is particularly challenging, as the surgeon must balance risk of thromboembolism against post-operative complications on an individual patient basis in order to optimise outcomes.

The influence of digital technology on the performance space

Through practice-led research, TESSA SMALLHORN examines the influence of digital technology on the performance space. From the mechanisation of modernist culture to the digitalisation of present day, technology acts as response material for scenographers investigating the stage as machine. The interactive, real-time tools of digital culture encourage a systems-orientated approach that challenges user and operator alike. This article explores the studio practice and critical theory that was combined to offer a functional model of a digital stage machine.

Folk opera : stories crossing borders in Papua New Guinea

The Life Drama project is a drama-based sexual health promotion project, developed by a cross-cultural research team in Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the past four years. Recognising the limitations of established theatre-in-education and theatre-for-development approaches when working across cultures, the research team explored ways of tapping into the everyday performativity of PNG participants and their communities in order to communicate more powerfully about the personal and social issues involved in sexual health. Through the Folk Opera form, developed by PNG theatre company Raun Raun Theatre around the time of national Independence, the research explored the importance of "story" in identity formation, maintenance and change, the communication of meaning, and the transmission of tacit local knowledges. In a highly diverse and rapidly-changing country like PNG, enacted stories inherently compel the exchange and exploration of different knowledges, and promote the dialogue and ownership that drives social change. The paper will present and unpack the Folk Opera form as developed in the Life Drama program, drawing conclusions which may apply to other programs which to promote health and social justice across cultures.

Enhancing the current density of electrodeposited ZnO--Cu2O solar cells by engineering their heterointerfaces

Using ZnO seed layers, an efficient approach for enhancing the heterointerface quality of electrodeposited ZnO–Cu2O solar cells is devised. We introduce a sputtered ZnO seed layer followed by the sequential electrodeposition of ZnO and Cu2O films. The seed layer is employed to control the growth and crystallinity and to augment the surface area of the electrodeposited ZnO films, thereby tuning the quality of the ZnO–Cu2O heterointerface. Additionally, the seed layer also assists in forming high quality ZnO films, with no pin-holes, in a high pH electrolyte solution. X-ray electron diffraction patterns, scanning electron and atomic force microscopy images, as well as photovoltaic measurements, clearly demonstrate that the incorporation of certain seed layers results in the alteration of the heterointerface quality, a change in the heterojunction area and the crystallinity of the films near the junction, which influence the current density of photovoltaic devices.

Othering the Malay in Malaysia : a planned consequence of politics?

This paper examines the rise in the politicisation of Islam in Malaysia and links it to the othering of the Malaysian Malay. It is my argument that both were “conquering” tools of Malaysia’s “Father of Modernisation”, Mahathir Mohamad, devised to win the support of the Malay Muslim majority in Malaysia. The many awards bestowed on Mahathir obscure the fact that he was instrumental in the systematic erosion of the power and roles of state institutions, especially at the Federal government level. This includes the significant loss of the independence of the Malaysian judiciary. Whilst per capita income in Malaysia may well have increased eight times under his 22-year leadership, this paper asks why is it that the majority of the Malays remain the largest number among the poor and the more disenfranchised of ethnicities in the country? Why have Malay and Muslim women suffered such a rapid decreasing ability to access justice? This paper examines existing research on the social and political changes Malaysia has experienced with Islamisation and under Mahathir’s rule, as well as studies on Malayness, Malay nationalism and Muslim Malay identity formation. The paper elaborates the othering of a majority people, the Malays in Malaysia, and how this othering has brought forth a fast-growing political power in the name of a supremacist Islam, a puritanical Sunni and Malay Islam. Specific events in the rise and rule of Mahathir as Malaysia’s then Prime Minister are reviewed, such as the banning of The Malay Dilemma, and the split in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1987. Also examined is the varying emphasis between Muslim and race, and how during Mahathir’s rule, that strong misogynist and patriarchal attitudes took hold in Malay Muslim consciousness, a colonising consciousness that is othering the perceived cultural and genetic “impurities” within the Malay.

The ZomPoc Project. A Large Scale Public ARG Event

An experiment in large scale, live, game design and public performance, bringing together participants from across the creative arts to design, deliver and document a project that was both a cooperative learning experience and an experimental public performance. The four month project, funded by the Edge Digital Centre, culminated into a 24 hour ARG event involving over 100 participants in December 2012. Using the premise of a viral outbreak, young enthusiasts auditioned for the roles of Survivor, Zombie, Medic and Military. The main objective was for the Survivors to complete a series of challenges over 24 hours, while the other characters fulfilled their opposing objectives of interference and sabotage supported by both scripted and free-form scenarios staged in constructed scenes throughout the venues. The event was set in the State Library of Queensland and the Edge Digital Centre who granted the project full access, night and day to all areas including public, office and underground areas. These venues were transformed into cinematic settings full of interactive props and various audio-visual effects. The ZomPoc Project was an innovative experiment in writing and directing a large scale, live, public performance, bringing together participants from across the creative industries. In order to design such an event a number of innovative resources were developed exploiting techniques of game design, theatre, film, television and tangible media production. A series of workshops invited local artists, scientists, technicians and engineers to find new ways of collaborating to create networked artifacts, experimental digital works, robotic props, modular set designs, sound effects and unique costuming guided by an innovative multi-platform script developed by Deb Polson. The result of this collaboration was the creation of innovative game and set props, both atmospheric and interactive. Such works animated the space, presented story clues and facilitated interactions between strangers who found themselves sharing a unique experience in unexpected places.

Behind the cane

Composed by David Bridie and Andree Greenwell with script and lyrics by Margery Forde and Michael Forde, BEHIND THE CANE was community-driven music theatre, commissioned specially as the signature work the 2011 Queensland Music Festival. Co-presented by the QMF and the Whitsunday Regional Council in association with QUT Creative Industries, BEHIND THE CANE was created with and performed by over 180 Bowen residents and told the story of the South Sea Islanders who were brought to Australia to work in the cane fields in the 19 century and the journey of their descendants through the succeeding generations, through racial discrimination and economic hardship, to the present day. The large-scale spectacle event was performed the Sound shell on the Bowen harbour foreshore to audiences of 8,000 over 3 performances and included many of the descendants in featured roles.

Block models for improved earthwork allocation planning in linear infrastructure construction

Earthwork planning has been considered in this article and a generic block partitioning and modelling approach has been devised to provide strategic plans of various levels of detail. Conceptually this approach is more accurate and comprehensive than others, for instance those that are section based. In response to environmental concerns the metric for decision making was fuel consumption and emissions. Haulage distance and gradient are also included as they are important components of these metrics. Advantageously the fuel consumption metric is generic and captures the physical difficulties of travelling over inclines of different gradients, that is consistent across all hauling vehicles. For validation, the proposed models and techniques have been applied to a real world road project. The numerical investigations have demonstrated that the models can be solved with relatively little CPU time. The proposed block models also result in solutions of superior quality, i.e. they have reduced fuel consumption and cost. Furthermore the plans differ considerably from those based solely upon a distance based metric thus demonstrating a need for industry to reflect upon their current practices.

Found in translation : debating the abstract elements of cultures through actor training styles

While the synthesis of acting methodologies in intercultural acting has been discussed at length, little discussion has focussed on the potential of diverse actor training styles to affect performance making and audience reception. This article explores a project where the abstract elements of the British and American cultures were translated in rehearsal and in production through the purposeful juxtaposition of two differing actor training styles: the British ‘traditional’ approach and the American Method. William Nicholson’s Shadowlands was produced by Crossbow Productions at the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2010. Nicholson’s play contains a discourse on the cultural cringe of British – American relations. As a research project, the production aimed to extend and augment audience experience of the socio-cultural tensions inherent in the play by juxtaposing two seemingly culturally inscribed approaches to acting. Actors were chosen who had been trained under a traditional conservatoire approach and the American Method. A brief overview of these acting approaches is followed by a discussion centred on the project. This article analyses how from the casting room to the rehearsal room to the mise en scene and into the audience discussions, cultural issues were articulated, translated and debated through the language of acting.

A pre-clinical functional assessment of an acellular scaffold intended for the treatment of hard-to-heal wounds

Dermal wound healing is a biochemical and cellular process critical to life. While the majority of the population will only ever experience successful wound healing outcomes, some 1-3 % of those aged over 65 years will experience wound healing delay or perpetuation. These hard-to-heal wounds are comprised of degraded and dysfunctional extracellular matrix, yet the integrity of this structure is critical in the processes of normal wound healing. As such, extracellular matrix replacements have been devised that can replace dysfunctional extracellular matrix in hard-to-heal wounds with the aim of restoring normal wound healing processes. Here we evaluated a novel synthetic matrix protein for its ability to act as an acellular scaffold that can replace dysfunctional extracellular matrix. In this regard the synthetic protein demonstrated an ability to rapidly adsorb to the dermal surface, permit cell attachment and facilitate the cellular functions essential to wound healing. When applied to deep partial thickness wounds in a porcine animal model the matrix protein also demonstrated the ability to reduce wound duration. These data provide evidence that the synthetic matrix protein has the ability to function as an acellular scaffold for wound healing purposes.