Integrating Creative Practice and Research in the Digital Media Arts

Research is often characterised as the search for new ideas and understanding. The language of this view privileges the cognitive and intellectual aspects of discovery. However, in the research process theoretical claims are usually evaluated in practice and, indeed, the observations and experiences of practical circumstances often lead to new research questions. This feedback loop between speculation and experimentation is fundamental to research in many disciplines, and is also appropriate for research in the creative arts. In this chapter we will examine how our creative desire for artistic expressivity results in interplay between actions and ideas that direct the development of techniques and approaches for our audio/visual live-coding activities.

Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage : Inquiry into a Sustainability Charter by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation

The Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation1 (hereafter called Construction Innovation) supports the notion of the establishment of a Sustainability Charter for Australia and is interested in working collaboratively to achieve this outcome. A number of challenges need to be addressed to develop this Charter. This submission outlines these challenges and possible responses to them by a Sustainability Commission.

Young children’s experience of visual displays of their artwork

The practice of displaying children's artwork in early childhood classrooms poses a number of questions about the child and his or her visual artwork. This paper focuses on young children’s experiences with the display of their own visual artwork. Following Giorgi's (1985a; 1985b) approach to conducting phenomenological psychological research, 13 children between the ages of 4 and 6 years attending an independent school outside metropolitan Detroit, Michigan (USA) participated in semi-structured interviews as a way of uncovering their lived experiences of seeing their artwork displayed. The study yielded 12 essential themes and from these three key issues and their implications for early childhood art education are explored.

Completing the jigsaw : ESL and EFL undergraduate views on interactive peer-based learning

English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students often face incongruence with Western teaching methods and learning expectations. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential for interactive peer-based learning to engage ESL and EFL language learners provide authentic communication experiences and accelerate learning through two case studies in different contexts. A study was undertaken to investigate student ‘voice’ (Rudduck, 1999, 2005; Rudduck & Flutter, 2004) during an intervention of communicative language teaching using peer-based learning strategies. This article describes unique similarities and subtle differences between ESL and EFL undergraduate learning in two different cultural contexts, using a 'stages of learning matrix' teaching tool to encourage civic skills and self-efficacy. It also suggests ways for teachers to improve on inconsistencies in group-based learning in order to promote more inclusive and congruent learning experiences for English language learners.

A strategy for making media

It’s never been easier for rights advocates to create and distribute their own media productions, using text, audio, video and the internet. Rights advocates can make media to raise awareness about an issue, to convey new information that is not in the public domain, or to mobilise people to take action. However, careful planning, in the form of a strategy document, is essential to ensure that the media you make genuinely contributes to reaching your advocacy goals. Whether you are an individual rights advocate, a group or an organisation, this chapter will take you through the steps involved in creating a strategic plan for making any kind of media as part of a campaign or project.

The critical in Ken

That Kenneth Frampton has had a significant impact on architectural thinking in Australia was recently demonstrated by his visit, which included two well-attended public lectures and a one-day symposium dedicated to his thinking and writing. Billed as part of the Year of the Built Environment celebrations, these were hosted by the New South Wales chapter of the RAIA, the UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Richard Francis-Jones of FJMT coordinated the symposium, which comprised presentations divided into two sessions, entitled - predictably through no doubt with good intentions - 'Theory' and 'Practice', with four academics and four practitioners in each. Frampton sat to the side throughout, and delivered his own response between them,noting his discomfort in seemingly straddling this divide, as an architect first, then writer and academic, later. Predictably, the familiar Critical Regionalism argument was the mainstay of the day, perhaps the easiest to handle and now almost automatic, despite the fact that Frampton noted when questioned that he hasn't talked much about it in the last 10 years.

Taranaki wharf in Wellington

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, located on the southern tip of the North Island, and is a windy city, the southern-most capital city in the world and the only in the Roaring Forties. In climate it is closer to its neighbour, the South Island than to the mild major city of the north, Auckland. Yet despite, or perhaps because of this, Wellington is the undisputed cultural capital of New Zealand, with much contem porary art, design music and media coming from this town that has an absurd amount of hip bars and cafes for a population this size: 164,000 approximately. The conjunction in Lord of the Rings of incredible nature and amazing production seems to characterise the rich culture/nature hybrid that Wellington distils, the microcosm of the things that make New Zealand such an incredible place.