Kiss

In an age of mobile phones, Facebook, Twitter and online dating, interactions in mediated environments often outnumber face to face encounters. Kiss is an interactive light artwork by artists Priscilla Bracks & Gavin Sade. Kiss reacts to people standing in front of the artwork looking at each other - the moment before kissing. Without interaction the work generates a seductive, ambient, red lighting display, that creates the restful sense of staring into a fire. A fleeting response of white light – like sparks flying in the air – occurs the moment before two faces touch. These sparks are visible in peripheral vision, but fade when the kissing couple turns to look at the work. This moment - as two people look at each other - is a primal moment when two people recognise each other. Face to face encounters with another person are a privileged phenomenon in which the other person's presence and proximity are strongly felt. Kiss does not respond to every instance of a kiss or a look. Its recognition algorithms are fussy, selecting some faces and not others. As in life it’s difficult to tell why sparks fly with some people but not with others. For some this will be felt as a glitch. “This machine should be part of my social life!” But it does promote trial and error, asking viewers to be intimate in public and look at each other for longer than otherwise socially normal. 10 minutes continuous eye contact is said in most cases to arouse sexual feelings in both parties. But even if we don’t look that long, a short time may be all that is needed to explore the face of the person we are looking at. We see that they are human like us. We experience beauty, difference, discomfort, perhaps even nervous laughing, before turning to a more intimate moment of recognition.

ACE research vignette 003 : different strokes for different folks - classification of entrepreneurial musicians and their use of online social networks

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team of international entrepreneurship researchers. In this vignette Dr Maria Kaya and Associate Professor Paul Steffens consider both the classification of musicians and their use of online social networks.

An exploratory study of the factors enhancing and inhibiting export growth in the Chilean wine industry

The objective of this exploratory study is to investigate the main drivers that enhance and inhibit the export performance of Chilean wineries. Based on survey data collected from Chilean wineries, the findings of this study suggest that the main constraints within the Chilean wineries in developing exports is the lack of financial resources, limited quantities of stocks for market expansion, management’s lack of knowledge and experience, and the high cost of travelling and participating in trade shows. The main drivers of wine export performance according to the respondents are high quality of the wines, well established network of international distributors, and marketing skills. The major inhibitors of developing wine exports are exchange rate variability, problems in selecting a reliable international distributor, and limited government support to promote wine exports. This study also shows that export managers of Chilean wineries have high educational levels and have international experience. The findings have important implications for export development efforts of both governments and managers.

Costco and the Aussie shopper : a case study of the market entry of an international retailer

Retailing is a globalized industry yet retailers must respond to local shopping habits if they are to be perceived as legitimate by the host country customers. However, some retailers may be unable or unwilling to respond to all customer requirements. Costco, the membership warehouse club retailer, has been successful in its international expansion efforts, establishing its first Australian store in Melbourne in 2009. In the first twelve months of operation, the store became one of Costco’s top five stores in the world. We investigate this success focussing on the customer, and use institutional theory to analyze what concessions were made by the customer and the company. Data were collected from consumer interviews, site visits and secondary media and industry sources. Analysis revealed negotiations based on the rejection, acceptance or adaptation of the regulative, normative and cultural cognitive aspects of the Australian shopper and the Costco business model. Customers made concessions to accommodate the new business model, and Costco responded to entrenched Australian shopping habits. This case is the first to explore the outcome of retail internationalization from the customers’ perspective, revealing the concept of mutual concessions. The interaction and subsequent adaptation by both customer and retailer have resulted in the institutionalization of new shopping norms in the host country and success for the international retailer.

Questioning pedagogies : Hong Kong pre-service teachers' dialogic reflections on a transnational school experience

There are increasing opportunities in many countries for pre-service teachers to engage in a transnational school-based experience as part of study abroad programmes. The transformative potential of such transnational teaching experiences is recorded in research studies, often supported by data from participant surveys. However, there has been a lack of evidence investigating how shifts in professional understanding derive from such experiences. This qualitative study addresses this issue by exploring the perspectives of 16 pre-service teachers of English as a Second language from Hong Kong, who engaged in transnational teaching activities with primary school pupils in Australia, during their study abroad program. Discourse analysis of participants’ dialogues traces how they encountered conflicting Discourses of ‘student-centredness’ in the Australian classroom. Reflecting dialogically on their experiences led participants to negotiate and reframe their understandings of language teaching pedagogy and themselves as language teachers. The findings demonstrate the importance of both peer and lecturer feedback into the process of dialogic reflection and the need for more longitudinal research into the impact of transnational school-based experience in pre-service teacher education.

Exploring information experience using social media during the 2011 Queensland floods : a pilot study

Social media networks have emerged as a powerful tool in allowing collaboration and sharing of information during times of crisis (Bruns, The Centre for Creative Industries Blog, comment posted on January 19,2011). The 2011 Queensland floods provided a unique opportunity to explore social media use during an emergency. This paper presents the findings of a pilot study that explored the information experiences of people using social media during the flooding of the Brisbane River. Analysis of data from four interviews supported the emergence of four categories of information experience. Examination of the categories revealed variation between the way in which individuals experienced social media and the point of the flooding at which each category of experience occurred. Information regarding individual’s use of social media has the potential to inform the development of social media platforms that can provide relevant and accessible information for the general public in event of a natural disaster.

Reality Bytes: Using Technology in Mooting

This article considers how law schools can facilitate the development of technology skills by using technology to enhance access to mooting in settings that replicate legal practice. The authors conducted research into the use of technology by Australian law schools for mooting and evaluated an internal mooting competition using Elluminate, an online communication platform available to students through Blackboard. The analysis of the results of the survey and the Elluminate competition will demonstrate that technology can be used in mooting to provide an authentic learning experience. The paper concludes that while it is essential to teach technology skills as part of legal education, it is important that the benefits of using technology are made clear in order for it to be accepted and embraced by the students. Technology must also be available to all students considering the widening participation in higher education and consequent increasing diversity of law students.

Users adoption of web 2.0 for knowledge management : position paper

Web 2.0 is a new generation of online applications on the web that permit people to collaborate and share information online. The use of such applications by employees in organisations enhances knowledge management (KM) in organisations. Employee involvement is a critical success factor as the concept is based on openness, engagement and collaboration between people where organizational knowledge is derived from employees experience, skills and best practices. Consequently, the employee's perception is recognized as being an important factor in web 2.0 adoption for KM and worthy of investigation. There are few studies that define and explore employee's enterprise 2.0 acceptance for KM. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature prior to demonstrating the findings as part of a preliminary conceptual model that represents the first stage of an ongoing research project that will end up with an empirical study. Reviewing available studies in technology acceptance, knowledge management and enterprise 2.0 literatures aids obtaining all potential user acceptance factors of enterprise 2.0. The preliminary conceptual model is a refinement of the theory of planed behaviour (TPB) as the user acceptance factors has been mapped into the TPB main components including behaviour attitude, subjective norms and behaviour control which are the determinant of individual's intention to a particular behaviour.

Creativity and the Australian suburbs : the appeal of suburban localities for the creative industries workforce

The locus of creative inspiration and production is commonly associated with either the dynamism of the inner city or with the natural landscape, with its Arcadian transformative associations. This article considers the spatiality of creative work in an in-between site: the outer suburbs in Australia. The outer suburbs occupy a conflicted status in the national imaginary: frequently regarded as the locus of consumption and materialism, they are localities which few associate with creativity or creative industries. Creative city discourse further instils the idea that all things creative occur only in the inner city. Yet Australia is a highly suburbanised country: the middle and outer suburbs are where most Australians live and work. This article challenges the perception that creativity is spatially clustered in the inner city. It is based on empirical and qualitative research that maps and investigates the experience of creative industries workers in outer-suburban localities of Brisbane and Melbourne. One of the key findings is the significance of the relationship between work and place for creative workers located in outer-suburban localities, rupturing assumptions about suburbia and “creative” inner-city enclaves.

Alternative primary sources for studying Australian television history : an annotated list of online private collections

It is possible to write many different histories of Australian television, and these different histories draw on different primary sources. The ABC of Drama, for example, draws on the ABC Document Archives (Jacka 1991). Most of the information for Images and Industry: television drama production in Australia is taken from original interviews with television production staff (Moran 1985). Ending the Affair, as well as archival work, draws on ‘over ten years of watching … Australian television current affairs’ (Turner 2005, xiii). Moran’s Guide to Australian TV Series draws exhaustively on extant archives: the ABC Document Archives, material sourced through the ABC Drama department, the Australian Film Commission, the library of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and the Australian Film Institute (Moran 1993, xi)...

“That you would post such a thing implies that you are a despicable human being”: spectatorship, social media, & the struggle for meaning in disability performance

Artists with disabilities working in Live Art paradigms often present performances which replay the social attitudes they are subject to in daily life as guerilla theatre in public spaces – including online spaces. In doing so, these artists draw spectators’ attention to the way their responses to disabled people contribute to the social construction of disability. They provide different theatrical, architectural or technological devices to encourage spectators to articulate their response to themselves and others. But – the use of exaggeration, comedy and confrontation in these practices notwithstanding – their blurry boundaries mean some spectators experience confusion as to whether they are responding to real life or a representation of it. This results in conflicted responses which reveal as much about the politics of disability as the performances themselves. In this paper, I examine how these conflicted responses play out in online forums. I discuss diverse examples, from blog comments on Liz Crow’s Resistance on the Plinth on YouTube, to Aaron Williamson and Katherine Araneillo’s Disabled Avant-Garde clips on YouTube, to Ju Gosling’s Letter Writing Project on her website, to segments of UK Channel 4’s mock reality show Cast Offs on YouTube. I demonstrate how online forums become a place not just for recording memories of an original performance (which posters may not have seen), but for a new performance, which goes well beyond re-membering/remediating the original. I identify trends in the way experience, memory and meaningmaking play out in these performative forums – moving from clarification of the original act’s parameters, to claims of disgust, insult or offense, to counter-claims confirming the comic or political efficacy of the act, often linked disclosure of personal memory or experience of disability. I examine the way these encounters at the interstices of live and/or online performance, memory, technology and public/private history negotiate ideas about disability, and what they tell us about the ethics and efficacy of the specific modes of performance and spectatorship these artists with disabilities are invoking.

Bicycling injuries and perceived risk

Introduction Government promotion of active transport has renewed interest in cycling safety. Research has shown that bicyclists are up to 20 times more likely to be involved in serious injury crashes than drivers. On-road cycling injuries are under-reported in police data, and many non-serious injuries are not recorded in any official database. This study aims to explore the relationships between rider characteristics and environmental factors that influence per kilometre risk of bicycle-related crash and non-crash injuries. Method A survey of 2,532 Queensland adults who had ridden at least once in the past year was conducted from October 2009 to March 2010, with most responses received online (99.3%). Riders were asked where they rode (footpath, bike path, road etc.), average travel speed, purpose of riding, type of bike ridden, how far and how often they rode in. Measures of rider experience, skill, safety perceptions, safety behaviours, crash involvement and demographic characteristics were also collected. RESULTS Increasing exposure and having more expensive bicycles were shown to reduce the risk per km of crash and non-crash injury rates, and to reduce perceived risk. Never wearing bright coloured clothing related to increased crash risk, use of fluorescent and reflective clothing had no effect on crash risk. Riding in low-speed environments, never using a front light, and riding in low-speed environments were associated with reduced non-crash injury risk. Perceived risk was influenced by exposure, use of conspicuity aids and helmets, riding for utilitarian reasons, and group-riding behaviours. DISCUSSION Perceived risk does not appear to influence injury rates and injury rates do not appear to influence the perceived risk of cycling. Riders who perceive cycling to be risky tend not to be commuters, do not engage in group riding and always wear helmets. Not all measures of conspicuity were associated with risk, with rear lights found to have no relationship to injury. The risks of experiencing a crash or non-crash injury were similar, therefore injury prevention strategies should expand their scope to include other factors such as the importance of bicycle set-up.

Perceiving and pursuing novelty : a grounded theory of adolescent creativity

Creativity plays an increasingly important role in our personal, social, educational, and community lives. For adolescents, creativity can enable self-expression, be a means of pushing boundaries, and assist learning, achievement, and completion of everyday tasks. Moreover, adolescents who demonstrate creativity can potentially enhance their capacity to face unknown future challenges, address mounting social and ecological issues in our global society, and improve their career opportunities and contribution to the economy. For these reasons, creativity is an essential capacity for young people in their present and future, and is highlighted as a priority in current educational policy nationally and internationally. Despite growing recognition of creativity’s importance and attention to creativity in research, the creative experience from the perspectives of the creators themselves and the creativity of adolescents are neglected fields of study. Hence, this research investigated adolescents’ self-reported experiences of creativity to improve understandings of their creative processes and manifestations, and how these can be supported or inhibited. Although some aspects of creativity have been extensively researched, there were no comprehensive, multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks of adolescent creativity to provide a foundation for this study. Therefore, a grounded theory methodology was adopted for the purpose of constructing a new theory to describe and explain adolescents’ creativity in a range of domains. The study’s constructivist-interpretivist perspective viewed the data and findings as interpretations of adolescents’ creative experiences, co-constructed by the participants and the researcher. The research was conducted in two academically selective high schools in Australia: one arts school, and one science, mathematics, and technology school. Twenty adolescent participants (10 from each school) were selected using theoretical sampling. Data were collected via focus groups, individual interviews, an online discussion forum, and email communications. Grounded theory methods informed a process of concurrent data collection and analysis; each iteration of analysis informed subsequent data collection. Findings portray creativity as it was perceived and experienced by participants, presented in a Grounded Theory of Adolescent Creativity. The Grounded Theory of Adolescent Creativity comprises a core category, Perceiving and Pursuing Novelty: Not the Norm, which linked all findings in the study. This core category explains how creativity involved adolescents perceiving stimuli and experiences differently, approaching tasks or life unconventionally, and pursuing novel ideas to create outcomes that are not the norm when compared with outcomes by peers. Elaboration of the core category is provided by the major categories of findings. That is, adolescent creativity entailed utilising a network of Sub-Processes of Creativity, using strategies for Managing Constraints and Challenges, and drawing on different Approaches to Creativity – adaptation, transfer, synthesis, and genesis – to apply the sub-processes and produce creative outcomes. Potentially, there were Effects of Creativity on Creators and Audiences, depending on the adolescent and the task. Three Types of Creativity were identified as the manifestations of the creative process: creative personal expression, creative boundary pushing, and creative task achievement. Interactions among adolescents’ dispositions and environments were influential in their creativity. Patterns and variations of these interactions revealed a framework of four Contexts for Creativity that offered different levels of support for creativity: high creative disposition–supportive environment; high creative disposition–inhibiting environment; low creative disposition–supportive environment; and low creative disposition–inhibiting environment. These contexts represent dimensional ranges of how dispositions and environments supported or inhibited creativity, and reveal that the optimal context for creativity differed depending on the adolescent, task, domain, and environment. This study makes four main contributions, which have methodological and theoretical implications for researchers, as well as practical implications for adolescents, parents, teachers, policy and curriculum developers, and other interested stakeholders who aim to foster the creativity of adolescents. First, this study contributes methodologically through its constructivist-interpretivist grounded theory methodology combining the grounded theory approaches of Corbin and Strauss (2008) and Charmaz (2006). Innovative data collection was also demonstrated through integration of data from online and face-to-face interactions with adolescents, within the grounded theory design. These methodological contributions have broad applicability to researchers examining complex constructs and processes, and with populations who integrate multimedia as a natural form of communication. Second, applicable to creativity in diverse domains, the Grounded Theory of Adolescent Creativity supports a hybrid view of creativity as both domain-general and domain-specific. A third major contribution was identification of a new form of creativity, educational creativity (ed-c), which categorises creativity for learning or achievement within the constraints of formal educational contexts. These theoretical contributions inform further research about creativity in different domains or multidisciplinary areas, and with populations engaged in formal education. However, the key contribution of this research is that it presents an original Theory and Model of Adolescent Creativity to explain the complex, multifaceted phenomenon of adolescents’ creative experiences.

Severe workplace conflict : the experience of mobbing

Workplace mobbing is a particularly serious phenomenon that is extremely costly to organizations and the health of those targeted. This article reports on a study of self-identified targets of mobbing. Findings support a five-stage process of mobbing, which commences with unresolved conflict and leads ultimately to expulsion from the organization. Participants report a number of experiences, such as lengthy investigations and escalation of conflict, that result in an increasingly unbalanced sense of power away from the individual and towards the organization. Revealed is a mismatch between the expected organizational justice processes and support and the actual experience. Recommendations for approaching this problem are discussed.