Party 25

Party 25 involved the conception and public launch of a radically new form of political party during that year’s Australian general election. The entire project was also intentioned as a conceptual artwork. Party 25 avoided conventional party-political approaches and was neither a protest group nor an advocacy organisation, but rather a new form of political association that confronted what we understood as the debilitating limits and impotence of contemporary parliamentary democracies in transitioning our societies towards ecological sustainability.----- Party 25 was based on responding to one fundamental question which all of its policies served - “how does humanity get to the 25th century?” By basing itself on a dramatically long-term approach uncommon within conventional politics it raised the proposition that humanity does not have an assured future. Party25 therefore shaped its agendas around the idea that any future now lies in human hands and so how humanity treats the ecologies on which it depends innately determines the quality of the inseparable relationship between its being, and the being of the biophysical world.----- The project was conceived through a number of discussion papers, workshops and creative works and was launched publicly at the Judith Wright Centre Brisbane accompanied by a full length showing of evocative imagery, text and sound, a series of speeches and the launch of a succinct web presence. Through the website and this party launch a community of interested participants and creative practitioners was sought who then would form the basis of a nascent community of change.

Sounds of the suburb

Sounds of the Suburb was a commissioned public art proposal based upon a brief set by Queensland Rail for the major redevelopment at their Brunswick Street Railway Station, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. I proposed a large scale, electronic artwork to be distributed across the glass fronted structure of their station’s new concourse building. It was designed as a network of LED based ‘tracking’ - along which would travel electronically animated, ‘trains’ of text synchronised to the actual train timetables. Each message packet moved endlessly through a complex spatial network of ‘tracks’ and ‘stations’ set both inside, outside and via the concourse. The design was underpinned by large scale image of sound waves etched onto the architecture’s glass and was accompanied by two inset monitors each presenting ghosted images of passenger movements within the concourse, time-delay recorded and then cross-combined in realtime to form new composites.----- Each moving, reprogrammable phrase was conceived as a ‘train of thought’ and ostensibly contained an idea or concept about popular cultures surrounding contemporary music – thereby meeting the brief that the work should speak to the diverse musical cultures central to Fortitude Valley’s image as an entertainment hub. These cultural ‘memes’, gathered from both passengers and the music press were situated alongside quotes from philosophies of networking, speed and digital ecologies. These texts would continually propagate, replicate and cross fertlise as they moved throughout the ‘network’, thereby writing a constantly evolving ‘textual soundcape’ of that place. This idea was further cemented through the pace, scale and rhythm of passenger movements continually recorded and re-presented on the smaller screens.

Access all

Access All was performance produced following a three-month mentorship in web-based performance that I was commissioned to conduct for the performance company Igneous. This live, triple-site performance event for three performers in three remote venues was specifically designed for presentation at Access Grid Nodes - conference rooms located around the globe equipped with a high end, open source computer teleconferencing technology that allowed multiple nodes to cross-connect with each other. Whilst each room was setup somewhat differently they all deployed the same basic infrastructre of multiple projectors, cameras, and sound as well as a reconfigurable floorspace. At that time these relatively formal setups imposed a clear series of limitations in terms of software capabilities and basic infrastructure and so there was much interest in understanding how far its capabilities might be pushed.----- Numerous performance experiments were undertaken between three Access Grid nodes in QUT Brisbane, VISLAB Sydney and Manchester Supercomputing Centre, England, culminating in the public performance staged simultaneously between the sites with local audiences at each venue and others online. Access All was devised in collaboration with interdisciplinary performance company Bonemap, Kelli Dipple (Interarts curator, Tate Modern London) and Mike Stubbs British curator and Director of FACT (Liverpool).----- This period of research and development was instigated and shaped by a public lecture I had earlier delivered in Sydney for the ‘Global Access Grid Network, Super Computing Global Conference’ entitled 'Performance Practice across Electronic Networks'. The findings of this work went on to inform numerous future networked and performative works produced from 2002 onwards.

here/there/then/now

here/there/then/now was a practice-led research project that brought together 10 independent artists in dance, music, theatre and visual/media arts to create a site-specific program within the walls of the Brisbane Powerhouse. The purpose was to explore how to best conceive flexible performance platforms, theatricalise site-specific work and engage new audiences through forms of promenade experience that could provide open choices on how and where to view it. The sold out season of 6 performances, which took place 14-19 May 2002, presented three discrete performance installations set in intimate parts of the building, each with their own aesthetic and communicative intention, culminating in a fourth in-theatre installation, where memories of the first three coalesced and were reinterrogated. Each site thereby investigated meaning-making via the moving body and its critical relationship with space and objects, in a dramatic re-contextualisation of traditional solo dance forms, now re-articulated through interdisciplinary practices. The benefit of this approach was the creation of a layered and multimodal experience that could be both shared and subsequently critiqued by performers and audience alike.

Review of Latecomers

This is a review of a poetry book by Jaya Savige (Latecomers, University of Qld Press, 2005), which explores contemporary poetics.

The experiences of teacher aides who support students with disabilities and learning difficulties : a phenomenological study

Schools in Queensland, Australia, are undergoing inclusive education reform, following the report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Inclusive Education (Students with Disabilities) in 2004. The State government’s responses to the taskforce report emphasise a commitment to social justice and equity so that all students can be included in ways that enable them to achieve their potential. Teacher aides are employed in schools as ancillary staff to support students with disabilities and learning difficulties. Their support roles in schools are emerging within an educational context in which assumptions about disability, difference and inclusion of students with disabilities and learning difficulties are changing. It is important to acknowledge teacher aides as support practitioners, and to understand their roles in relation to the inclusion of students with disabilities and learning difficulties as inclusive education reform continues. This study used a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of teacher aides as they supported students with disabilities and learning difficulties in primary schools. Four key insights into the support roles of teacher aides in primary schools in Brisbane, Queensland emerged from the study: 1) teacher aides develop empathetic relationships with students that contribute significantly to the students’ sense of belonging within school communities; 2) lack of clear definition of roles and responsibilities for teacher aides has detrimental effects on inclusion of students; 3) collaborative planning and implementation of classroom learning and socialisation programs enhances inclusion; and 4) teacher aides learn about supporting students while on-the-job, and in consultation and collaboration with other members of the students’ support networks.

Percutaneous insertion of Dual Growth Rods using a new mobile bearing implant

Growth rods are commonly used for the treatment of scoliosis in the immature spine. Many variations have been proposed but breakage of implants is a common problem. Growth rod insertion commonly involves large exposures at initial insertion followed by multiple smaller procedures for lengthening. We present our early experiences using a percutaneous technique of insertion of a new titanium mobile bearing implant (Medtronic Inc). The implant allows some rotatory motion in the middle of the construct thus reducing construct stresses and thus possibly reducing rod breakage risk. Based on this small initial series with 12 months follow-up, percutaneous insertion of growth rods using the new implant is a safe and reliable technique although the infection rate in our sample was of note. This may be related to the titanium wear and inflammation seen in the soft tissues at time of operation and visualised on histology. No implants have required removal due to infection, and all infections were treated with debridement at next lengthening and suppressive antibiotics. Propionibacterium is one of the commonest infections seen with spinal implants and sometimes does not respond to simple antibiotic suppression. The technique allows preservation of the soft tissues until definitive fusion is needed and may lead to a decrease in hospital stay. The implant is low profile and seems to offer advantages over other systems on the market. Further follow up is needed to look at longer term outcomes with this new implant type.

The mechanics of disc degeneration from an engineering and computational modelling viewpoint

The anatomy and microstructure of the spine and in particular the intervertebral disc are intimately linked to how they operate in vivo and how they distribute loads to the adjacent musculature and bony anatomy. The degeneration of the intervertebral discs may be characterised by a loss of hydration, loss of disc height, a granular texture and the presence of annular lesions. As such, degeneration of the intervertebral discs compromises the mechanical integrity of their components and results in adaption and modification in the mechanical means by which loads are distributed between adjacent spinal motion segments.

A new measure to quantify chest wall deformity in scoliosis patients : does rib hump measurement correlate with anterior chest wall deformity post surgery?

The primary aims of scoliosis surgery are to halt the progression of the deformity, and to reduce its severity (cosmesis). Currently, deformity correction is measured in terms of posterior parameters (Cobb angles and rib hump), even though the cosmetic concern for most patients is anterior chest wall deformity. In this study, we propose a new measure for assessing anterior chest wall deformity and examine the correlation between rib hump and the new measure. 22 sets of CT scans were retrieved from the QUT/Mater Paediatric Spinal Research Database. The Image J software (NIH) was used to manipulate formatted CT scans into 3-dimensional anterior chest wall reconstructions. A ‘chest wall angle’ was then measured in relation to the first sacral vertebral body. The chest wall angle was found to be a reliable tool in the analysis of chest wall deformity. No correlation was found between the new measure and rib hump angle. Since rib hump has been shown to correlate with vertebral rotation on CT, this suggests that there maybe no correlation between anterior and posterior deformity measures. While most surgical procedures will adequately address the coronal imbalance & posterior rib hump elements of scoliosis, they do not reliably alter the anterior chest wall shape. This implies that anterior chest wall deformity is to a large degree an intrinsic deformity, not directly related to vertebral rotation.

The anatomical and biomechanical consequences of anterior vertebral stapling for the fusionless correction of scoliosis

Fusionless scoliosis surgery is an emerging treatment for idiopathic scoliosis as it offers theoretical advantages over current forms of treatment. Anterior vertebral stapling using a nitinol staple is one such treatment. Despite increasing interest in this technique, little is known about the effects on the spine following insertion, or the mechanism of action of the staple. The aims of this study were threefold; (1) to measure changes in the bending stiffness of a single motion segment following staple insertion, (2) to describe the forces that occur within the staple during spinal movement, and (3) to describe the anatomical changes that occur following staple insertion. Results suggest that staple insertion consistently decreased stiffness in all directions of motion. An explanation for the finding may be found in the outcomes of the strain gauge testing and micro-CT scan. The strain gauge testing showed that once inserted, the staple tips applied a baseline compressive force to the surrounding trabecular bone and vertebral end-plate. This finding would be consistent with the current belief that the clinical effect of the staples is via unilateral compression of the physis. Interestingly however, as each specimen progressed through the five cycles of each test, the baseline load on the staple tips gradually decreased, implying that the force at the staple tip-bone interface was decreasing. We believe that this was likely occurring as a result of structural damage to the trabecular bone and vertebral end-plate by the staple effectively causing ‘loosening’ of the staple. This hypothesis is further supported by the findings of the micro-CT scan. The pictures depict significant trabecular bone and physeal injury around the staple blades. These results suggest that the current hypothesis that stapling modulates growth through physeal compression may be incorrect, but rather the effect occurs through mechanical disruption of the vertebral growth plate.

i-Cobb - An innovative technique in spinal radiographic measurement

The measurement of Cobb angles from radiographs is routine practice in spinal clinics. The technique relies on the use and availability of specialist equipment such as a goniometer, cobbometer or protractor. The aim of this study was to validate the use of i-Phone (Apple Inc) combined with Tilt Meter Pro software as compared to a protractor in the measurement of Cobb angles. Between November 2008 and December 2008 20 patients were selected at random from the Paediatric Spine Research Groups Database. A power calculation was performed which indicated if n=240 measurements the study had a 96% chance of detecting a 5 degree difference between groups. All patients had idiopathic scoliosis with a range of curve types and severities. The study found the i-Phone combined with Tilt Meter Pro software offers a faster alternative to the traditional method of Cobb angle measurement. The use of i-Phone offers a more convenient way of measuring Cobb angles in the outpatient setting. The intra-observer repeatability of the iPhone is equivalent to the protractor in the measurement of Cobb angles.

Lateral bone density variations in the scoliotic spine

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is the most common deformity of the spine, affecting 2-4% of the population. Previous studies have shown that the vertebrae in scoliotic spines undergo abnormal shape changes, however there has been little exploration of how AIS affects bone density distribution within the vertebrae. Existing pre-operative CT scans of 53 female idiopathic scoliosis patients with right-sided main thoracic curves were used to measure the lateral (right to left) bone density profile at mid-height through each vertebral body. This study demonstrated that AIS patients have a marked convex/concave asymmetry in bone density for vertebral levels at or near the apex of the scoliotic curve. To the best of our knowledge, the only previous studies of bone density distribution in AIS are those of Périé et al [1,2], who reported a coronal plane ‘mechanical migration’ of 0.54mm toward the concavity of the scoliotic curve in the lumbar apical vertebrae of 11 scoliosis patients. This is comparable to the value of 0.8mm (4%) in our study, especially since our patients had more severe scoliotic curves. From a bone adaptation perspective, these results suggest that the axial loading on the scoliotic spine is strongly asymmetric.

Challenging 'best practice' subtropical design

Genuine sustainability would require that urban development provide net positive social and ecological gains to compensate for previous lost natural capital and carrying capacity. Thus far, green buildings do not contribute to net sustainability. While they reduce relative resource consumption, they consume vast quantities of materials, energy and water.i Moreover, they replace land and ecosystems with structures that, at best, ‘mimic’ ecosystems. Elsewhere, the author has proposed a‘sustainability standard’, where development would leave the ecology, as well as society, better off after construction than before.ii To meet this standard, a development would need to add natural and social capital beyond what existed prior to development. Positive DesignTM or Positive DevelopmentTM is that which expands both the ecological base (life support system) and the public estate (equitable access to means of survival). How to achieve this is discussed in Positive Development (Birkeland 2008). This paper examines how net positive gains can be achieved in a ubtropical as well as temperate environment.

Creating a therapeutic environment : a non-randomised controlled trial of a quiet time intervention for patients in acute care

Background: Noise is a significant barrier to sleep for acute care hospital patients, and sleep has been shown to be therapeutic for health, healing and recovery. Scheduled quiet time interventions to promote inpatient rest and sleep have been successfully trialled in critical care but not in acute care settings. Objectives: The study aim was to evaluate as cheduled quiet time intervention in an acute care setting. The study measured the effect of a scheduled quiet time on noise levels, inpatients’ rest and sleep behaviour, and wellbeing. The study also examined the impact of the intervention on patients’, visitors’ and health professionals’ satisfaction, and organisational functioning. Design: The study was a multi-centred non-randomised parallel group trial. Settings: The research was conducted in the acute orthopaedic wards of two major urban public hospitals in Brisbane, Australia. Participants: All patientsadmitted to the two wards in the5-month period of the study were invited to participate, withafinalsample of 299 participants recruited. This sample produced an effect size of 0.89 for an increase in the number of patients asleep during the quiet time. Methods: Demographic data were collected to enable comparison between groups. Data for noise level, sleep status, sleepiness and well being were collected using previously validated instruments: a Castle Model 824 digital sound level indicator; a three point sleep status scale; the Epworth Sleepiness Scale; and the SF12 V2 questionnaire. The staff, patient and visitor surveys on the experimental ward were adapted from published instruments. Results: Significant differences were found between the two groups in mean decibel level and numbers of patients awake and asleep. The difference in mean measured noise levels between the two environments corresponded to a ‘perceived’ difference of 2 to 1. There were significant correlations between average decibel level and number of patients awake and asleep in the experimental group, and between average decibel level and number of patients awake in the control group. Overall, patients, visitors and health professionals were satisfied with the quiet time intervention. Conclusions: The findings show that a quiet time intervention on an acute care hospital ward can affect noise level and patient sleep/wake patterns during the intervention period. The overall strongly positive response from surveys suggests that scheduled quiet time would be a positively perceived intervention with therapeutic benefit.

Promoting sustainable urban development in fast growing city-regions : practices from Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong

The Asia‐Pacific region is characterised by rapid population growth and urbanisation. These trends often result in an increasing consumption of land, which in turn lead to spatially expansive and discontinuous urban development. As a consequence, local communities and the environment face strong pressures. Many cities in the region have developed policies to tackle the issue of rapid growth and its associated consequences, for example climate change. The broad aim of this paper is to identify the nature, trends and strategies of growth management in major Asia‐Pacific city‐regions, and their implications for natural resource management and infrastructure provision. More specifically, this research seeks to provide insights on sustainable urban development practice, particularly on the promotion of compact urbanisation within the Asia‐Pacific’s fastest growing regions. The methodology of the paper includes a detailed literature review and a comparative analysis of existing strategies and policies. The literature review focuses on the key concepts related to sustainable urban growth management. It also includes existing applications of urban growth management approaches and planning information system in managing growth. Following the literature review, the paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the strategies of major Asia‐Pacific city‐regions of Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong in terms of their approaches to sustainable urban development. The findings of the paper provide a clear understanding of the necessity of sustainable urban development practices. It contributes to the development of a substantial base for further research. Ultimately, this research aims to shed light on sustainable urban development by providing insights on the management of growth, natural resources and urban infrastructures.