Enacted Cartography : Formations - 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale

RESEARCH BACKGROUND Enacted Cartography documents 10 years of creative research practice by Ian Weir Research Architect and was developed as standalone exhibition to support Dr Weir’s selection by the Australian Institute of Architects to represent innovative architectural practice via the Institute’s review entitled Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture – which took the form of an exhibition and book presented in Venice, Italy for 13th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale). All works exhibited in Enacted Cartography are original works by Dr Weir and are generated either from or for the remote biodiverse landscapes of the Fitzgerald Bioregion on the south coast of Western Australia. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION As a creative work in its own right, the Enacted Cartography exhibition makes the following contributions to knowledge: 1. Expands understandings of architectural practice by presenting a geographically-specific but multimodal form of architectural practice - wherein practitioners cross over discipline boundaries into art practice, landscape representation, website design, undergraduate university teaching and community advocacy. 2. Contributes to understandings of how such a diverse multimodal form of practice might be represented through both digital media and traditional print media in an exhibition format. 3. Expands understandings of how architectural practitioners might work within a particular place to develop a geographically-specific sense of identity, a ‘landscape of resistance’. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Enacted Cartography was presented to an international audience during the 13th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale). The significance of Dr Weir’s research is evidence by his selected by the Australian Institute of Architects to represent innovation in architectural practice for the Biennale. Enacted Cartography addresses problems of national and international importance including: 1. The sustainable development of biodiverse remote landscapes; 2. The reconciliation of bushfire safety and biodiversity conservation; 3. The necessity for rethinking of architectural design methodologies to meet the complexity of landscape management and design; 4. It challenges orthodox forms of landscape representation (aerial photography, for example) which are demonstrably inadequate registrations of biophysical and cultural landscapes.

Wherefore art thou, inclusion? Analysing the development of inclusive education in New South Wales, Finland and Alberta

Over the last two decades, moves toward “inclusion” have prompted change in the formation of education policies, schooling structures and pedagogical practice. Yet, exclusion through the categorisation and segregation of students with diverse abilities has grown; particularly for students with challenging behaviour. This paper considers what has happened to inclusive education by focusing on three educational jurisdictions known to be experiencing different rates of growth in the identification of special educational needs: New South Wales (Australia), Alberta (Canada) and Finland (Europe). In our analysis, we consider the effects of competing policy forces that appear to thwart the development of inclusive schools in two of our case-study regions.

Developing capabilities for social inclusion : engaging diversity through inclusive school communities

The effort to make schools more inclusive, together with the pressure to retain students until the end of secondary school, has greatly increased both the number and educational requirements of students enrolling in their local school. Of critical concern, despite years of research and improvements in policy, pedagogy and educational knowledge, is the enduring categorisation and marginalization of students with diverse abilities. Research has shown that it can be difficult for schools to negotiate away from the pressure to categorise or diagnose such students, particularly those with challenging behaviour. In this paper, we highlight instances where some schools have responded to increasing diversity by developing new cultural practices to engage both staff and students; in some cases, decreasing suspension while improving retention, behaviour and performance.

Data transformations in custom digital workflows : property graphs as a data model for user-defined mappings

This paper describes the use of property graphs for mapping data between AEC software tools, which are not linked by common data formats and/or other interoperability measures. The intention of introducing this in practice, education and research is to facilitate the use of diverse, non-integrated design and analysis applications by a variety of users who need to create customised digital workflows, including those who are not expert programmers. Data model types are examined by way of supporting the choice of directed, attributed, multi-relational graphs for such data transformation tasks. A brief exemplar design scenario is also presented to illustrate the concepts and methods proposed, and conclusions are drawn regarding the feasibility of this approach and directions for further research.

Affect and inarticulacy : the silent voice of the artist

This paper is based on a practice-led research project I conducted into the artist’s ‘voice’ as part of my PhD. The artist’s ‘voice’ is, I argue, comprised of a dual motivation—'articulate' representation and ‘inarticulate’ affect—two things which do not necessarily derive from the artist; two things that are in effect, trans-subjective. Within this paper I will explore the ‘inarticulate’ through the later Lyotard’s affect-phrase, in conjunction with the example of my own painting and digital arts practice, to show just how this unknown can be mapped and understood as generative. As a visual artist my primary interest is in abstraction; I am curious about the emergence of pictorial significance and content from affect’s seemingly unknowable space. My studio practice occasions a sense of borderlessness, and uncertainty where each work or body of work ‘leaks’ into the next, exploring the unfamiliar through the powerful and restless discursive silence of affect. It is within this silence that is performed the disturbing yet generative disconnect that is the affect-phrase. This I contend is apparent in art’s manifest materiality that is, its degree of abstraction and muteness. For the later Lyotard, affect disrupts articulation by injuring or violating the rules of the genres of discourse. For this to be evident one needs to attend to the subtleties of how affect may ‘animate’ discourse. In other words how affect’s discursive disruption activates art’s resistance to definitive interpretation generating even demanding diverse ‘meaning’ creation for art, the abstract, and critical discourse.

Wicked futures : metadesign, resilience and transformative classrooms

This paper presents an Australian case study entitled “Designing Futures”. It examines a six month multidisciplinary design program offered by a large co-educational, inner-city state school in Queensland in 2011. The program extended an already successful and innovative school-based design curriculum and involved students in Philosophy, Science, Mathematics and English classes, as well those in Art and Design. Additionally, there were 5 full-day workshops where students combined a wide range of skills to brainstorm, design and create sustainable solutions. The design thinking used in this program was based on the concepts of metadesign, design activism and design futuring. “Designing Futures” linked over 700 middle and secondary school students and staff with nine designers-in-residence from diverse disciplines, including bio-ethics. The program aimed to empower students from highly diverse cultural and social backgrounds to engage in authentic, participatory design processes, prepare them for future social and environmental challenges, and increase personal and community resilience. The research results will inform ongoing program development and research in K-12 design education, both within the school and in conjunction with university and community partnerships in Queensland.