Cross-artform creative practice as still-life recovery: Chinese-Western materialisms of time, writing and death

As argued by Norman Bryson, the still-life genre is sorely neglected by theorists and critics, largely because its concern with ‘low-plane reality’ (everyday items and acts) has obscured its genuine relevance to material thinking. By reappraising rather than abandoning the genre’s traditional themes of death and time—using a cross-cultural, Chinese-Western approach—it is possible to re-energise materialisms of time, writing and death within still life. Such a move depends above all on a re-evaluation of still life as ‘Vanitas’—the term which to date has unified, and more to the point limited, traditional still-life understandings of death and time. This article tracks a more explosive and creative materialism of still life simultaneously through the specifically Chinese approach to death (which includes the ‘Yin Yang’ 阴阳 as a sort of author of time) and via Gilles Deleuze’s cinematic philosophy of the time-image; what connects these is the very Deleuzean notion of time that subtends Chinese engagements with death. In this way, the still-life genre may be recovered from its current critical and theoretical malaise. Reconnecting with practice is a crucial aspect of this recovery, and so in its early stages this article analyses an example of still-life, creative non-fiction (authored by Cher Coad), and it concludes by establishing the value of this potentially ‘new chapter of the “still life” genre’ (in Matilde Marcolli’s terms) for the cross-artform analysis of the short story ‘Nhill’ (authored by Patrick West). Analysis, though, is only half the picture: a fully recovered still-life genre would see theory and practice endlessly circulating through each other, spurring on practice and impelling theory. Coad’s and West’s literary examples are introduced in the hope that they might trigger fresh theoretical and practice-based, still-life discoveries in prose and also in poetry.

Sir Walter Scott in the western district, 1836-1851

A survey of 30 early settlement squatters in Victoria, using their letters, diaries and memoirs to compile a regional history of colonial readers. The resulting reader-responses support the emerging interpretations of Affective Reading, rather than more conventional strategies of literary criticism (New Historicism and Discourse Analysis).

Outcome measurement of community based mental health services in Western Australia: literature and concept summary

The paper aims to provide a brief overview of key ideas related to outcome measurement relevant to community based mental health services and their consumers in WA. Due to the breadth of scope of the paper, it is not an extensive or rigorous literature review but provides a scan of the literature that could shape a more thorough literature review in any of the content areas. The paper has been written with the aim of informing the sector of key ideas, issues, concepts and approaches.

The millipedes of Barrow Island, Western Australia (Diplopoda)

Six species of millipedes are recorded from Barrow Island, including three species of pin-cushion millipedes of the order Polyxenida, Lophoturus madecassus (Marquet and Condé, 1950) (Lophoproctidae), Unixenus mjoebergi (Verhoeff, 1924) (Polyxenidae) and Phryssonotus novaehollandiae (Silvestri, 1923) (Synxenidae), a single species of the order Spirobolida, Speleostrophus nesiotes Hoffman, 1994 (Trigoniulidae), and two species of the order Polydesmida, Boreohesperus dubitalis Car and Harvey, 2013 (Paradoxosomatidae) and one species of the family Haplodesmidae (genus and species indet.). Lophoturus madecassus is circum-tropical in distribution, Unixenus mjoebergi and Phryssonotus novaehollandiae are found also on mainland Australia, but the other three species are endemic to the island. Speleostrophus nesiotes is a highly modified troglobiotic species, currently listed as threatened by the Western Australian government. It is unclear at present whether the haplodesmid specimen is a troglobite.

Pauline Kael and the Western genre as critical displacement of self & nation: metaphorics and affects of 'taste' in American film criticism

Pauline Kael (1919–2001) is one of the most influential American film critics of the second half of the twentieth century. Many people are writing on her presently, with at least half an eye to her future cultural, political and historical importance. Certainly the full impact of Kael’s work, both within and beyond the borders of cinema (however defined), has not yet been established. This article unpacks the mechanisms and operations of ‘taste’ in Kael’s writings by using two notions drawn from Roland Barthes’ observations about another key figure of current cultural critique: Julia Kristeva. The comparison of Kael with Kristeva is not dwelt upon; instead, the article focuses on how Kael used the concepts of ‘taste’ and ‘dis-taste’ to draw her readership into a field of what might be termed ‘permanent dissent’. This article concludes by sketching out why Jewish-American Kael’s taste might endure, through the dual transition she occupies from a Cold War to a post-Cold War period, and from an era when cinema was the supreme, undisputed, screen artform, to the rise of the myriad screen technologies of the networked, Internet age.

Spatial patterns, landscape genetics and post virus recovery of blacklip abalone, Haliotis rubra (Leach), in the western commercial fishing zone of Victoria

Historically, collecting nearshore habitat information has been problematic. Existing methods, such as aerial and satellite image interpretation are limited due to the attenuation of light in the water column obscuring the seabed structure. The advent of airborne bathymetric LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems (laser scanning of the seabed) now provides high-resolution seabed ‘images’ in areas that were previously difficult to survey. LiDAR imagery is available for the entire coastline of Victoria, Australia to depths of around 25 m, after being initially collected for climate change modelling by the Future Coasts Program (http://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/adapting-to-climate-change/future-coasts). This dataset has provided the opportunity to test its applicability to inform fisheries management. Detailed geophysical information combined with spatially explicit AbTrack GPS located fisheries records and targeted genetic sampling is used in this study to provide a better understanding of the extent of available fishing grounds, direction of fishing effort and stock population structure within the Victorian western zone abalone fishery.
The species distribution modelling technique MaxEnt was used to produce a potential habitat suitability map for abalone in an attempt to capture the effective footprint of the  fishery. Also, by interrogating the spatially defined effort localities, we demonstrate an approach that may be used to identify areas where fishing effort is concentrated, and how this parameter changes temporally.
Despite barriers to adult dispersal (soft sediment barriers between reef patches), the genetic study indicates that larval movement is able to homogenize the gene pool over  large geographic distances. The western, central and eastern zone abalone stocks in Victoria were found to be a single large panmictic unit. This indicates high levels of stock connectivity and no obvious impacts of Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) on the genetic health of western zone stocks. We used detailed seafloor structure information interpreted from LiDAR to inform a replicated hierarchical fine scale genetic sampling design. We demonstrated that there may be extensive migration among abalone stocks across the Victorian abalone fishery.
This is contrary to previous studies that suggest recruitment is highly localised. In combination, these findings provide a valuable insight into the biology of H. rubra and immediate benefits for fisheries management. We discuss these results in the context of predicting resilience and adaptive potential of H. rubra stocks to environmental pressures and the spread of heritable diseases.
Adoption pathways are also provided to benefit future stock augmentation activities to catalyse the recovery of AVG affected reef codes. As larval dispersal is likely to be spatially and temporally variable, some AVG affected stocks are likely to recover through natural recruitment, while others will benefit from augmentation activities to ‘kick-start’ stock recovery. Evidence of neutral genetic homogeneity across Victorian reef codes suggests that the relocation of animals is unlikely to have significant genetic risks; however the potential for locally adaptive genetic differences may exist, and should be taken into consideration in future stock augmentation planning.
When combined, the spatial and genetic analyses provide valuable insights into stock productivity within the western zone fishery. Reefs appear to be expansive and support much available habitat, and the movement of larvae among reef structures is likely to be extensive in this region. Consequently, we propose that colonisation success and productivity is likely to be driven by ecological factors such as resources and/or competition, or physical factors such as wave exposure.