Minerva Elements Records
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ItemPulse: a physical approach to staging text( 2008)This exegesis articulates the evolution of an improvisational training and rehearsal methodology called Pulse and discusses the outcomes of a practice-based research project where Pulse was applied to the screenplay of Yes by Sally Potter. Pulse is an approach to performance creation, where an ensemble of performers trains to kinaesthetically embed and integrate a selection of performance and compositional principles enabling them to improvise together. This research involved working with a trained ensemble to explore how Pulse could be used to create spatial and visual imagery that would illuminate a narrative text; to create physical theatre based on the spoken word. I used the language of a screenplay for the generative material, as it was not written for the stage. A visceral, physical and aural landscape therefore would have to be created so an audience could experience the different worlds of the narrative outside its realistic, filmic context. The Pulse process demands that the actor thinks with the body and does not work from the mind. This allows for surprising meetings on the rehearsal floor as the body of the actor responds to suggestions of lust, desire, power and conflict implicit in a narrative. I found that the restrained emotional landscape of unspoken feelings in Sally Potter’s film text emerged through action creating a physicalisation of deep undercurrents. The character’s emotional inner world was revealed through physical metaphor. The performer was able to create a score of non-behavioural physical imagery which when staged could run parallel to the spoken word. Where the original medium may have relegated the importance of the body, the Pulse physical translation process prioritised the body in the live experience. The actor’s body painted the space through direct physical experience and memory. The body was content, image and witness. As a consequence our adapted, staged version told a different story to that of the film. This research involved instigating and tracking the investigation and this exegesis describes and analyses the form that emerged.
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ItemLanguage and identity in Melbourne's Francophone Mauritian community( 2007)Australia’s 18,000-plus Mauritian immigrants make up the country’s largest single French-speaking community, but they also speak Kreol, a creole language specific to Mauritius and its dependent island Rodrigues. Kreol is both the lingua franca of Mauritius and the L1 of a growing majority of people there. Census data show that in Australia, Mauritians maintain French as a language at home at much higher rates than Kreol, while this and earlier research by the author (Adler, Lord & McKelvie 2003) indicates that the two languages are used and valued differently in the immigrant community. A starting point for this study was the idea that although social conditions affecting immigrants after they have settled in their adopted country must impact on their ability to maintain first language(s), their pre-migration experiences, beliefs and identities should also be taken into account but are often ignored in accounts of language maintenance and language shift (LM/LS). Through a thematic analysis of interviews with 17 French- and Kreol-speakers from Melbourne’s Mauritian community, this study explores the language attitudes these immigrants acquired growing up in Mauritius, and investigates the impact of these attitudes on postmigration maintenance of French and Kreol. It then examines the part French and Kreol play in post-migration identity construction. The study shows that their premigration beliefs, attitudes and experiences were in fact extremely relevant, even decisive, to subsequent LM/LS and language use for this group of Mauritians. Specifically, the study shows that the attitudes to and beliefs about French and Kreol that the study participants brought with them from Mauritius led them to put more effort into transmitting French than Kreol to their children, but have also led them not to resist a shift by children to English at home. However, for themselves, the participants continued to use both French and Kreol at home with spouses and in the Mauritian immigrant community, and in the latter context, some of the dominant French-speakers appeared to be using more Kreol socially than they would once have done in Mauritius. The research harnesses Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, in particular his concepts of ‘habitus’ and ‘symbolic violence/domination’, to show how the participants’ attitudes were formed and how they have played out in post-migration language choices and use. For these 17 participants growing up in Mauritius, dissatisfaction with the economic and social disadvantages of using Kreol and with the low status offered to Kreol-speakers was transformed – in an instance of the symbolic violence described by Bourdieu – into an undervaluing of the language itself, and that French was misrecognised as an inherently superior and more useful language, a differential valuation embedded in diglossic usage in Mauritius. This process led the study participants to accord French a greater symbolic value, which has persisted in the postmigration context regardless of the fact that in that broader Australian context French and Kreol are of similar value to the Mauritian community.
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ItemFrom commission to community: a history of salinity management in the Goulburn Valley, 1886-2007( 2007)This thesis investigates the evolution of government and public roles in salinity management within the Goulburn Valley, an important agricultural region of north-central Victoria. I argue that approaches to salinity management in the Goulburn Valley have altered over time to reflect variations in the connection between government and local communities. From 1905, the Victorian Government (as represented through its administrative body for water resources, the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC)) was led by a combination of developmentalist ideology and financial caution to install throughout north-central Victoria the fatal combination of extensive irrigation systems without adequate drainage. Despite early evidence of salinity problems resulting from their actions, the SRWSC did not experience a serious challenge to its institutionalised pattern of top-down advice and authority until the 1970s, when proposals for large-scale evaporative disposal schemes for salinity management met with angry responses from the farming community. Following an examination of community responses to two of the most controversial of these, the Lake Tyrrell and Mineral Reserve Basins salinity management schemes, I re-evaluate the subsequent Girgarre salinity control project in its historical context as a turning-point in government attitudes to community consultation. Through a close analysis of key policy documents, I then show how salinity management in the Goulburn Valley has developed since Girgarre to incorporate increasing levels of community participation, and proceed to examine the Australian Landcare movement as an effective, though flawed, system for community-based natural resource management. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the Goulburn Valley’s current situation, and emphasises very strongly the need for genuine community participation to ensure effective salinity management.
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ItemThe personality profile of Australian music therapists( 2004)Personality characteristics of music therapists were examined in a sample of 60 registered Australian music therapists who completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), and a general questionnaire (GIQ) about professional background and experiences. Personality differences between Australian music therapists across self-nominated clinical specializations were also examined. Statistical analysis revealed that Australian music therapists share a common profile of high Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and low Self-Discipline. These results are compared with previous research on both classical and popular musicians, and other health professionals (e.g., doctors, therapists). Four Australian music therapists additionally completed the Personality Web Interview Protocol (PWIP), which elicits narrative personifications of the self by first asking interviewees to describe 24 key attachments from the storied self, including 6 persons, 6 important events (e.g., positive or peak experiences, and negative or nadir experiences), 8 objects and place attachments, and 4 aspects of body orientation (e.g., liked and disliked body parts) . The four interviews revealed consistent associations between storied self labels such as 'creativity' with the domain of Openness to Experience, 'at home with self and 'people in my heart' with the domain Agreeableness, and 'adventurous self with high Extraversion scores. Results are discussed in terms of incorporating data from all three personality assessment strategies (e.g., NEO-PI-R, GIQ, and PWIP) into a clear and coherent profile portrait of the Australian music therapist.
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ItemSpectacular! Spectacular!: Cole's book arcade, Melbourne: 1863 to 1927( 2008)This thesis will investigate Cole's Book Arcade, which operated in Melbourne's Bourke Street from 1863 to 1927. Cole's Book Arcade provides a case study with which to interpret social and cultural practices occurring in the context of Melbourne's retail and entertainment environment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cole's Book Arcade was a product of its time and location. The thesis argues that the Arcade is an example of how Melbourne's citizens experienced modernity and leisure in the city during this historic period. It is necessary to define the boundaries of this case study. The thesis will also employ the definitions and practicalities of public history to examine the place of the Cole's Book Arcade story within The changing face of Victoria exhibition at the State Library of Victoria. The notions of cultural landscape, modernity, leisure, the New-World city, urban history and material culture will be employed to consider the significance of the entertainment and entrepreneurial environment of Cole's Book Arcade. Since the early settlement of colonial Melbourne, Bourke Street had been a popular destination for city dwellers to find entertainment. By the late nineteenth-century, modern cultural landscapes were emerging within New World cities. E.W. Cole was an entrepreneur who tapped into the commercial interests of a general public who embraced the popular leisure activities with shopping as their focus. This case study of Cole's Book Arcade will provide the historical record with greater knowledge of the personalities and places responsible for motivating these processes and outcomes.
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ItemFolio of compositions 2007-2009( 2009)This folio, a work begun in July 2007 and continued through to March 2009, can loosely be broken up into three aesthetic directions. The first would be eclecticism, and the molding of many different influences to create new combinations of musical ideas. The second would be the influence of composers and performers in the twenty first century who have similar compositional goals. The third would be the exploration of orchestration and textural devices to help bridge the initial musical idea into an overall structure and form for a piece.
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ItemUsing song-choice in music therapy to improve the communication skills of adults with profound and multiple disabilities( 2009)A multiple case study design was used to examine the effect of a song-choice intervention on the communication skills of adults with profound and multiple disabilities in individual music therapy. Five females participated in three song-preference assessment sessions and ten song-choice intervention sessions on a weekly basis. In the preference assessment sessions, each participant was provided with a different set of eight songs that were sung with guitar accompaniment by researcher. Affective responses to each song were analyzed and four preferred and non-preferred songs were identified. In the 30-minute song-choice intervention, each participant was offered four song-choice opportunities, with each allowing for several attempts. When the participant clearly indicated their choice of song between a pair of preferred and non-preferred songs, the researcher verbally validated it and immediately sang the chosen song, actively interacting with the participant. All sessions were video-taped and the participants’ and therapist’s behaviors during the song-choice processes were analyzed. The analysis of this data resulted in three clear outcomes. First, most participants expressed consistent affective responses to different songs and it was more obvious when provided with a highly preferred song. Second, all participants were able to choose songs which were intentional decisions as they selected their preferred songs 73 % of the time. Third, most participants gained improved communication skills. Specifically (a) two participants developed intentional choice-making behaviors such as alternating eye-gaze between a song-card and the researcher, and picking up a song-card from two song-cards, and (b) three participants improved intentional communication skills by clearly displaying their facial expressions and voices. The findings have implications for providing adults with profound and multiple disabilities with opportunities to express preference and choice, which ultimately improve their quality of life.
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ItemHand-held decision support tool for estimating nitrogen requirements for food production and environment protection( 2008)Concentration of nitrogen (N) in plants reflects the supply of N in the root medium, and crop biophysical variables increase as internal concentration of N in plants increases. This is useful in assessing how crop biophysical variables can be improved through proper fertiliser application rate. The ability to successfully determine N deficiencies in crops and soil is highly dependent on visual symptom examinations, plant analysis, and soil analysis. Using these methods, information on N deficiencies or excess in the soil will be made available to farmers by the end of the cropping season. Therefore correcting N deficiency or efficiency at this stage is a waste as crops are harvested or are in a condition where interference is of no value. Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods, and available technology could be applied. Chinese cabbages responded significantly (p<0.05) at urea rate of 100 kg ha-1 compared to rates lower or higher than 100 kg ha-1. Relatively, water stress are insignificant (p>0.05) in its response to chinese cabbage growth, however N and water stress together have a significant impact on growth. In addition, crops irrigated every 2 days have higher variables mean than crops irrigated every 5 days. This study found that N rate of 100 kg ha-1 with irrigation every 2 days performed better than other treatments measured. The N uptake pattern was very rapid between 200 and 400 degree days after transplanting and fertiliser application is recommended at this stage. Fertiliser rate should be minimised before and after this phase as crops N uptake is reduced. SAVIgreen VF had a positively good correlations with Leaf Area index (LAI) (r2 = 0.91, p<0.001), above ground biomass (r2 = 0.86, p<0.001) and N uptake (r2 = 0.75, p<0.001) in the first glasshouse experiment. Similarly, the second glasshouse experiment supported these findings where VF correlated positively to LAI (r2 = 0.84, p<0.001), above ground biomass ((r2 = 0.73, p<0.001) and N uptake (r2 = 0.69, p<0.001). VF correlated negatively with soil total mineral N in the first and second glasshouse experiment, r2 = 0.31, p<0.001 and r2 = 0.61, p<0.001 respectively. In addition above ground biomass (r2 = 0.62, p<0.001) and N uptake (r2 = 0.60, p<0.001) in the field also indicated better correlation with VF, however plant N was poorly correlated (r2 = 0.0, p>0.05). These correlations were greatly reduced when crops were exposed to N and water stress. VF was reduced at lower N rates (0 and 50 kg ha-1) and at higher N rates (200 and 400kg ha-1) with irrigation every 5 days. Optimum VF (0.2 – 0.4) is obtained at 100 kg ha-1. Consequently VF is a good predictor for LAI, above ground biomass and N uptake probably because canopy photosynthetic capacity increases with increasing N concentration only to an optimum level. As determined from this research, higher concentration of N in leaves was found when N rate of 400 kg ha-1was applied. The crops become N saturated and VF was greatly reduced, hence crops may have not optimally photosynthesised. Knowledge of N accumulation in the soil, leaching can be determined from levels of N accumulated in plant tissues. Therefore digital camera an invaluable remote sensing tool is cheaper and appropriate for estimating responses of VF to crops biophysical variables to determine N requirements and, hence, it may aid in predicting N losses to the environment. Modeling using Denitrification Decomposition (DNDC) model indicated that crop N uptake (90 kg ha-1) did not meet crop N demand (120 kg ha-1), even though soil N mineralisation from organic and inorganic pool of N (900 kg N ha-1 yr-1) and anthropogenic activities were very efficient. Much of N was lost through leaching (approximately 100 kg ha-1 yr-1), gas emissions (close to 400 kg ha-1 yr-1) and weeds (approximately 300 kg ha-1 yr-1). These N loses may contribute to environmental pollution. Therefore predicting crops biophysical and chemical variables using VF coupled with modeling improves knowledge on N dynamics in soil-plant-environment systems.
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ItemFeeding( 2009)In this research paper I examine the role of the Vampire, the space and culture of the share house and the interview as forms of social contract and control that both highlight and complicate notions of self, identity, other and persona. In Vampire lore, the Vampire requires an invitation to enter a person's home. Like the Vampire, in this project Feeding, I have sought permission or manipulated an invitation to enter a variety of people's intimate living spaces. Once inside, via an agreed interview, I begin an interrogation (and consumption) of my victims about their personal habits. In this way, I will argue I have conducted myself as a contemporary Vampire. It is in this guise that I extract information, adopting the interview as a research strategy in my art practice to generate raw material. This is then abstracted and deployed as installations, comprised of a few key components: projected video footage, sound, steel, the physical space of the gallery and the body of the viewer.
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ItemRe-visioning music as a way of knowing( 2009)This dissertation explores perceived contradictions and mismatches through a phenomenological, poetic and individual approach to language as a means of expanding rather than contracting concepts, specifically in relation to musical phenomena. It reappraises the way in which we use language, re-envisioning it as something that is a departure from the realm of the literal. Here, language becomes a means to reveal, to use Heidegger’s term, to un-conceal (1971) rather than to represent or codify. The observations in this dissertation are not made from a distance. Personal context is necessarily epistemically implied in the discussion of this problem, and as such, the response to the subject matter and the nature of the research undertaken over the course of this dissertation is also drawn from a personal relationship with language.