Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableArtificial Intelligence for Multispecies Cohabitation: Through the Eyes of a Bird(The Miyawaki Mini Forests and Smart Green Network Symposium, keynote presentation, 2022)The objective of this project is to consider smart cities in the context of evolving ecosystems and their multispecies communities. To do this, we 1) indicate that current discourse on the ethics of AI has significant shortcomings; 2) link human and nonhuman contributions to cohabitation by emphasising multiple sources of smartness; 3) introduce the notion of ecocentric and interspecies design; 4) discuss forms of more-than-human participation; and 5) conclude by outlining a practical project where design is by trees for birds and with humans who deliberately step back to play supporting roles.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMemorialising Aquatic Extinction: The Transformative Potential of Multispecies Grief(Blue Extinction Symposium, Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre (ShARC), The University of Sheffield, 2022)The climate-driven extinction of giant kelp forests (Macrocystis pyrifera) on Tasmania’s east coast may be imminent. Tasmania is a “global warming hotspot.” Waters along its east coast are warming at a significantly higher rate than the global average. For many aquatic species living there, existential damage has already begun. The warming water has killed 95% of Tasmania’s giant kelp forests during the last 80 years. These forests are ‘ecosystem engineers which provide hone for many species. Their decline results in the devastating loss of habitat for many endemic species that are thus facing extinction. In this project, we aim to identify approaches to witnessing, grieving, and memorialising their loss. To do this, we examine material, cultural, and scientific traces of past aquatic extinctions and endangerments in Tasmania. We begin with Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis). Colonial settlers hunted these whales for their fat, which lit city streets as far away as London and drove Hobart’s economic establishment. This hunting led to the near extinction of these whales in less than 100 years. We also discuss the semi aquatic Lake Pedder earthworm (Hypolimnus pedderensis) and the freshwater fish Pedder galaxias (Galaxias pedderensis). In 1972, the Tasmanian government constructed a hydroelectric facility which extinguished the entirety of the earthworm species in one event by flooding their only habitat. The same event caused the Pedder galaxias to become extinct in the wild. Similarly, habitat damage from oyster and scallop dredging overwhelmed the smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis), which has not been seen since 1802 and was officially declared extinct in 2020. We discuss our findings in application to the disappearing kelp forests and consider ways to grieve their potential extinction. We speculate that such grieving species might support transformative struggles in several political areas. This narrative positions the giant kelp ecosystems at the ‘front line’ of climate change and considers what can be learned from their experience.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableForests, Flowers, and Flames: Exploring the Potential of Commercial Beekeeping to Support Forest Stewardship in Tasmania(The Second International Environmental Humanities Conference: “Critical Animal and Plant Studies,” co-organized by the Environmental Humanities Center and the Department of English Language and Literature at Cappadocia University, Turkey, 2022)Commercial honeybee cultivation in Tasmania poses opportunities to support stronger stewardship of forest ecosystems. Ecologists have conducted a small number of studies to determine the negative impacts of exotic honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) on native Tasmanian ecosystems, which produced mixed results. However, researchers have not examined the potential for the honey industry to foster a positive role in forest stewardship. In this study, we identify opportunities for commercial beekeepers to incorporate forest stewardship practices in their work. We follow a Tasmanian beekeeper for three weeks during key honey flows and observe several examples of unwitting forest stewardship, which managers could leverage to enhance forest protection. We point out that commercial beekeepers often advocate preservation of old-growth forest, because of its supply of the endemic Leatherwood tree (Eucryphia lucida) - a species which contributes up to 70% of the state’s honey production. In recent years, climate shifts have exacerbated the severity of bushfires and caused unprecedented burning in rainforest ecosystems, posing further threats to Leatherwood supply. We observe an example of a beekeeper inadvertently assisting with bushfire response, in which a disused forestry track maintained for apiary access enabled firefighters to intercept and extinguish a rainforest fire. We note that apiarists possess a unique lens into seasonal ecosystem variations and shifts and show ow this information is embedded in the honey collected by foraging honeybees. These examples show the potential to improve forest protection through collaboration between beekeepers and forest managers.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMultispecies Cultures and Design for Powerful Owls(Flourishing of the Non-Human in Cities, a session at The Nature of Cities Festival and Speaking About the Humans. Animal Perspectives on the Multispecies World, 2022)We argue that nonhuman individuals are experts in their lives and can offer valuable contributions to the design of future environments. Without innovative modifications of prevalent human practices, the unfolding environmental crisis is likely to grow catastrophically. A typical example of the ongoing degradation is the accelerating extinction of nonhuman lifestyles. Humans dominate the replacement cultures, and this anthropocentrism causes widespread harm. Our project seeks to tackle this problem. The study of human cultures already draws a lot of attention. Research on nonhuman cultures is also growing. However, cultures that involve human and nonhuman agents remain understudied. Integration of nonhuman cultural knowledge into future-oriented design is even more rare. Addressing this gap in knowledge, we aim to show that nonhuman expertise can inform designing for and with all life in the age of human domination. To explore this hypothesis, we discuss an ongoing research project that aims to help large owls thrive in dense cities. The article provides a mapping of interspecies cultures in this case and tests this mapping by considering alternative design scenarios. We begin by outlining characteristic individuals that can lead worse or better lives: organisms, species, families, communities, and ecosystems. The next step establishes dimensions of value according to these individuals using the capabilities approach. We use examples of long-term co-living ranging from interspecies friendship to interspecies violence to illustrate the argument. Owls live better if they are healthy, can procreate, socialise, and make their own decisions. The deployment of multiple timescales, from evolutionary to cultural and organismic, helps to capture the full range of possible cultures including the owls’ attitudes towards various humans. Our analysis demonstrates plasticities and fragilities of nonhuman as well as more-than-human communities. This work contributes to scholarship by reconsidering conservation in response to nonhuman knowledge and testing ideas of ecological justice in application to design.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEcological Games: Mould Racing(TRANSnational STS: Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference and Exhibition, 2018)This work contributes to architectural, urban and landscape design by constructing an analytical narrative of site exploration through a locative mobile game. This contribution is important because data- or precedent-driven analysis of complex sites is insufficient for the purposes of ecological design. Seeking to alleviate this situation, the project asks whether complex sites can be better understood through embodied and situated interactions with computational simulations. We hypothesize that such simulations can be useful for design because they can deepen designers’ understandings of the environment, encourage creative participation, and expand the repertoire of design methods.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableParticipatory Design in Pocket Pedal(TRANSnational STS: Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference and Exhibition, 2018)
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ItemNo Preview AvailablePlace as Colour(Place and Paramericism Exhibition at Real/Material/Ethereal: The 2nd Annual Design Research Conference, 2019)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableTrees as Places(Place and Paramericism Exhibition at Real/Material/Ethereal: The 2nd Annual Design Research Conference, 2019)
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ItemVirtual Gestures, Re-Imagining Imaginary Prisons(University of Melbourne- Melbourne School of Design, 2017)VR Gesturing: Re-imagining Piranesi (Imagining Imaginary Prisons) Virtual Reality (VR) has exploded into mainstream media and is now being introduced into the design process of artists, architects and designers. This project questions the role of this emerging tool in spatial design and asks: how does this technology change the way we model objects and understand space? What aesthetics can be produced that have not yet been explored? The research presents time-based modelling in an immersive virtual environment. This endeavour is explored through the modelling of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Le Carceri d’invenzione; or more commonly known as; The Imaginary Prisons. This is a series of 16 Plates first published in 1750. Prints from these Plates are collated in a volume titled Opere Varie, published between 1804 – 1807 (Ficacci 2000); the first Paris edition volume is located at the University of Melbourne’s rare print collection. Research methodology: The research team used Melbourne University’s Plate VII as the starting point for the project. Through 3 dimensional digital modelling of the print, the team reveals unseen spaces of Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons. Scholars have claimed that the spaces in the series are impossible and can only exist in paper (Mortensen 2017), however, our analytical discovery of the space reveals otherwise. Firstly, the space that Piranesi imagined on paper can exist in virtual reality; it is highly distorted but remains possible in most instances. Secondly, through VR technology, we can experience hitherto unseen spaces of Plate VII. The research team discerns that Piranesi utilizes repeating architectural motifs in the same series of Plates, and because of this discovery, the team combined multiple plates into a singular space, including the title plate of Carceri d’invenzione and the vaulted roof of the prison from Plate VI. Lastly, the final model of Plate VII is “painted” in a 3-dimensional environment in VR. This allows the user to experience the etched texture of Piranesi’s print on a physical scale as material in its own right. The model produces an anti-surface aesthetic which is unique to the VR modelling environment. Re-imagining Piranesi speculates on the use of VR as a potential design tool for the future. Outcome: The result examines the relationship between the body’s gestures and its physical manifestation; where each stroke and movement is translated into marks on the digital model. We will be capturing the interface between the physical and digital environment through Google Tilt Brush, recording it with digital film and the Xbox KinectTM to understand as well as explore these relationships. The project experiments with emerging design techniques where the physical act of the designer is placed in direct contest with the object we model; no longer are we bounded by the flatland of paper. References: Ficacci, L.: 2000. Piranesi The complete etchings, Taschen, Italy. Mortensen, C.: 2017. Piranesi's Carceri as Inconsistent. Available at: https://arts.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/inconsistent-images/piranesi [Accessed 19 July 2017]
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ItemNo Preview AvailableFilm: State School No. 1490: 1968-1972(RMIT, 2014)