Victorian College of the Arts - Research Publications
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ItemEffects of Mirror and Metronome Use on Spontaneous Dance Movements(HUMAN KINETICS PUBL INC, 2021-01)This study investigated effects of mirror and metronome use on spontaneous upper body movements by 10 preprofessional dancers in a motor task in which maximally diverse upper body movement patterns were targeted. Hand and trunk accelerations were digitally recorded utilizing accelerometers and analyzed using polar frequency distributions of the realized acceleration directions and sample entropy of the acceleration time. Acceleration directions were more variably used by the arms than by the torso, particularly so when participants monitored their performance via a mirror. Metronome use hardly affected the predictability of the acceleration time series. The findings underscore the intrinsic limitations that people experience when being asked to move randomly and reveal moderate effects of visual and acoustic constraints on doing so in dance.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSubmission to Sightlines - The First Provocation(Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association, 2021)The First Provocation (2015) and the shooting script 02: BRIDGET combine to demonstrate practice-led research into how to expand on the process of crafting and capturing performance on film. The enquiry was framed by the question: How might it be possible to mediate a live performance work into a narrative fiction film to engage an audience beyond the intended performance audience of the original? What approaches can a director adopt to elicit spontaneous and intimate emotional responses that are captured for the screen? A close examination of the filmmaking processes used by Miranda July (live performance) and Mike Leigh (character-based improvisation) informed the production process undertaken for the creative practice. The single-shot film, The First Provocation, explores how to expand the realist form in an experimental approach to performance that merges unexpected live performance within a narrative fiction film.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEnsemblography: Making Collaboration through Performing Writing(Performance Studies international, 2021-01-01)
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ItemA Bat’s End: The Christmas Island Pipistrelle and Extinction in Australia, by John Woinarski, CSIRO Publishing, 2018.(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2020)This is a favourable review of Woinkarski's 'A Bat's End', using the book's message of conservation of endangered species to underline the plight of many animals after the bushfire season.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDigesting Gut Feelings - A Conversation(Unlikely, COVA, University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, 2020)This is a discussion between artist Andrew Goodman and critic Tessa Laird about his work 'Gut Feelings' in the exhibition Translating Ambiance curated by Jordan Lacey. Lacey curated a number of sound artists looking at ambiance and the natural world in relation to the urban environment. Rather than imagining nature 'out there', Goodman turned to nature inside his own body - the millions of microbes dwelling in his gut, and made recordings of those noises. These sounds were then made not just audible but palpable through a vibrating speaker that viewers could feel as they listened. This raised pertinent questions around interactivity, ecological art practices, and how we can better attune to the environment.
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ItemLoneliness and Behavioral Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021-12-17)Abstract Concerns for the health impact of loneliness, a risk factor for morbidity and mortality, have risen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, relationships between loneliness and behavioral changes remains unclear. Utilizing data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study COVID-19 Supplement, we examine the cross-sectional relationship between loneliness and self-reported increase in each of the following behaviors during the pandemic (n=2,924): walking, vigorous activity, eating, use of alcohol and tobacco, watching television and sleeping. Adjusting for age, race, education, activity of daily living limitations, and chronic conditions, loneliness was significantly associated with a higher odds of more eating (odds ratio- OR: 1.42, confidence intervals-CI: 1.24,1.62), sleeping (OR: 1.35, CI: 1.18,1.56), and watching television (OR: 1.45, CI: 1.30,1.61). These results indicate that during stressful times like our current pandemic, loneliness may lead to morbidity and mortality through sedentary behaviors.
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ItemThe aesthetic, artistic and creative contributions of dance for health and wellbeing across the lifecourse: a systematic review(TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2021-01-01)PURPOSE: This review articulates current understanding of the aesthetic, artistic and creative contributions that Dance makes to Health and Wellbeing across the lifecourse within publications 2000-2019, an under-researched area. METHODS: Review Questions: What are the aesthetic, artistic and creative contributions that Dance makes to Health and Wellbeing across the lifecourse? And what methodologies are appropriate for investigating these contributions? A database keyword search identified 769 articles and 91 evaluations. 109 documents were identified for further in-depth analysis and rating, resulting in 24 papers (11 articles, 3 PhD studies, 10 evaluation reports), which were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Findings offer seven interrelated contributions that Dance makes to Health and Wellbeing: embodiment, identity, belonging, self-worth, aesthetics, affective responses and creativity. There was less insight regarding different methodologies, and discussions focused on quantitative data's limitations. There were insights into inclusion of embodied voices, subjective accounts, and lived experiences. CONCLUSION: Whilst acknowledging challenges, this paper illuminates the key contributions of dance to arts and health. It provides a future conceptual research agenda (prioritizing identity and creativity) and associated methodological developments. It recommends expanding geographical/lifecourse research, better defining terms, fuller epistemological critiques to open space for new methodologies, and continued attendance to appropriate rigour criteria.
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ItemPerforming arts as a health resource? An umbrella review of the health impacts of music and dance participation.(Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2021)An increasing body of evidence notes the health benefits of arts engagement and participation. However, specific health effects and optimal modes and 'doses' of arts participation remain unclear, limiting evidence-based recommendations and prescriptions. The performing arts are the most popular form of arts participation, presenting substantial scope for established interest to be leveraged into positive health outcomes. Results of a three-component umbrella review (PROSPERO ID #: CRD42020191991) of relevant systematic reviews (33), epidemiologic studies (9) and descriptive studies (87) demonstrate that performing arts participation is broadly health promoting activity. Beneficial effects of performing arts participation were reported in healthy (non-clinical) children, adolescents, adults, and older adults across 17 health domains (9 supported by moderate-high quality evidence (GRADE criteria)). Positive health effects were associated with as little as 30 (acute effects) to 60 minutes (sustained weekly participation) of performing arts participation, with drumming and both expressive (ballroom, social) and exercise-based (aerobic dance, Zumba) modes of dance linked to the broadest health benefits. Links between specific health effects and performing arts modes/doses remain unclear and specific conclusions are limited by a still young and disparate evidence base. Further research is necessary, with this umbrella review providing a critical knowledge foundation.
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ItemFit to Perform: A Profile of Higher Education Music Students' Physical Fitness.(Frontiers Media SA, 2020)The physical demands of music making are well acknowledged, but understanding of musicians' physical and fitness profiles is nonetheless limited, especially those of advanced music students who are training to enter music's competitive professional landscape. To gain insight into how physical fitness is associated with music making, this study investigated music students' fitness levels on several standardized indicators. Four hundred and eighty three students took part in a fitness screening protocol that included measurements of lung function, flexibility (hypermobility, shoulder range of motion, sit and reach), strength and endurance (hand grip, plank, press-up), and sub-maximal cardiovascular fitness (3-min step test), as well as self-reported physical activity (IPAQ-SF). Participants scored within age-appropriate ranges on lung function, shoulder range of motion, grip strength, and cardiovascular fitness. Their results for the plank, press-up, and sit and reach were poor by comparison. Reported difficulty (22%) and pain (17%) in internal rotation of the right shoulder were also found. Differences between instrument groups and levels of study were observed on some measures. In particular, brass players showed greater lung function and grip strength compared with other groups, and postgraduate students on the whole were able to maintain the plank for longer but also demonstrated higher hypermobility and lower lung function and cardiovascular fitness than undergraduate students. Seventy-nine percent of participants exceeded the minimum recommended weekly amount of physical activity, but this was mostly based on walking activities. Singers were the most physically active group, and keyboard players, composers, and conductors were the least active. IPAQ-SF scores correlated positively with lung function, sit and reach, press-up and cardiovascular fitness suggesting that, in the absence of time and resources to carry out comprehensive physical assessments, this one measure alone can provide useful insight into musicians' fitness. The findings show moderate levels of general health-related fitness, and we discuss whether moderate fitness is enough for people undertaking physically and mentally demanding music making. We argue that musicians could benefit from strengthening their supportive musculature and enhancing their awareness of strength imbalances.
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ItemThe Iconography of Digital Windows - Perspectives on the Pervasive Impact of the Zoom Digital Window on Embodied Creative Practice in 2020(Brunel University, 2021)A window has traditionally been a sturdy artistic metaphor, able to offer a tangible account of acts of witnessing and perception. For many theatre directors and teachers, the window of our eyes has become our primary creative and pedagogical tool, gazing within the edifice of Zoom, a technology built by the intersection of interlocking digital windows, their meaning created by the witnessing gaze of the participants. And what are the windows of Zoom revealing? In the context of shared and embodied creative practice, we gain insight into other people’s worlds: bodies on the move, negotiating shared spaces, attending to human need. Insight over Zoom is knowledge of the other without inter-subjectivity. The subtle voyeurism inherent in the technology offers often uncomfortably intimate access to the personal or domestic world of students and colleagues, but a window that does not readily lend itself to social connection or reciprocal or mutual gaze. We have seen things now that we cannot unsee. What will come of the digital heterotopia of the window when we venture back into the studio, when our performance making practices once again move about freely in the world? Have we all been rehearsing a new, interconnected futurity—a permanently alternate ordering of the actual world? Drawing from the practice of four teacher-artists (director, actor trainer, devisor, and dramaturg) this article will explore the iconography of the Zoom window, and its specific qualities at the intersection of body and technology.