School of Culture and Communication - Research Publications
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ItemMornings with Radio 774: can John Howard’s medium of choice enhance public sphere activity?( 2007)This paper addresses the necessity for program-specific analysis in radio research by focussing on Jon Faine’s Morning Program on ABC Radio 774 (Melbourne). After establishing the present Prime Minister’s preference for radio appearances over all other types of media, I examine the extent to which Faine’s particular iteration of talkback has the capacity to enhance public sphere activity, given the view that this medium is being strategically utilised by politicians to gain virtually uncontested access to listeners. My examination occurs principally through a morning’s observation of Faine’s program, supported by information from recordings of a constructed week of the program from the previous two months. My findings suggest that while a certain amount of ‘top-down’ flow of information is unavoidable, some contestation of ideas often occurs, mitigating politicians’ exploitation of at least this particular program. Faine’s program does, moreover, seem to give the impression of an acceptance of listeners calls on topics that affect their daily lives, even though only a small number of ‘ordinary’ callers are featured each day. My observations suggest this program does offer processes that enhance public sphere activity, although with some qualifications.
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ItemObservations on the history and uses of animation occasioned by the exhibition Eyes Lies and Illusions selected from works in the Werner Nekes Collection( 2008)The exhibition Eyes, Lies and Illusions held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne and the Hayward gallery in London was a selection from the 20,000 optical toys, scientific instruments, antiquarian books and visual entertainments in the collection of Werner Nekes, the German experimental film maker. This essay begins with a consideration of the historical trajectory of belief in the afterlife in relation to ‘animation’, the imputation of a soul to anything that appeared to move itself. The second section suggests that animation techniques bear witness to the persistence of atavistic beliefs in modernity. The third addresses the proximity of technology and magic in animation, and proposes a more extended use of the term ‘animation’.
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ItemCodecs and capability(Institute of Network Cultures, 2008)What makes a YouTube video good? Maybe it is the political tenor, or perhaps you like the ethics. Perhaps it looks nice. Or it’s funny. Perhaps a YouTube video is good when it reaches a lot of people. But the great thing about the internet is that it allows every minor interest, every academic specialism, every rare and refined hobby a place, so the numbers really don’t matter in the same way as the old media. Everyone has had that lovely serendipitous moment when you find exactly the right piece of data, exactly the right image, on the site dedicated to collecting photos of old street lights or the history of dye-transfer techniques. Popularity isn’t in question. Looking nice, being funny, politics, even ethics are pretty much personal opinion in the globally connected, rapid and fragmentary culture of the internet post-2002. It may be better to ask what makes a YouTube video bad. Then we have some answers. Slow download. Too much fuzz in the image or the soundtrack. Stutter. Technical qualities are what make a bad video. Things that go wrong, like using a pine green title on a black background. There is always a workaround, an optimal way of using the tool that’s available, but the tool has to be available, and a network tool has to be as nearly universally available as it can if it is to permit the serendipitous discovery of the lone like soul to yours among the billion pages.
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ItemFor a history of black( 2008)In 'For a History of Black' Sean Cubitt investigates the physiological, technological and cultural problems associated with the (non-) colour black. As the complete absence of colour, black is an ideal that is never actualised, says Cubitt. The representation of black operates differently in different media. In many contexts, such as low-light cinema, early television and new media art, artists have made creative use of the limitations and artefacts of how production technologies handle black. Cubitt's detailed media history connects questions of aesthetics with the physiology of perception and industrial changes.