School of Performing Arts - Theses
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ItemA Creative Reconstruction of Pre-Islamic Naghali( 2020)Naghali is one of the most ancient surviving forms of Persian dramatic performance and focuses on storytelling. Severe restrictions were imposed after the Islamic conquest of Persia (c. 651 AD) and Naghali was recently placed on UNESCO’s "List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding". Only scant information remains about its pre-Islamic form. However, the subsequent changes were substantial because Islam proscribes many of the aspects that are believed to have been a part of pre-Islamic Naghali, such as dance, female performers, puppets, masks and music. The research described in this thesis adopts a practice-led approach that creatively reconstructs some of the lost aspects of Naghali, thereby synthesising new knowledge from the limited set of clues found in ancient illustrations from the Shahnameh (Persian Book of Kings). Because illustrations form the main source of information used for the reconstruction, this research focuses on the gestural, aspects of pre-Islamic Naghali, and a major research output of this project is the creation of the Naghali Gestural Vocabulary (NGV). The potential contribution of Naghali to Western dramatic arts is demonstrated through Naghali-based performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; an annotated video of one such performance accompanies this thesis and is an integral part of the research output.
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ItemDeveloping a computer-based interactive system that creates a sense of deep engagement( 2020)This project develops a low-cost computer-based interactive system that generates a sense of deep engagement in the user, similar to that experienced when engaging with an artwork. It is based on the Buddhist concept of ‘Sati’; being relaxed, focused, aware, and paying attention to the present moment: which is understood as having a sense of deep engagement. Sati Interactive System integrates elements of an artwork; colour, sound, and body movement to create this sense. Research has shown that the independent use of colour, sound, and body movement can provide benefits such as: generating positive emotions, achieving a relaxed state, and improvements in psychological and physical health. This project integrates colour, sound, and movement in a low-cost computer-based interactive system to create a sense of deep engagement. Literature on colour, sound, movement, computer-based interactivity, philosophies of technology, human-computer interaction, aspects of grounded theory, and the arts, form the basis and methodology for the development and testing of the system. An evaluation of the system was based on data collected from 30 participants. 71 percent of participants provided positive responses to using the system, indicating that the Sati Interactive System was effective in creating a relaxed, focused state, and not feeling the time passing while using the system and afterwards. From this information we understood that a sense of ‘Sati’, or deep engagement had been generated. This project includes the application “Sati Interactive”, that can be downloaded and used on a computer with a Windows or Macintosh operating system. Max and QuickTime software should be installed before running the Sati Interactive application. Instructions and links can be found in the Instructions.pdf in the Sati Interactive folder. The computer should have a webcam, speakers, and a screen. The minimum system specifications are: Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 3 2.7 Ghz processor, 8GB ram, and 1.5GB video graphics card to run on a laptop or a desktop computer without audio-video lags.
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ItemContemporary Australian Gothic theatre sound( 2018)This practice-based research analyses the significance of sonic dramaturgies in the development and proliferation of contemporary Australian Gothic theatre. Taking an acoustemological approach, I consider the dramaturgical role of sound and argue that it is imperative to the construction and understanding of contemporary Gothic theatre and that academic criticism is emergent in its understanding. By analysing companies and practitioners of contemporary Australian Gothic theatre, I identify and articulate their innovative contributions towards what has been called “the Sonic Turn”. My case studies include Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm and practitioner Tamara Saulwick. I argue that the state of Victoria has a particular place in the development of contemporary Gothic theatre and highlight the importance of the influences of Gothic Rock, rock band aesthetics, Nick Cave, and the Gothic myths and legends and specific landscapes of Victoria. I identify dramaturgical languages that describe the function of sound in the work of these practitioners and the crucial emergence of sound as a dominant affective device and its use in representing imagined landscapes of post-colonial Australia. I also analyse sound in relation to concepts of horror and trauma. I position my practice and my work as co-artistic director of the Suitcase Royale within the Sonic Turn and in relation to other Gothic theatre companies and practitioners. Drawing on theories of spectrality and presence, I formulate a theoretical language of the Sonic Gothic as it relates to contemporary Australian theatre. I contend that contemporary Australian Gothic theatre is culturally unique in its preoccupation with sound and that sonic experiments in the Gothic are creating new understandings of the use of sound in theatre. My creative work, a soundscape for theatre entitled Disappearing into Darkness, is submitted as a high-quality Mp3 file accompanying the written dissertation. It was created as an alternative text and will be used as the foundational material for the development of a new work of Australian Gothic dance theatre.
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ItemAn unfinished mindful body meets live choreographies of solo dance( 2017)My practice-led research that utilises live solo performances of improvised contemporary dance, explores the notion that the body can be considered as unfinished, unresolved. My research shows that such conceptualisations foster productive links between dance and bodily specificity. Furthermore, how somatic attentiveness, a key element in my praxis, links to values such as human development, and social responsibility, is also explored by this dissertation. These explorations consider the socio-political agency of my work with live performance. This dissertation shows how awareness of bodily specificity clarifies understandings of personal and social response-ability. The consistent application of somatic attentiveness throughout my praxis has provided a sense of continuity between experiences of movement associated with personal, political, cultural, social, and academic actions. A theme returned to repeatedly throughout my thesis is that the personal, the social, the cultural, the political, and the academic are enmeshed. No one precedes the other. Phenomenology as a philosophical approach positions lived experience, and the body, centrally. My research has been significantly supported and furthered through exposure to materials from this field. The work of philosophers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, Philipa Rothfield, Elizabeth Behnke and others in response to Husserlian Phenomenology has informed my work. Perspectives which have guided my inquiries have also come from autoethnography, dance theory and performance theory, through the work of theorists and philosophers including Carolyn Ellis, Bojana Cvejić, Danielle Goldman, Susan Leigh Foster and Ann Cooper Albright.