School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Bodies in revolt: a look at three Melbourne based performance artists
    Matovski, Svetlana ( 1995)
    This thesis considers the work of three locally based performance artists; Jill Orr, Linda Sproul and Stelarc. Their performance work will be discussed with specific reference to the ways in which the human body is used and signified. Performance art is an anti-formalist practice which addresses embodied existence by placing 'the body' at the fore of the performance event. I will explore the themes which arise out of the selected performances by these well known performance artists, and in particular, I will demonstrate that the lived human body is continuously produced and reproduced through enactments, rendering essentialist notions of sex, gender and identity outdated. The human body is viewed as always and already mediated by the social and the cultural as well as the biological. The following discussion will also unleash an attack on a western philosophical tradition which has cast the body as a fixed and purely natural entity.
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    Twentieth century stained glass in Melbourne churches
    Hughes, Bronwyn ( 1997)
    This present study is intended to supplement the documented knowledge on Melbourne's church stained glass and to examine the major threads that run concurrently through the century: the continuation of nineteenth century images, techniques and themes and the influence of modernism on stained glass. It seemed appropriate to chronologically follow from Down's closing date of 1910, subsequently revised to cover the early years of the century and to close with the flurry of activity surrounding the Bicentennial Year, 1988. (From introduction)
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    Piece pipes: clay tobacco pipes from the site of "Little Lon", Melbourne, Australia
    Courtney, Kris ( 1998)
    This thesis describes, discusses and illustrates some of the pipes from intact deposits at the historic Melbourne site of 'Little Lon'. A discussion of the current state of pipe research with specific reference to the situation in Australia - is followed by a background to 19th century clay tobacco pipes, which includes a background to Australian Aboriginal pipe-smoking, gender issues in smoking, and a discussion of the possible existence of a pipe industry in the State of Victoria. A summary of the history and archaeology of the site of 'Little Lon' is then given. The results of earlier artefactual, architectural, and historical research into several pits from the site are outlined, after which the pipes from these same areas of the site are described, discussed, and compared with the findings from other evidence at the site. Selected pipes of special interest are then discussed in greater detail, and a background to the manufacturers represented at the site is given. The work concludes with a discussion of the 'Little Lon' pipes and suggested directions for future research into clay tobacco pipes, particularly those found in Australian sites.
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    The yeast is red
    Mansell, Ken ( 1994)
    The Yeast is Red is a case study of the Australian new left of the late sixties. The new left initially emerged as part of a movement of growing opposition to the Vietnam War. The war shattered the previously dominant framework of 'Cold War' assumptions and profoundly altered the Australian political culture. Even though Vietnam and the associated conscription of male youths was the catalyst for the youth radicalisation of the sixties which produced the new left, the new radical consciousness was caused also by the effects of the social and cultural changes of the period. While actively opposing the foreign war, theorists of the new left began to develop an original and sophisticated critique, based partly on the demand for more participatory democratic forms, of their own society. Vietnam, an increasingly unpopular involvement, became a metaphor for what was seen as a suffocating and conformist malaise at home.
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    Evolution of a zoo: a history of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, 1857-1900
    De Courcy, Catherine ( 1990)
    The Melbourne Zoo in the late twentieth century is a popular venue which attracts up to one and a half million visitors per year. It has a large income gathered from entrance fees, Government contribution and private sponsorship. The gardens are most attractive, some of the enclosures are of the latest design, there is an active and innovative education program which reaches large numbers of school children every year, the breeding programs have achieved some measure of success, and the collection of animals is large and diverse. Yet there is something discomfiting about an institution which holds baboons in wire cages with concrete floors and tigers in an enclosure not much bigger than a tennis court. A history of the institution can shed light on why the Zoo now incorporates such features; more importantly it can assist the contemporary administration in planning a Zoo by identifying the historical legacies and evaluating their relevance for a twenty-first century audience.