School of Culture and Communication - Theses
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ItemThe environment in English versions of the Grimms' and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale literature, 1823–1899( 2016)This dissertation explores the intersections between literature and environmental history in nineteenth-century English versions of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale literature. While the success of the Grimms’ and Andersen’s fairy tale literature in England can be attributed to the inclusion of Christian principles, the privileging of individualism, the omission of licentious content and the focalisation of child protagonists, this dissertation argues that the tales were also valued for presenting an environmental ethos. English versions of the Grimms’ and Andersen’s fairy tales relayed anthropocentric ideas about nature which competed with a developing sense of environmentalism during a period of rapid environmental change. While these tales idealised the tremendous possibilities offered by the environment, nature is not prioritised above human interest; rather, these versions effectively highlight humanity’s destructive disposition by disempowering female and animal characters. By focusing on depictions of nature during a century of environmental devastation, this thesis contributes to our understanding of humanity’s relationship with the natural world as relayed in literary texts.
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ItemRadical platforms: autonomism, globalisation and networks( 2016)This thesis engages in the work of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri as well as others in the post-autonomist Italian Marxist tradition to critique the concept of Empire and to identify serious flaws in cryptolibertarian approaches to replacing the state with computational apparatuses. Hardt and Negri’s work proposes the existence of an international, multi-layered political structure called Empire, with a corresponding international working class called the ‘multitude’ which has been subsumed within this new global political system. The main thrust of the thesis identifies that media is underanalysed in Hardt and Negri’s work, yet there is great scope for networked media to be included as not just a component to Empire, but as constitutive of Empire’s existence. Thus the argument is that Empire is reliant on media, and would not survive without it. From this perspective, the acts of loose groups and fraternities, such as IP pirates, cryptolibertarians and cryptofascists, and anti-state groups of other sorts, to engineer software solutions to replace the state are problematic. Examples such as 3D printing, bitcoin, Wikileaks, and State-In-A-Box suggest that cryptolibertarian and related ideologies of technological solutions not only tend to be misguided, they reproduce the nature of Empire in an intensified manner. The argument of this thesis is thus that technological solutions that seek to replace the state with mediated software protocols will likely tend to simply reproduce structures of governance that are more rigid, and have less capacity for social intervention than the current structures of governance. This argument does not preclude technological methods as integral to political solutions in the future, but certainly questions those approaches that conceive of society as a set of problems to be solved.
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ItemOswald Brierly and the art of patronage: a colonial journey( 2016)This thesis seeks to evaluate the nature and significance of artistic patronage in colonial Australia by an examination of the patronage received by Oswald Walters Brierly [later Sir Oswald] (1817-1894) associated with his time in Australia and the extent to which this patronage informed his art. The thesis explores Brierly’s role as a professionally trained artist in the emerging artistic environment of the Australian colonies in the 1840s and seeks to show how his colonial experiences influenced the subject matter of his later art; particularly the impact of his direct engagement with the whaling industry at Twofold Bay in New South Wales between 1843 and 1848, under the patronage of his first Australian mentor, the flamboyant entrepreneur, Benjamin Boyd (1801– 1851). It also examines his role as a shipboard artist on voyages of discovery aboard H.M.S Rattlesnake and to a lesser extent H.M.S. Maeander. It will be shown that following Brierly’s second visit to Australia with H.R.H. Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900), on the first Royal visit to Australia in 1867-1868, the artist attracted new Australian patronage: patrons who sought to enhance their own prestige and status by acquiring works by an artist who enjoyed strong royal connections. It proposes that the examination of Brierly’s work associated with Australia sheds new light on the changing nature of artistic patronage in Australia between the largely convict dependent society of the 1840s and the confident and prosperous world of the Boom Period following the discovery of gold, especially in Victoria. The thesis will demonstrate that Brierly’s art reflects these changed circumstances and the expanding aspirations of his Australian patrons.
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ItemIndigenous worlds forcing thought: kūmara and river red gums( 2016)Since the late 1980s the entwined forces of neoliberal capitalism, expanding conversation regimes, and legal frameworks of recognition have provoked the re-emergence of indigenous worlds in ways possibly unimaginable in the preceding decades. The emergence of indigenous worlds has been replete with more-than-human entities that were long considered extinct or disproved, and whose existence was decried and denied. In this thesis, I present my research on the re-emergence of two such entities: kūmara, a taonga from Aotearoa New Zealand, and the river red gums forests of the Murray River Country in Australia. I show how the re-emergence of kūmara and river red gum forests as more-than-human entities necessitates diplomatic encounter between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, and I discuss two instances in which this has occurred, each with markedly different results. The first instance I discuss is how kūmara provoked a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal, Aotearoa NZ’s pre-eminent institution for inquiring into Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, on the grounds that Māori were entitled to control taonga in a Māori way, and that included property. The second instance is how the river red gums brought together a motley alliance of indigenous people and environmentalists to seek environmental protection for river red gum forests in tandem with Traditional Owner control. I argue that while these instances contain vast differences, it is useful to consider them alongside each other for the way in which the former re-instantiated Nature/Culture dualisms and denied the distinctive vitality of Māori worlds, while the latter were able to generate an “experimental togetherness” (Stengers, 2005) among practices and in the process achieve effective outcomes. Ultimately I show how the close analysis of instances where settler and indigenous worlds entangle can provide illuminating instances or moments where postcolonial ways of going on together might be occurring.
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ItemHurdy-gurdy: new articulations( 2016)The purpose of this thesis is to expand existing literature concerning the hurdy-gurdy as a contemporary musical instrument. Notably, it addresses the lack of hurdy-gurdy literature in the context of contemporary composition and performance. Research into this subject has been triggered by the author’s experience as a hurdy-gurdy performer and composer and the importance of investigating and documenting the hurdy-gurdy as an instrument capable of performing well outside the idioms of traditional music. This thesis consists of a collection of new works for hurdy-gurdy and investigation of existing literature including reference to the author’s personal experience as a hurdy-gurdy composer and performer. It will catalogue and systematically document a selection of hurdy-gurdy techniques and extended performance techniques, and demonstrate these within the practical context of new music compositions created by the author. This creative work and technique investigation and documentation is a valuable resource for those seeking deeper practical and academic understanding of the hurdy-gurdy within the context of contemporary music making.
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ItemThe magazine effect: reading Huckleberry Finn, Dorian Gray and The Return of Sherlock Holmes in the periodicals in which they first appeared( 2016)As the nineteenth century transitioned into the twentieth, the dominant literary technology on both sides of the Atlantic was not the stand-alone novel but the periodical magazine. Building on Walter Dill Scott’s contemporaneous idea of ‘fusion’, this thesis seeks to resurrect the total experience of reading three now canonical works – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884-5), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1903-5) – in the periodicals in which they first appeared. Ultimately, I argue, reading these otherwise familiar works alongside the ephemeral magazine material that accompanied them allows us to see the works in a new light.
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Item[Re]framing the f word: The case for the collection and exhibition of art forgery in Australia( 2016)The perception of art forgery as incompatible with legitimate art historical enquiry has been revised in recent years, as scholars have begun to re-evaluate the significance of the inauthentic art object and its creator. Previous art historical consideration of the subject has been largely reactive, a response to attribution questions, rather than viewing the subject as one worthy of study in its own right. While an uneasy relationship exists between forgery and the broader art world, the dominance of popular culture and media myths of the ‘hero forger’ point to the necessity of further art historical attention to assist in defining the topic and clarifying the issues for the general public. This dissertation is divided into three sections: the first examines the development of literature on the subject of art forgery, noting where and why it has been considered by other disciplines. It explores the traditional approach to the topic, in which art historians have tended to document art forgery as “a series of isolated cases”, rather than as a holistic area of study. The second part examines the development of a mythology of the art forger, which has emerged from the growing number of forgers’ biographies and memoirs that became popular in the latter half of the twentieth century. This mythology is also evident in popular culture representations and informs the ways in which the media report on the issues surrounding forgery, and underpins the references to art forgery that occasionally appear in marketing and public relation campaigns. The final part of the thesis examines the way in which international cultural institutions have used art historical tools such as cataloguing, collection and exhibition, as an educative tool; a recent touring exhibition titled Intent to Deceive is used as a case study to assess the effectiveness of its pedagogical aim. By tracing art forgery’s emergence as a subject of academic scholarship, this dissertation argues that the proactive study, collecting, cataloguing and exhibition of inauthentic objects is an important strategy to counter the often-contradictory and fictionalised narratives surrounding art forgery. Ultimately, it is argued that Australia has trailed behind the international trend of considering art forgery as an important subject worthy of closer examination and art historical enquiry.
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ItemAn examination of the significance of Soviet Socialist Realist art and practice in the Asia Pacific region( 2016)The aim of this research has been to investigate the impact of Soviet Socialist Realist art and practice in the Asia Pacific region. It has resulted in a number of findings. The first is that Soviet innovation in the practice of art has influenced the organisation of visual art in the region to a degree not previously acknowledged. This Soviet arts organisational focus is analysed through a number of effective and enduring strategies, as well as through a number of ideological innovations. The thesis compares the implementation of these practices throughout the Asia Pacific region. The second finding is that the Soviets, and, later, the Soviet-inspired Chinese, had significant impact on the art produced throughout the Asia Pacific region from the early years of the twentieth century until today, again previously unacknowledged across such a broad temporal and spatial span. The Soviet influence on art in China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia in the period after the late 1960s is argued to be of particular significance for the outcomes in those places and in contemporary art more broadly. Comparisons of particular artworks are made, as well as a distinction been social realism, focused on the suffering of the disadvantaged, and Socialist Realism, a triumphant glorification of the ‘workers, farmers and soldiers’. An analysis of the local adaption of Soviet art in the outcomes in each place is given, deemed critical for the success of this ideology and style. The question throughout this analysis is why, if this influence is so extensive and significant, has it not been acknowledged as part of ‘global’ art history? The ideological and geo-political struggle of the Cold War between Communism and capitalism, experienced over the century, is central. Soviet Socialist Realism was a target of Western art historians, and when the ideology and style was adopted further East, these positions extended there as well. The thesis analyses the literal and metaphorical interweaving of image and text, as well as the interweaving of art and politics. It is what has been written about this art by people who wanted so much to come from it, and the way their words seep into the images themselves, that adds to the richness of the area.
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Item(Re-)examining Blank Fiction: an excerpt from Barely Anything, a novel & Sex, narcissism and disconnection in Australia and the United States( 2016)(Re-)Examining Blank Fiction: Sex, Narcissism and Disconnection in Australia and the United States analyses works of ‘Blank Fiction’ from Australia and the United States within a selection of novels, including: Less Than Zero (1985) by Bret Easton Ellis, Loaded (1995) by Christos Tsiolkas, Rohypnol (2007) by Andrew Hutchinson, The Delivery Man (2008) by Joe McGinniss Jr., and Snake Bite (2014) by Christie Thompson. It examines the use of images drawn from celebrity and lifestyle magazines, music videos, advertising, pornography, television, and Hollywood cinema and argues that these novels co-opt images of mass culture in an effort to critique contemporary social practices, values, and lifestyle. Additionally, this dissertation provides an excerpt of a novel entitled Barely Anything. Barely Anything, like other Blank Fiction novels, details the social practices of a small group of young adults, addressing themes of sex, boredom and privilege on both sides of Melbourne’s Yarra River.
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ItemContexts of early Christian art: basilicas, space and Roma Christiana, 312-384 CE( 2016)This thesis investigates the contexts of Christian art in the city of Rome during the fourth century. It aims to raise our awareness of the contingency of art-historical narratives, and the contingent nature of our objects of study. Traditional approaches have presumed the existence of fixed material corpora constituting the phenomenon of 'early Christian' art. This acceptance of Christian exclusivity is at odds with new understanding of deep Christian entanglement with the various contexts of everyday life in Rome. Recent advances in the study of late antique Rome have suggested that the transformation of the city from 'pagan' to 'Christian' began considerably earlier than once imagined, and that there was no 'pagan reaction' or 'classical revival' late in the fourth century. In addition, the emergence of networks of non-monumental sites provoked ideas about Rome as a 'Christian city'. The imperial basilicas are likened to lightning rods, directing and channelling energies in the Christian cityscape, but neither powering nor determining the course of the storm-clouds. Moreover, given the restriction of physical space for assembly in the imperially-sponsored basilicas, there were many more Christians 'outside' the churches of the emperors and the bishops than 'within' them. This meant gradual social and cultic involvement with Christianity, best characterised as 'entanglement' rather than hegemonic and unidirectional 'Christianisation'. The study of early Christian art has been largely untouched by these advances, and still looks toward 'lost' monumental originals and iconographic analysis for its objects. Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical and methodological aspects of the study and establishes the method of contextual analysis. Chapter 2 outlines some contextualising prolegomena that support site-specific analyses. In Chapter 3, the role played by elite social contexts is considered; in Chapter 4, the role of martyrs in art; and in Chapter 5, rituals and attitudes around death. The thesis hypothesises that early Christian art had agency, that is, that early Christian art performed a particular kind of 'work' in making early Christian Rome. Rather than following traditional art-historical narratives in placing emphasis on development and change in early Christian iconographies, the thesis consider the ways in which images, viewers and spaces interact. In short, Christian art not only reflected what Christians demanded of art - it was recursive, in turn affecting what Christians expected to see. The material evidence reveals an ongoing and deep-seated entanglement of Roman Christians in the saeculum. The contexts of early Christian art are revealed as productive and functional actuators in the definition of Christian Rome.
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