School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications
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ItemArchitectures of the senses: neo-baroque entertainment spectacles(MIT Press, 2003)It was sometime in November 2000. I was walking along an Arabian street, taking in the rhythms of the arabesque decorations and the spectacular, multi-colored buildings; being entertained by the exotic street musicians; and occasionally being lured into various bazaars that offered the temptations of products ranging from Persian rugs and glassware, to Versace gowns and DKNY accessories. At one point, I found myself at a pier. I looked up at the sky and, while soft, fluffy clouds punctured its blue (yet somewhat solid) surface, it seemed like it was going to be a beautiful day. But what do I know? No sooner had I thought this than the rumbling sounds of thunder vibrated through the air and flashes of lightning lit up the now-transformed dark and ominous clouds. And the rain came pouring down, creating restless ripples in the previously still waters near the pier. So I left Arabia and walked across the road to Lake Como, where I took in the sights of the palazzo Bellagio as it stood majestically in the background. Initially, the enormous lake reflected the palazzo in its tranquil waters, then thousands of small tubes began to puncture its surface, and the first bars of music suddenly filled this vast space. I recognized the tune Frank Sinatra's "Lady Luck" - and it was, indeed, a toe-tapper. As hundreds flocked around balconies overlooking the lake, the lake's water began to magically take on a life of its own: spurts of water swayed left and right, back and forth in perfect unison with the rhythms of Sinatra's crooning. And the audience continued to look on, mesmerized by the spectacle they witnessed, astounded by the rhythmic motions of water, which included stretches of up to fifty meters erupting to heights that exceeded one hundred meters.
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ItemBaby bitches from hell: monstrous little women in film(Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2005)The Surrealists were fascinated by what they perceived as the dual nature of the little girl, her propensity for innocence and evil. This theme has also proven an enduring one in the history of the cinema and provided the basis for many acclaimed films from The Innocents to Lolita. The view of the female child as particularly close to the non-material world of fantasy and the imagination was central to the beliefs of the Surrealists. They regarded childhood as "the privileged age in which imaginative faculties were still à l’état sauvage – sensitive to all kinds of impressions and associations which education would systematically 'correct'". "Dissecting mystery is like violating a child", Bunuel was fond of saying.' In the 1924 Manifesto, Breton claimed, "The spirit which takes the plunge into Surrealism exultantly relives the best of its childhood."
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ItemSusan Norrie( 2004)The work of Susan Norrie, which now spans more than two decades, is challenging, provocative and inspirational. As with all visionary artists, Norrie’s practice has developed and changed over time, now incorporating painting, objects, still and moving images and sound. from her paintings to her installations and video projections, Norrie’s work combines technical brilliance and extraordinary talent with an acute and restless intelligence.
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ItemThe rules of the game: Evil dead II . . . meet thy doom(Duke University Press, 2002)Interdimensional doorways finally make possible space travel between the two moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos. The Union Aerospace Corporation's research into interdimensional travel is a success. Or is it? In a climactic series of events, things start to go terribly wrong. Some people sent through the gateways disappear. Others return from Mars's moons as zombies. Then the moon Deimos vanishes without a trace. Enter the hero-leader of a specialized team of space marines. He sends his troops ahead of him through the interdimensional gateway; armed with a Space Marine Corporation gun, he follows them through, but once on Phobos his worldview changes. The space marines have vanished. Instead, dark surroundings envelop him, and eerie, atmospheric music accentuates the suspense-filled moments. The marine leader begins to scour the corporate installation in search of any living human being ... but it's not the living who come to greet him. Seemingly out of nowhere, an array of bizarre creatures charge down dim-lit corridors and through automatic doors: zombified humans, demons, imps, minotaur-like forms, evil spirits. And so it begins. He must explore the installation to find out what happened, then get the hell out of there at any cost! Picking up weapons along the way, he attacks the monsters like a man gone berserk-with fists, chainsaw, gun, rifle, and missile launcher. His body takes a beating, but his victims also pay the price. Hundreds of those demonic bodies audibly erupt, explode, and splatter before him-and he revels in every gory detail. A sequel to Aliens: Aliens Meets the Demons of Hell? Or perhaps Evil Dead II in outer space? This is no film space. The horror of this story belongs to the cult computer game released by id Software in 1993: Doom: Evil Unleashed.
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ItemLa Trobe: the making of a governor(Melbourne University Press, 2006)Charles Joseph La Trobe was Superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and Victoria's first Lieutenant-Governor (1851-54). His administration, which coincided with the turbulent challenges of the Victorian gold rushes, was highly controversial.He departed from office a disappointed man whose contribution to the development of the colony was not immediately recognized. His was a vision of a cultured, economically viable and Christian society, with equality of opportunity for all. Any recognition of his achievements eluded him, especially regarding the Aboriginal people and the goldfields administration.As Dianne Reilly Drury shows in this fascinating investigation of the man, La Trobe's actions, ideas and behaviours during his fifteen years in office in Melbourne may be best understood by an examination of the way his character was shaped--especially by the influences on him of the Moravian faith and education, by his passion for travel and by the devotion and support of his family and friends in England and Switzerland.
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ItemLa tentation néoclassique: les plafonds peints romains de Panini à Mengs(Musee Fesch, 2002)The following is the original English text of: Marshall, David R., ‘La tentation néoclassique: les plafonds peints romains de Panini à Mengs’, in Jean-Marc Olivesi (ed.), ‘Les Cieux en Gloire’. Bozzetti et modelli pour les eglises et les palais de la Rome Baroque, Musee Fesch, 2002, pp. 377-386. In 1711 Giovanni Paolo Panini arrived in Rome from Piacenza; fifty years later in 1761 Anton Raphael Mengs left Rome for Madrid. The former, better known as a painter of architectural capricci and vedute, was the heir to the Bolognese Baroque tradition of quadratura, or illusionistic architectural painting; the latter at the Galleria Albani rejected Baroque illusionism for the strict quadro riportato, or fictive framed easel painting, and so produced the first Neoclassical ceiling. Their paths seem hardly to have crossed, yet both worked for Cardinal Alessandro Albani, and both had to accommodate themselves to the mainstream of Roman ceiling painting, the illusionistic tradition stemming from Pietro da Cortona and reformulated in the last quarter of the seventeenth century in terms of an opposition between Carlo Maratta and G.B. Gaulli, Il Baciccio. Common to the masterpieces of these artists—the ceiling of the Salone of the Palazzo Altieri and the vault of the Gesù—is the ceiling cartouche, or rectangular field with semicircular ends, a framing motif that played so conspicuous a part in subsequent Roman ceilings that the history of the eighteenth-century Roman ceiling can be written in terms of the history of the relationship between the cartouche and the rest of the ceiling.
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ItemRed rag to a British bull?: Australian trained nurses working with British nurses during World War I(RMIT Publishing, 2004)The outbreak of WWI caused a rush of patriotism and thousands of male volunteers demonstrated their keenness to serve the Empire. Both Britain and Australia’s female nursing fraternities were just as enthusiastic to enlist. Some 3000 Australian nurses who joined the Australian Army Nursing Service or served in the British nursing reserve spent part of their service working in British military hospitals alongside nurses from the QAIMNS – Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. Many Australian nurses had trained under systems of British origin and believed that they shared the same qualifications, skills and outlook as the English sisters. However, British regular army nurses did not regard their colonial sisters as equals. From general snobbishness to giving them all the ‘hard’ duties, Australian nurses had to prove their worth. It was a success; in many cases, by the end of the war British matrons sought Australian nurses in preference to their own country women. This paper explores notions of imperial femininity through aspects of nursing culture, nursing politics, class and primarily labour practices thus making an important contribution to the small but growing number of investigations into women’s military work during World War I.
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ItemMaintaining Britishness in a setting of their own design: the Troodos Hill Station in Cyprus during the early British occupation(RMIT Publishing, 2004)Britain occupied Cyprus by virtue of the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 4 June 1878,which ceded the occupation and administration (but not sovereignty) to Britain. The LordBeaconsfield Government planned to convert Cyprus into a place of arms. The architectsof this policy saw Cyprus as ideal for stationing troops, and sent there a 10,000 strongarmy of occupation. They saw Famagusta Harbour as the perfect naval and commercialstation in the eastern Mediterranean. But within months of the occupation, uncertaintiesdeveloped over the military and naval value of Cyprus. The decision to build the TroodosHill Station stood in stark contrast to the uncertainties over the military and naval valueof the island, and the uncertainties over whether to act as if Cyprus was a British orOttoman territory.
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ItemEvolutions of Lascaux(Ashgate, 2005)This paper charts the evolutions of the Lascaux cave in its various manifestations from the ‘original’ rock art discovered in 1940 to the replica construction ‘Lascaux II’ and a recent travelling exhibition ‘Virtual Lascaux’. The discussion briefly outlines these evolutions and then, employing the notion of the ‘hyperreal’ and the ‘simulacrum’, examines them and the paradoxical nature of ‘copies’ of an ‘original’ work of rock art.
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ItemEnhancing and augmenting human reasoning(Routledge, 2005)