School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications
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ItemThe potential role of citizen conservation in re-shaping approaches to murals in an urban context(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2016)Public visual spaces, populated by a blend of community murals, unauthorised street art, and historic painted mercantile signs, are often the mark of an urban environment that is both progressive and eclectic. Changes in the aesthetic and cultural value of these urban mural forms have led to an increase in the appreciation and, in some instances, promotion of their artistic merit and cultural significance as examples of public art. However, examining the significance of these works, with a view to implementing a conservation approach is problematic. This is due to a number of practical and theoretical considerations that are primarily a result of the ephemeral existence of urban murals outside conventional exhibition spaces, and issues associated with their often fragmented ownership and uncertain authorship. Consequently, larger thinking on the interpretation, conservation assessment, and advocacy for the conservation of urban murals are required. Key to defining and implementing such strategies is contextualising the public visual spaces that these murals occupy and, as part of this, the local and wider communities’ perception of these murals as culturally significant objects as well as fostering awareness and understanding of appropriate measures aimed at their conservation. This paper examines the role of citizen science, or crowd-sourcing, of local community members in establishing a conservation dialogue and generating conservation- relevant data on urban murals. It looks specifically at a project involving a collection of in situ historic painted mercantile signs — also known as ghost signs — in the City of Port Phillip, Melbourne, Australia. The project fostered the establishment of an informed and open dialogue between conservation specialists and participants from the local community on the significance of local ghost signs whilst transferring knowledge on conservation processes and assessment methods. Working directly with community members, a programme was designed in which conservation and community knowledge of these urban art forms, could be collected and exchanged across digital platforms. This enabled researchers to examine how citizen science can be utilised as a research tool as well as a means to advocate for the conservation of collections of urban murals. It created the opportunity to consider the role of non-specialists and shared authorities in the collection and collation of conservation- relevant data and how information generated from what we call citizen conservation projects, can inform the way in which conservators evaluate and prioritize the conservation of urban cultural heritage. The data gathered and interpreted proved to be the most effective means of ‘conserving’ these often ephemeral forms of cultural material.
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ItemInterviewing artists exhibited in The Field (1968): The use of acrylic paints in a seminal exhibition of Australian colour field painting(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2016-01-01)Artist's interviews are a timely and important historical record of the technical significance of Australian colour field painting. The findings correlate and corroborate ongoing conservation research into the works featured in The Field, providing evidence to support the take-up and distribution of early acrylic paints in Australia. Overall, the artists' responses demonstrate a range of working methods and choice of materials. Col Jordan and Alun Leach-Jones were found to be fairly consistent with their choice of acrylic brands and technique, while other artists, like Ron Robertson-Swann, were more flexible and experimental in their approach. PVAC (polyvinyl acetate) paints were used along with, or in place of, acrylic emulsion paints for practical and economic reasons, revealing the challenges involved with investigating acrylic paints which emerged alongside a variety of other synthetic paints. These interviews reinforce the value of conservation enquiry to the field of art history and exhibition development.
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ItemArtists’ interviews and their use in conservation: reflections on issues and practices(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2016-12-21)Artists’ interviews are widely used in the conservation of contemporary art. Best practice is detailed in recent publications, conferences and workshops, however, there is little information on how to analyse the data collected, and the issues related to the dissemination and future access to the content. This article examines various techniques of analysis appropriated from qualitative research in the social sciences, and relates them to the intended uses of interviews in conservation. Drawing on a case study that involved interaction with an artist over several years, including interviews and informal conversations, this article argues that a conservators’ specific skills set has the capacity to interpret the findings and to understand the creative processes. It also highlights the importance of reflexivity and the public circulation of this interpretation, which is essential for the development of a sustainable practice of artists’ interviews in conservation.
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ItemNo Preview Available[Review of the book Settler Society in the Australian Colonies: Self-Government and Imperial Culture, by Angela Woollacott](Taylor and Francis Group, 2016-03-09)
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ItemThe Adaptation of Tertiary Admissions Practices to Growth and Diversity(La Trobe University, 2016)The expansion of higher education places adaptive pressure on institutional and policy frameworks that were originally designed at times of lower levels of participation. This adaptive pressure is evident in changes to admission and selection practices, and has become more acute with the introduction of demand driven funding for undergraduate Commonwealth supported places. Universities seeking to optimise their market share in line with their values and strategic objectives are increasingly utilising direct admissions rather than historically dominant state centralised admissions processes. Direct entry pathways are also being utilised by some institutions as a means of increasing their share of disadvantaged students in particular. Both centralised and direct admissions pathways are also drawing on contextual data – such as the geo-demographic background of the applicant, school attended, perceived academic potential, or volunteer and community service – in the assessment process (Harvey 2014). The growth and complexity of university admissions practices raises two key questions. First, what impact is rising complexity in admissions practices having on student decision-making, with particular emphasis on students from disadvantaged backgrounds? And, second, how are universities and state-based tertiary admissions centres (TACs) responding to the challenges associated with rising student participation, diversity and mobility, as well as complexity in admissions practice?
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEditorial(Informa UK Limited, 2015-06-01)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe AICCM Bulletin, Volume 37. 1(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2016-08-26)
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ItemKnowing what would happen: The epistemic strategies in Galileo's thought experiments(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2015-12)While philosophers have subjected Galileo's classic thought experiments to critical analysis, they have tended to largely ignored the historical and intellectual context in which they were deployed, and the specific role they played in Galileo's overall vision of science. In this paper I investigate Galileo's use of thought experiments, by focusing on the epistemic and rhetorical strategies that he employed in attempting to answer the question of how one can know what would happen in an imaginary scenario. Here I argue we can find three different answers to this question in Galileo later dialogues, which reflect the changing meanings of 'experience' and 'knowledge' (scientia) in the early modern period. Once we recognise that Galileo's thought experiments sometimes drew on the power of memory and the explicit appeal to 'common experience', while at other times, they took the form of demonstrative arguments intended to have the status of necessary truths; and on still other occasions, they were extrapolations, or probable guesses, drawn from a carefully planned series of controlled experiments, it becomes evident that no single account of the epistemological relationship between thought experiment, experience and experiment can adequately capture the epistemic variety we find Galileo's use of imaginary scenarios. To this extent, we cannot neatly classify Galileo's use of thought experiments as either 'medieval' or 'early modern', but we should see them as indicative of the complex epistemological transformations of the early seventeenth century.
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ItemConsidering Evidence in Art Fraud(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2016)Securing the evidential link between the work and the artist who is purported to have produced it requires a rigorous analytical approach; one that not only accepts particular evidence that may support the assertion of authenticity, but which can also contest evidence that is not correct. Such an approach is by its very nature multidisciplinary, often bringing together knowledge of art history, the art market, cultural materials conservation, chemistry, law and policing. What constitutes evidence of authenticity is generally based on considerations of provenance, art historical context, including facts about the artist and scientific enquiry. Building the chain of evidence for art authentication is a complex and carefully constructed activity that ensures that works can be legitimately, and verifiably, linked to the artist who is purported to be their source.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAt the Heart of It: place stories across Darug and Gundungurra Lands(Western Sydney University Copyright © 2004-2022, 2014-03-25)This is a free enhanced ebook located within the context of Ann McGrath’s and Peter Read’s ARC Linkage Project (LP100100427) “Deepening Histories of Place: Exploring Indigenous Landscapes of National and International Significance”, The Australian National University and Sydney University, 2011-2013. PhD student Julia Torpey, who interviewed more than thirty Indigenous people about their histories and storytelling, produced it. Some interviews have been selected here to appear in this ebook from the larger collection of filmed oral histories in place, in The Blue Mountains, Western Sydney and Sydney. This collection of films is not representative of a particular community organisation or ‘tribe’; it is representative of individual connection to place and history. The films in this eBook are illustrative of the diversity of storytelling, history, identity and connection to landscape that are encountered with individual Indigenous people. The result is an ebook that walks and talks and performs history, bringing histories told closer to listeners, readers and viewers. Copyright of the oral histories remains with the storytellers. The storytellers have agreed for their history to be downloadable, to be enjoyed in Country or elsewhere. Please look, listen and enjoy this history but do not copy, reproduce, sell or alter in any way.