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Composition and Worldbuilding: Music of the Oneira Project
No full textThis practice-based research explores the sonic-musical worldbuilding aspect of the Oneira Project, an expansive, multimodal, intermedia project that aims to create and develop a comprehensive, immersive fictional world. The creative output of the DMA is twofold, consisting firstly of a portfolio of compositions that explore three avenues of sonic-musical worldbuilding: fictional soundscapes, the use of microtonality to create fictional musical systems, and sound-based diegesis. These were chosen as they are key to representing places, peoples, and events – three central aspects of all worldbuilding practices. The second element of the creative portfolio is an accompanying paratextual library of in-world sounds and sonic-musical excerpts. The library provides unique affordances for listeners, including the possibility to gain familiarity with specific aspects of the Oneira world, as well as establishing an ongoing, open-ended, catalogue-style library for all the sonic-musical elements that are created in populating and expanding the world. The library, initiated in this research project, is a unique creative project in itself and a significant feature of the wider Oneira Project. The practice-based approach of my research is grounded in key theoretical perspectives and creative considerations that enable the creation and representation of a fictional world through sound and music, as well as in related experimental electronic music and sonic arts practices. These perspectives, considerations, and the approaches to sonic worldbuilding, are identified and investigated in an exegesis that serves as a discursive companion to the portfolio and sound library. The exegesis also reflexively examines the portfolio and accompanying library, and sets the creative pathway for the ongoing development of the Oneira Project.</p
Learning Generalisation to Morph Faces: Connections to Memory Theory
No full textMemory models, such as dual-process and global matching models, have been developed to explain patterns recognition memory. However, there have been conflicting results from studies using different stimuli and little exploration of the models’ ties to findings in social cognition. The current study investigated the relationship between model assumptions, the transfer of associated information from learned faces to perceptually similar faces (learning generalisation), and false recognition of two faces blended into a mathematical average (50/50 morphs).In two experiments, participants learned faces associated with categories (friend or enemy). Participants then gave honesty and recognition ratings for old faces, morph faces, and new faces. In Experiment 1, participants rated congruent morphs, which blended two learned faces (parents) with compatible categories (e.g., friend and friend). In experiment 2, participants rated incongruent morphs, which blended two parents with opposing categories (e.g., friend and enemy), and partial morphs, which blended a learned parent (friend or enemy) with a new face.Across the experiments, the results produced evidence of a small learning generalisation effect where the morphs’ honesty ratings were affected by the parents’ associated category. The honesty ratings of incongruent morphs indicated that the opposing categories balanced out. However, not all statistical analyses were consistent with expected learning generalisation patterns. Multiple conflicting effects, such as the level of associated learning or a familiarity bias, may have influenced honesty ratings and limited the effect of the associated categories.The similarity of the morphs to the parents affected recognition ratings. All morph types were falsely recognised at a higher rate than new faces. Across experiments, congruent and incongruent morphs were falsely recognised at the same rate as old faces were correctly recognised and at a higher rate than partial morphs, which was predicted. The high rate of false recognition for 50/50 morphs was likely due to morphs retaining both featural and configural (perceptual) information from the parents. There was no consistent relationship between learning generalisation and recognition response, although the lack of a significant interaction may reflect an item selection issue and requires further investigation.Different memory models can account for patterns in learning generalisation and false recognition of morph faces, but each model struggles to account for more complex outcomes. Modifications may overcome those issues, with the Retrieving Effectively from Memory (REM) model showing the most promise. Overall, the current study bridged research areas and demonstrated the efficacy of a memory-based approach to learning generalisation.</p
Towards Autonomous Housing
No full textWhen disaster strikes, access to clean drinking water, electricity, a flushing toilet and food security can vanish instantly. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake revealed the fragility of the infrastructure that supports our basic needs, prompting this research into autonomous housing in Aotearoa New Zealand. This study draws on Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs, McMurtry’s life-value principles, and kaitiakitanga to propose a housing model that supports its inhabitants while preserving surrounding ecosystems.An autonomous house, as defined by Brenda and Robert Vale (1975), is “a house operating independently of any inputs except those of its immediate environment” (p. 7). By leveraging technologies that enable self-sufficiency, such housing creates resilient environments free from dependence on external systems. The concept of cohousing is integrated to address the safety, love, and esteem needs outlined by Maslow, fostering both community and individual well-being.Design inspiration is deeply rooted in the spirit of site, informed through observation and historical understanding. The Māori proverb ka mua, ka muri emphasises the importance of learning from the past to navigate the future. Abstractions and artworks derived from this contextual knowledge inform the architectural design, materials, and systems research culminating in an autonomous cohousing solution.Permaculture principles are incorporated to ensure food security, complemented by the use of simple, sustainable construction techniques and materials. The result is an autonomous cohousing exemplar for Aotearoa New Zealand that fulfils the fundamental living needs of its inhabitants while embodying environmental guardianship and resilience.</p
The Speculative City
No full textLarge cities are centres of innovation and prosperity, where different cultures, ideas and knowledge collide and are shared. They are places where people live in proximity to one another with access to amenities and opportunities, and with greater freedom of choice than is often found in smaller settlements. Yet many cities have a reputation for being polluted, crime ridden, congested, socially isolating, and lacking in open green space. As the world urbanises in greater and greater numbers, the creation of cities that are good for people and the environment is more important than ever. Further, many of the world’s cities are currently unsustainable in their growth and design, and there tends to be negativity and a lack of hope about how to urbanise, including in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). Ideally, contemporary cities should create wealth and prosperity, foster creativity, lift people out of poverty, foster opportunities for happiness and social connectivity, and create environments that are more environmentally sustainable and resilient to disaster. Continuing to rely on prevailing urban design approaches in this country limits possibilities and insights – including opportunities for abstract thinking, speculation, or ideas derived from first principles – that can inspire and help encourage new ways of designing. This design-led research is interested in the optimism and ambition of utopian visions and proposals, and what they can reveal about how we may design, build, and live in cities in the future. The research asks questions about what a new large metropolitan city in NZ could be like, where it could be, and how it could benefit not only its millions of inhabitants, but also inspire critical debate on the future of urbanism. As such, this research aims to identify applicable insights from designing a hypothetical urban utopia in NZ today, focusing on how this design differs from current cities and how its outcomes could enhance future urban development.</p
Giving Structure a Shake Up: Integrating Seismic Upgrades into Interior Architecture
No full textWellington has a problem. It’s built environment contains a high number of earthquake prone buildings which, in an earthquake prone environment, is concerning. These buildings create unsafe and dangerous spaces, and pose an immense risk to locals. The longer they sit under strengthened, the longer they pose an immense risk if a major earthquake were to strike. Building owners can be reluctant to undergo the necessary strengthening due to high costs, and the difficult process. This only adds to the problem. This problem is only enhanced by current strengthening measures causing issues in building interiors. Interiors get directly impacted by implemented seismic structure, losing space, light, views, and function. An interior perspective and integration with seismic design can present better opportunities for better interiors.Not only are these buildings earthquake prone, but also heritage listed. Buildings can possess a heritage listing due to their historical or cultural values and, due to construction technologies at the time these were built, many are also unsafe and require retrofitting. Heritage buildings possess significant tangible and intangible values, many of which have been hidden underneath poor care or modern adaptations. Wellington’s building stock has many under-utilised heritage buildings, and there’s opportunity to revitalise these through integration with interior architecture and seismic design. Creating a hybrid interior-seismic-heritage integrated design process can allow functional, meaningful, safe, and historical interior spaces. Spaces that can begin to restore the disregarded built environment in Wellington.To achieve this, the thesis takes two earthquake prone, heritage buildings in Wellington. Using a design led research approach, these two sites are retrofitted and tested to explore the validity of an interior-seismic-heritage integrated design process. The design aims to integrate seismic structures with proposed interiors, including various programmes and heritage narratives. The design outcomes display the vast opportunities of considering this process. Concluding that there’s validity to structure being internal instead of external, having clear heritage tactics, defining new and existing elements, and treating each project individually are key to a successful design process. This thesis displays the applicability of interior focused architecture when engaging in heritage and seismic projects. Interior architecture as the key perspective.</p
From ‘poor devil’ to middle class? Navigating resettlement and (in)formal reterritorialisation under COVID-19
No full textExtensive research has examined the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on precarious informal settlements. However, limited attention has been directed towards its implications in resettlement sites, where relocated residents from poor urban areas often experience long-term vulnerability. This article addresses this gap by investigating how the pandemic shaped ongoing post-relocation integration within a major resettlement site in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The concept of ‘(in)formal reterritorialisation’ is employed to elucidate the complex interplay between formal and informal adaptation endeavours disrupted by the health emergency. Drawing on empirical data, the article untangles how the pandemic exacerbated post-relocation disruptions to social ties and economic mobility, prompting residents to reassess informal settlements as sites of opportunity and solidarity. Conversely, during the outbreak, residents perceived the formal spatial and aesthetic conditions of the resettlement site as providing enhanced protections against the virus, bolstering their sense of belonging and place attachment. The findings underscore the intricate and often-conflicting outcomes that unfold within resettlement territories, critical sites for urban development in the Global South
Heritage Appreciation and Awareness: A Child Educational Approach Exploiting Animated Video
No full textAbstractThis article describes the motivation, aims, and consequent processes involved in designing an engaging and informative animated educational video that explains the historical exploitation of the Mount Dagushan iron ore mine in China. The mine is recognised as the deepest in China. It has been the source of raw material for the Anshan Steel Factory, which is now formally acknowledged as a significant example of heritage architecture. The effectiveness of an animated video created by the authors, regarding knowledge and appreciation of industrial heritage, has been investigated through user testing of early primary school students (grades one to six). The research presented here reports on the success of instructional design using digital storytelling as an animated video in conveying knowledge of industrial heritage, and its associated cultural and societal influences. This has included gathering primary education students' feedback and opinions in China through a survey. The research aims to illustrate how Industrial Heritage education can foster engagement in, and awareness of, important connected histories
Conservation and restoration genomics of Syzygium maire, a nationally critically threatened tree species of Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textGenetic degradation in forest trees driven by habitat shifts and fragmentation is likely to lead to substantial maladaptation and species loss. Endemic island species are uniquely threatened, due to lack of buffer populations outside of affected ranges, and already low or localised adaptive diversity confined to a limited number of specialised habitats. In Aotearoa New Zealand, approximately 80% of vascular plants are endemic, while 70% of land cover is affected by human development. Swamplands, considered a taonga (treasure) to Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa, are some of the most severely threatened, with loss upwards of 98% in some regions. Their restoration is currently a priority, but restoration decisions are being made on the basis of generalised recommendations, with most studies in Aotearoa focussed on commercially important plants or charismatic animal species.Syzygium maire is an endemic, critically threatened, canopy tree species of swamp forests in Aotearoa. Remnant stands are often small, isolated and surrounded by pasture, restricting movement of its primary insect and bird dispersers. The species is able to self-fertilise and seeds do not persist in the seedbank. Additionally, S. maire is highly susceptible to myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii), which threatens reproductive viability through destruction of flowers, fruit and seedlings. These factors place S. maire in significant danger of further population decline and genetic degradation. While many swampland restoration programmes include S. maire on their species lists, little is known about the genetic structure and adaptive potential of the species. These projects may therefore be compounding threats through further restricting diversity and perpetuating fragmentation.My thesis aims to build genomic resources for S. maire and describe extant patterns of genetic diversity at both range and local scales to inform conservation and restoration of the species. Here I 1) construct a reference genome for S. maire and identify genes involved in pathogen defence, 2) assess the species' population genetic structure and diversity across its range, and 3) evaluate the impact of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity of the species in remnant stands.Using long-read, high-accuracy sequencing, I produce a reference-quality genome for S. maire. The individual tree and its genome have been named Ngā Hua o te Ia Whenua by Rangitāne o Manawatū, the local Māori tribe acting as kaitiaki (guardians) over it. I detect large scale synteny between three Syzygium species and Eucalyptus grandis, providing support for the stability of Syzygium and Myrtaceae genomes. I annotate several hundred nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor, leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes implicated in pathogen defence, identifying putative homologs of myrtle rust resistance genes. This resource will support conservation efforts by facilitating studies aimed at understanding the distribution of genetic diversity, adaptive traits, and pathogen resistance mechanisms.Population genetic analyses of 269 wild trees based on whole-genome resequencing revealed five distinct regional clusters with local structure and admixture. Diversity patterns suggest more recent radiations in the south and stable populations in the north. Similar diversity throughout the range, however, indicates against north-south radiation since the last glacial maximum. I suggest that these patterns are a result of glaciation related ecological inversion leading to cycles of refuge-radiation across the species range. Finally, I discover adaptive variation associated with three climactic and two soil variables. I mirror the recommendations of previous work on native trees in that seed sourcing should be broader than currently practised to maximise diversity. However, I describe an additional eastern cluster and caution that more local scale evolutionary signatures do exist. These findings will contribute to national level prioritisation of S. maire populations and genetic material for conservation and restoration.Finally, I assess genetic effects of natural and artificial habitat fragmentation in the Greater Wellington Region. I identify evidence of pre-fragmentation genetic homogeneity in extensive swampland with structure relating to isolation by distance. Spatial analyses and close kin relationships in habitat patches, however, reveal potential for genetic isolation among trees separated by just a few kilometres. Concurrently, small but significant differences in genetic diversity between adults and seedlings indicate that fragmentation is already degrading the species' genetic integrity. Restoration should aim to improve population connectivity and conserve as many genotypes as possible within regional clusters to protect adaptive potential.This thesis presents the first genomics analysis of an exclusively animal dispersed tree species in Aotearoa New Zealand. The reference quality genome sequence creates opportunity for future research, including further exploration of putative myrtle rust resistance genes which may inform breeding for resistance. Discovery of broad genetic clusters and centres of diversity inform conservation management and restoration decisions for the species, and contribute to the understanding of the unique island biogeography of Aotearoa. Finally, identification of effects of fragmentation and fine scale spatial genetic structure on remnant stands of trees provides practical and direct goals for species restoration at the local scale. The findings of all chapters will contribute to the restoration and conservation of S. maire and swamp forest ecosystems in the country.</p
Mediated Pathways From Formal Social Participation to Chronic Conditions in Older Adults
No full textAotearoa is an aging society which means expected increases of chronic conditions in the growing older adult population will need to be addressed. Treating multiple chronic conditions at once, also known as multimorbidity, requires more complex health solutions which place strains on health systems and individuals’ support networks. Social connectedness is a known protective factor against a variety of physical and mental health conditions. Influencing social connectedness as a preventative solution is a useful focus for policy makers because protecting from multimorbidity can save more costs and resources than treating large numbers of older adults with multimorbidity. The current thesis investigated the health-protecting role of social participation as a form of social connectedness by using volunteering and community-based social participation as operationalizations of social participation. This thesis was able to use secondary data from the Health, Work, and Retirement project provided by the Health and Aging Research Team. The HWR project is an ongoing longitudinal postal survey that started in 2006, is conducted biennially, and recruited new participants in 2009, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022. The current study used data from the 2018, 2020, and 2022 waves. The final sample size used in the current study was N = 4768, the sample was 55.4% female and 44.5% male, over-representative of the Māori population (42.1% of participants indicated Māori descent), predominantly in partnered relationships (71.1%), with mostly good economic living standards, and high educational qualifications. The current study conducted a longitudinal mediation analysis between social participation and multimorbidity through the potential mediators of quality of life, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. While many of the anticipated mediating pathways were not supported; this thesis found support for longitudinal mediating pathways of volunteering through quality of life on loneliness and depressive symptoms. These findings address an important gap in current literature on the relationship between volunteering and quality of life. Overall, the findings indicate that social participation in Aotearoa is associated with better mental and social health outcomes for older adults.</p
Analysis of panel data under continuous time-inhomogeneous Markov chains with stochastic covariates intensity
No full textThis paper revisits Kalbfleisch and Lawless (1985) and develops a novel approach for analysis of panel data under continuous time-inhomogeneous Markov chains whose intensity matrix depends on stochastic covariates. Unlike the mentioned paper, the new model assumes continuous observation of the Markov chains. Distributional properties are developed for derivation of likelihood function of sample paths and for numerical study. It is shown that the transition probability satisfies the Kolmogorov backward equation in the presence of covariates. The derived likelihood function generalizes the formula (2) on p.99 in Andersen and Keiding (2002) regarding the likelihood function of continuously observed time-inhomogeneous Markov chain with time-fixed covariates. Under piecewise constant transition intensity matrix, the score function and observed information matrix of the regression coefficients of covariates are presented explicitly in terms of tensor matrix representations. In particular, the information matrix is positive definite regardless the values of covariates and the statistics of sample paths. These appealing features allow maximum likelihood (ML) recursive estimation of the coefficients using fast convergent Newton-Raphson method. Importantly, for establishing the consistency and large sample properties of the ML estimates (MLE). Also for deriving empirical estimates of the standard errors. The theoretical results generalize that of presented in the aforementioned papers and Albert (1962). Numerical study confirms the accuracy of the MLE.</p
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