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A cuppa and a yarn: Exploring methodology
No full textA Cuppa and a Yarn is an introduction to a methodology I have coined as an Indigenous feminist (new) materialism, which I have developed across the course of my practiceled PhD research (in progress). The article covers Indigenous methods of yarning and relationality, along with standpoint as situated knowledge, and how these methods are applied within my lens-based social practice to create collaborative photographic portraits. Applying a fictocritical approach to writing, the methodology is conveyed through a cuppa and a yarn, combining theory, poetics, and memories of my nanna to unpack the core components of my practice-led research.</p
Woven Line Freed – Architectures of Light (from a 21st Century Apocalypse)
No full textResearch Background: “Woven Line Freed – Architectures of Light (from a 21st Century Apocalypse”) investigates the expansion of the woven line beyond its tapestry containment into architectural and textile space. Presented within Floating Lines (2025), the work re-situates previously unseen fragments and samples as autonomous research artefacts, testing how the woven line, released from the structure of warp and weft, can exist as a suspended field of colour and illumination. Engaging the figure of John, reimagined from El Greco’s Apostle John of Revelation, and the Star tapestry sample, the work examines intersections of light, edge, theology, and line in tapestry form. Research Question: How can the released woven line and luminous form articulate a metaphysical balance between order and release, matter and spirit, within contemporary visual art and theology? Research Significance: By releasing the line into spatial and luminous suspension, The Woven Line Freed reframes the textile surface and edge as an active threshold between the visible and the unseen. It establishes an architecture of light as both poetic and analytical, advancing discourse on textile, theology, and abstraction. Curatorial validation within Floating Lines evidences the research’s significance, placing it within national dialogues on tapestry and the continuing evolution of the line through time. Research Contribution: The research develops a new vocabulary in which thread, light, figuration, and geometry act as agents of radiant translation between material and metaphysical registers. Drawing on Michelle P. Brown’s articulation of illumination as revelation (Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts, Getty 1994), the work reinterprets medieval conceptions of sacred light through a contemporary textile idiom. Each unbound strand becomes a material line of illumination, oscillating between drawing and architectonics. This methodology contributes new knowledge to how material and theological systems and narratives converge through textile and spatial practice.</p
The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Core Artists (Part 1) Ten Countries: 37PK the Netherlands
No full textResearch Background: The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Core Artists Exhibitions interrogates how the influence of one of the twentieth century’s most significant artists persists and transforms across global contexts. With support from the LeWitt family and international universities, the project frames curating as research—knowledge generated through staging, design, and activation rather than replication or biography. Lippard (1973/1997) identified conceptual art as privileging idea over material; Areford (2020, 2021) examined LeWitt’s systemic and serial methods and a “plural LeWitt.” This project tests those propositions through curatorial practice. Research Question: How does LeWitt’s influence reconfigure when artists with direct or indirect ties are staged internationally, revealing influence as responsive, generative, and transnational? Research Significance: Global in scope and depth, The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt (Part 1: Core Artists; Part 2: Foundations, Pivots and Place) repositions LeWitt’s conceptual legacy within a living, intercultural framework. Through exhibitions, catalogues, and symposia it delivers verifiable institutional outcomes and sustains the rigour of advanced practice-led research. Each iteration functions as both archive and experiment, expanding curating as a mode of critical inquiry and translation. It situates RMIT as an international nexus for conceptual art discourse and affirms curatorial practice as an evolving site of knowledge production. </p
Sustainable Synergies: Harmonising Financial Performance and Food Safety Management for Sustainability
No full textTo evaluate how multi‐level enablers strengthen food‐safety‐management systems (FSMS) and, in turn, enhance sustainable financial performance (SFP) in export‐oriented Asian food supply chains. Survey data from 324 food‐processing firms in China and Vietnam were analysed with structural‐equation modelling. The model combined organizational, supply‐chain, and broad‐context enablers with three FSMS dimensions (ecosystem, quality standards and robustness). Supply‐chain integration exerts the strongest direct effect on SFP, while internal enablers alone are insufficient. FSMS explains 37% of the total enabler–SFP link and significantly moderates the infrastructure → SFP pathway: when ecosystem practices are strong, infrastructural investment translates into higher SFP; when they are weak, returns taper off. External assistance amplifies these benefits only where food‐safety administration support is present. This is the first empirical study to demonstrate that combining enablers across three contextual layers yields superior financial gains via FSMS, thereby extending Enablers Theory to a dynamic emerging‐economy setting. Managers should prioritize cross‐firm integration and cultivate partnerships with regulators and NGOs to unlock FSMS‐driven financial returns. Policy makers can accelerate sector‐wide SFP by incentivizing collective FSMS initiatives and reinforcing food‐safety administration services.</p
Turbulent Pipe Flow of Non-Newtonian Fluids
No full textThe turbulent pipe flow of complex fluids is central to many critical industries, including mineral, chemical, polymer, food, and pharmaceutical processing, as well as wastewater treatment and the oil and gas industry. Despite its critical role, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding the fundamental physics of non-Newtonian turbulence and its impacts on large-scale industrial processes. These complex fluids, which include suspensions, emulsions, polymer melts and solutions, all possess a microstructure that imparts non-Newtonian rheology, including nonlinear viscosity, elasticity, plasticity, and thixotropy. The interactions between the microstructural state, material rheology, and the turbulence structure remain poorly understood, making the prediction and optimisation of industrial processes an outstanding challenge. Although much recent work has focused on the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids, much less attention has been paid to inelastic non-Newtonian turbulence. This is even though many industrially relevant complex fluids, such as multiphase suspensions, can behave as inelastic materials under fully developed turbulent pipe flow. Of this important class of inelastic fluids, several key knowledge gaps remain. First, very little is known regarding the turbulent flow of thixotropic fluids, i.e. those whose viscosity depends upon shear history. Second, even for time-independent generalised Newtonian (GN) fluids with shear-dependent rheology, methods to accurately predict turbulent flow have only been validated on model fluids. Third, accurate correlations for the turbulent pipe flow of GN fluids have not been developed or validated. Finally, methods to utilise the turbulent pipe flow data to estimate the rheology of GN fluids do not exist. To explore the relationship between rheology, microstructural state, and turbulence structure in thixotropic fluids, the thesis first performs the first direct numerical simulations (DNS) of thixotropic turbulent pipe flows. is defined as the thixoviscous number, which characterises the thixotropic effects relative to turbulence eddy turnover time. The study finds that for all ranges of thixotropic kinetics , the turbulent pipe flow of thixotropic fluids is analogous to that of time-independent GN fluids. This has practical implications for pipe flow design, as complex fluids in turbulent flow regimes can now be effectively treated as model fluids with shear-thinning rheology. From this point forward, the thesis adopts the GN fluid assumption to model complex fluids. To extend the validation of the DNS method beyond model fluids, such as Carbopol, the thesis validates it for the case of wastewater sludge, which is a multiphase suspension, marking a significant advancement in the field. Under the assumptions of single-phase homogeneity and shear-thinning rheology (using the Herschel-Bulkley model), DNS simulations were conducted and compared against the turbulent pipe loop measurements of digested sludge. The study finds that the DNS method successfully validates this case, with velocity prediction errors of 15\%, compared to existing empirical correlations that exhibit errors of up to 70\%. These discrepancies are primarily attributed to limitations in characterising high-shear rheology data, which was explored in greater detail later on in the thesis. Overall, the results validate the broader applicability of the DNS method to non-Newtonian multiphase suspensions. To address the challenges of predicting non-Newtonian turbulent pipe flows, the thesis also introduces accurate yet straightforward correlations for the turbulent pipe flow of GN fluids. These correlations were derived from direct DNS computations of GN fluids that assume single-phase homogeneity and shear-thinning rheology. The rheology models chosen were the Herschel-Bulkley and the Sisko models, as they effectively capture the key behaviours of a wide range of complex fluids, including yield stress, shear-thinning properties, and Newtonian viscosity at high shear rates. The correlations were validated against the turbulent pipe loop measurements of a model fluid, such as Carbopol, and multiphase suspensions, including wastewater sludge. The study finds that the correlations for the onset of sustained turbulence are consistent with the experimental results. At the same time, the predictions from the correlations for the friction factor showed an accuracy of 7\%, outperforming existing empirical correlations. Overall, these results demonstrate the capability of the correlations to optimise the pipeline transport handling of complex fluids. Presently, conventional methods present practical limitations in characterising high-shear rheology data of non-Newtonian fluids. While these methods utilise benchtop rheometer or laminar pipe flow data for rheological characterisation, they cannot utilise turbulent pipe flow data due to the inadequacy of existing correlations. To address this, the thesis introduces a novel rheological characterisation method for GN fluids that incorporates turbulent pipe flow data with rheometer or laminar pipe flow data. The previously developed correlations enable the method to estimate rheological parameters from turbulent pipe loop data, allowing multiple datasets to be fitted simultaneously. The study reveals that the method yields precise high-shear rheological data for the Herschel-Bulkley and Sisko models, yielding predictive errors as low as 2\% for wastewater sludges. These findings have practical implications, as accurate rheological data ultimately enhances turbulent pipe flow predictions. The study delivers several key findings. Time-dependent thixotropic turbulent flows can be treated as purely viscous GN flows, allowing for simplification of the non-Newtonian rheology. DNS methods have been successfully validated for the turbulent pipe flow of industrially relevant multiphase suspensions. Accurate and simple correlations for the onset of turbulence and pressure drop in GN fluids have been successfully developed, and a novel method for estimating the high-shear GN rheology from the turbulent pipe flow experiments is introduced. Together, the thesis advances the scientific understanding of non-Newtonian turbulent pipe flows through rheology modelling, turbulence analysis and systematic validations. For application areas such as wastewater sludge transport, the work offers a rigorous and practical framework for accurate flow prediction, improved rheological characterisation, and more efficient and cost-effective pipeline systems for transporting complex fluids.</p
Accounting for Value-Based Healthcare: Exploring Integration and Implications for Improved Healthcare Delivery
No full textThe Australian healthcare system faces pressure to deliver value amid a global shift toward Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC), emphasizing patient-centered care and population health, aligned with UN SDG3. This thesis investigates how management accounting supports this transition, addressing costing, funding, and resource allocation challenges. Using a mixed-methods approach—Systematic Literature and Network Analysis (SLRNA), qualitative field study, and autoethnography—this study applies Boltanski and Thévenot’s (2006) Economies of Worth framework to explore stakeholder value tensions. The SLRNA synthesizes VBHC definitions and costing tools, the field study examines ABF tensions, and autoethnography maps a breast cancer patient journey, integrating ICHOM outcomes. Findings reveal financial barriers, evolving accounting roles, and performance measurement complexities, offering strategies like TDABC and bundled payments. These insights enhance healthcare financing, supporting policymakers and practitioners in achieving financial sustainability and improved outcomes. As an accountant with Stage 3 breast cancer, the author’s personal perspective enriches the analysis, contributing to VBHC’s transformative potential in public health systems.</p
Novel Insights for Successful Microcredit Policies and Gender Dynamics: A Comparative Study of Rural Entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Thailand
No full textAccess to finance is critical for rural non‐farm self‐employment businesses in Southeast Asia, but financial constraints and gender discrimination impede their growth. Existing literature largely overlooks vulnerable groups like rural household businesses. This study investigates finance credit access challenges for female‐managed non‐farm businesses among rural entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Thailand. Valid instrumental variables address bias and endogeneity. Results indicate no evidence of discrimination against women in credit access. In fact, some evidence suggests moderate discrimination favoring women. A comparison of microcredit policies suggests that Vietnam's interventionist approach may be more effective in supporting wealth accumulation than Thailand's more liberal, market‐oriented model.</p
Uncovering Plastic Pollution: A Scoping Review of Urban Waterways, Technologies, and Interdisciplinary Approaches
No full textPlastic pollution is a growing environmental and social concern, particularly in Southeast Asia, where urban rivers serve as key pathways for transporting waste to marine environments. This scoping review examines 110 peer-reviewed studies to understand how plastic pollution in waterways is being researched, addressed, and reconceptualized. Drawing from the literature across environmental science, technology, and social studies, we identify four interconnected areas of focus: urban pollution pathways, innovations in monitoring and methods, community-based interventions, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Our analysis combines qualitative synthesis with visual mapping techniques, including keyword co-occurrence networks, to explore how real-time tools, such as IoT sensors, multi-sensor systems, and geospatial technologies, are transforming the ways plastic waste is tracked and analyzed. The review also considers the growing use of novel theoretical frameworks, such as post-phenomenology and ecological materialism, to better understand the role of plastics as both pollutants and ecological agents. Despite progress, the literature reveals persistent gaps in longitudinal studies, regional representation, and policy translation, particularly across the Global South. We emphasize the value of participatory models and community-led research in bridging these gaps and advancing more inclusive and responsive solutions. These insights inform the development of plastic tracker technologies currently being piloted in Vietnam and contribute to broader sustainability goals, including SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 14 (Life Below Water).</p
Value from data? A decentralized approach
No full textThis essay explores how enhancing accountability in the governance and use of data can increase its value as a relational asset within platform economies. With a focus on data intermediaries (entities that collect, curate and process data into products and services), it argues that data does not possess inherent value; rather, value emerges through socio-technical practices and relational exchanges. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from economic anthropology and Science and Technology Studies, this essay examines how intermediaries translate raw data into valuable outputs, often in ways that obscure the agency of data contributors. This opacity limits accountability and ambiguates the connection between those who generate data and those who profit from it. Through a case study of the Superset ecosystem–a decentralized governance infrastructure that combines market incentives, a data trust framework, and participatory enforcement mechanisms–this essay illustrates how designing for accountability has the potential to unlock greater value across the data economy. By integrating data contributors into governance processes, Superset demonstrates a ‘middle-out’ approach to value creation (rather than top-down or bottom-up), where accountability and value are mutually reinforcing. This reframes data not as a static commodity, but as a dynamic, relational form of capital, dependent on participation and platform-enforceable accountability.</p
Rethinking Co-Creation- Adaptive Approaches to Agency in the Vietnam Design Research Studio (VDRS) Pilot Study
No full textThis paper reflects on the pilot study of the Vietnam Design Research Studio in Hoa Tien, a traditional craft village, which sought to explore co-creation methodologies in the context of digital platform development. Initial ambitions to collaboratively design a digital tool with local artisans confronted significant challenges, revealing inherent disparities between academic and tacit knowledge systems. These challenges necessitated a shift from conventional co-design models to adaptive, enablement-focused approaches that prioritize local agency and contextual understanding. Through participatory action research and ethnographic methods, the pilot uncovered the complexities of embedding agency in creative processes. Artisans valued preservation of historical craft techniques over contemporary reinterpretations, emphasizing the importance of sustainability and cultural authenticity. This study highlights the need for ethical engagement frameworks that empower communities to document and share their knowledge, rather than imposing external narratives. The findings advocate for new understandings of agency in co-creation, grounded in adaptability, reflexivity, and respect for local contexts. The research further suggests that sustainable practices in design can emerge from such adaptive approaches, fostering global learning while preserving cultural heritage. The discussion situates the pilot within broader discourses on the performative and political dimensions of agency in creative processes, offering insights for art and design practitioners navigating the complexities of community-driven innovation.</p