1,720,977 research outputs found
Enigmatic Pearls: Authorship and Representation: Competing Cultural Positions in Pilbara Pearl, Nullarbor Pearl and Shoalwater Pearl
Full text linkThis work is an inquiry into the creative pathways I have undertaken, as a screenplay author, when formulating a body of work, which interrogates issues of importance to me, as a Caucasian, Australian, multicultural, female author, writing within a fictional feature film script construct. It is an interdisciplinary investigation, punctuated by self consciousness. Mindful of my own subject position, I believe my negotiations through this, as reflected in the body of my past and present work, have created an original thesis which argues for the aesthetic, reconciliatory power of screenplays. In wishing to create a positive lead role for an Indigenous actress, I had to ultimately put aside reservations about my origins as a non-Indigenous screenwriter. As a screenplay author, I will demonstrate why I find it hard not to agree with Michel Foucault’s supposition that: “it is not enough to repeat the empty affirmation that the author has disappeared” (Foucault 101).
The creative component of my thesis is a magic realist feature film script, entitled Shoalwater Pearl, written as a prequel to the two other enclosed film scripts largely written outside of this doctoral thesis, featuring the same lead character, Pearl. Pearl carries the weight of my self-consciousness, and through her, I reveal the creative pathways I simultaneously interrogate as I research theoretical issues of importance to me as a screenplay author.
Faris could not have more aptly put it, regarding the magic realist aim, which I have adapted to my representation of Pearl, as, “a disturbing element, a grain of sand in the oyster of [. . .] realism” (Faris 168).
The theoretical component of my thesis is interwoven with theories of Authorship and Representation including issues of Identity, Aboriginality, Multiculturalism and Gender to better document how my creative and theoretical pathways intertwine, followed by a short Conclusion, Bibliography and Filmography. The Chapter titles, ‘Authorship’ and ‘Representation’ are used advisedly, as it could be argued that they are controversial subjects. It will be revealed that none of these terms can be considered as stable or abiding. However, each chapter introduces its title as a methodological and normative term for a category or definition from which the chapter emerges.
As a result of my interdisciplinary approach, I have posited an original pathway for other screenplay authors, who, whilst remaining mindful of marketplace interests, may also enter into identity politics or study social movements in order to create screenplays representing contentious aspects of cultural change in contemporary Australia, whilst paying homage to their own unresolved issues or unique life narratives
Film style and the World War II combat genre
No full textThis dissertation examines the style of films from the World War 2 combat genre, addressing films made during WW2 and in the following half century and focuses on major Hollywood productions. Using a theoretical framework derived from the work of David Bordwell and Ian Hunter, I show that existing film criticism has concentrated on the narratives of these texts, often using analytic practice as a stimulus for critical self-analysis. For this reason, academic cinema studies has a limited understanding of the stylistic attributes of these films and in some instances the knowledge that has been produced is demonstrably false.
I analyze in detail the style of four films made during the 1942-1945 period, as well as four films produced in the 2000s. These primary texts are supplemented with analysis of a number of other films in order to identify the stylistic norms of cinematography, sound, editing, and performance of death in the WW2 infantry combat film.
The thesis argues for an understanding of Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) based upon Kristin Thompson’s approach of neoformalism. I use this approach to argue that Ryan’s hand-held cinematography, staging techniques, and sound design can best be understood as creating the effect of defamiliarization for viewers accustomed to existing cinematic representations of combat. Additionally, I argue that contemporary approaches to performance and mise-enscene suggest that the genre’s approach to realism has evolved to favor a significant increase in detail. Using cognitivist research into the imagination and mental simulations, I further argue that the increased audio-visual details enable the viewer’s imagination to more vividly render the scenario presented by the fiction. While these particular details may or may not have close(r) correlation to the real world, they produce an effect which I call “reported realism.” My conclusion shows that similar developments are apparent in first-person combat shooter video games
Crawford Creations: What would we have done without Crawfords? An exploration of Crawford Productions' contribution to the development of an 'Australian Consciousness'
Full text linkBetween 1946 and 1987, Crawford Productions was a major independent Melbourne producer of radio and television drama, and innovative musical and educational programs. Led by orchestra conductor Hector Crawford, his sister Dorothy Crawford and her son Ian Crawford, Crawford Productions, or simply Crawfords, was influential in developing an ‘Australian consciousness and identity’ through its many successful programs. This dissertation explores several elements of Hector Crawford’s quest to create an ‘Australian consciousness’, including the opportunities he provided for many singers and artists through live musical radio programs. I argue that Dorothy Crawford’s production skills were pivotal throughout this process as well as during the formative years of television. Hector lobbied against the dominance of American television programs and in support of Australian dramatic television content which, I argue, added greatly to a public awareness that television was not portraying Australia’s national traditions and culture. I contend that this awareness helps explain why Crawfords’ television drama series such as Homicide (1964) and Division 4 (1969) were so readily accepted by national audiences. Through employee oral history accounts I demonstrate how Crawfords engendered a collegiate training environment with a ‘get the job done whatever the cost’ attitude. The ensuing employment, training and career opportunities benefited the entire television and film industry and contributed to an evolving ‘Australian consciousness’. This dissertation also examines the rationale behind Melbourne’s third commercial television licence being granted to Ansett Transport Industries and why Crawfords’ bid failed. In response to the existing literature, I argue that the Federal Government was not biased towards Ansett as a ‘business friend’. While Hector Crawford has often been described as the ‘Father of Australian Television’, I argue that his entrepreneurial and business skills alone may have been ineffectual without the contributions of family members and senior staff. I contend that ‘The Family of Australian Television’ is a more accurate epitaph
East African stories of love: Challenging cultural perceptions
Full text linkIn recent decades a call for ‘outsiders’ to cease the dominant practice of perpetuating negative stereotypes of Africa and African people has continued to grow (Achebe 1977; Adichie 2009; Asante 1988; Diop 1974; Mudimbe 1988; Mwenda 2007; Wainaina 2008). The demand is in response to the homogenising of the fifty-four African nations and their complex sociocultural relationships into a sustained colonial perception of ‘Otherness’. This creative arts PhD attempts to answer that call by challenging non-African normative expectations of Africa and Africans. It employs processes of participatory autoethnography (Conquergood 1985) that integrate autobiographical and fictional storytelling to create four ‘stories of love’ with the diverse collaboration of eight East African participants in Tanzania and Zanzibar. The research is structured to achieve its creative praxis goals through the ‘observer and observed’ experience (Robson and McCartan 2016), utilising individual and collaborative ‘workshops’ with participants whose fictional characterisations were fully informed by their personal experiences with the subject of love – and most specifically those of ‘romantic love’ (Singer 2009; Solomon 2006). The resulting creative output, complementing the exegetical approach of the thesis, is a literary work (prose treatment) that reveals complex, multidimensional characters who portray nuanced and universal experiences of love. Throughout the dissertation attention is directed towards the rights and experiences of the human subjects as creative participants. Hence, this self-consciously, outsider-generated project undertakes an exegetical examination of the creative experiences informing the participatory storytelling model, its application of important methodologies (Pitts and Miller-Day 2007; Way, Zwier, and Tracy 2015) and the subsequent character and story evolution
Constellations: Walter Benjamin's allegories and montage and the contingent assemblies of fragments in art practice
Full text linkThis project investigates philosophical and artistic strategies that render the world and our experiences within it palpable. As a response to the political milieu of the twentyfirst century, this study asks what tactics can art employ in this environment? As Walter Benjamin theorised, art is a technical organisation of experience that bears the imprints of the material world transcribed through technological means. I explore how Benjamin’s methodologies can mobilise materials, fragments, and objects into constellations that make palpable the invisible, the ephemeral, but nonetheless real experiences of our world. By emphasising the experimental and radical aspects of Benjamin’s approach, this study recognises several un-actualised possibilities in his philosophical enquiry. Specifically, this thesis extends his works beyond Hegelian and Marxist materialisms to a materialist aesthetics and a materialist art practice. Speculations on the latent possibilities and critical engagement with practice and philosophical thoughts in these methodologies articulate interstitial approaches that inform my own art practice. In this way the problem of an un-disciplinary approach is analogised within Benjamin’s philosophy of fragmentation, and explored through an engagement with art, history, and philosophy.
Building on the scholarship of Susan Buck-Morss, Howard Caygill, Rolf Tiedemann, and Esther Leslie, I extended Benjamin’s materialism through the works of Manuel De Landa and Jane Bennett. This strategy draws out the non-Kantian aspect of Benjamin’s philosophy by referencing the analytical methods of Gilles Deleuze, David Hume’s critique of causality, and the Humian notion of experience. Benjamin’s speculative critique and his call for the transformation of apparatus in the production of art is explored as a transformational strategy that remains relevant. Framed by a concept of incompleteness, my exploration highlights the materiality of objects in the construction of allegories, and montage as contingent assemblies to articulate a materialist art practice that can function as a meta-framework for the creation, experience, and theorisation of art. This approach in turn folds back into my own art practice to produce a praxis—a theoretical and action oriented engagement with contemporary experience
Connected, Creative and Cultural Communities: Developing an Integrated Approach to Policy and Evaluation for Remote Australian Indigenous Media and Communications
Full text linkThis research project seeks to develop appropriate policy and evaluation frameworks to support the development of the remote Indigenous media and communications sector and build digital inclusion and capacity within remote Australian Indigenous communities.
This project reviews existing policy and theory pertaining to Indigenous media and communications and identifies and assesses the applicability and limitations for the contemporary remote Indigenous Australian context. Some key policy aspects have remained the same since the 1990s. These include: cultural and linguistic maintenance, self-representation, community access, rights and justice, and employment opportunities. However, in the context of significant technological and socio-political change, there are a range of contemporary issues yet to be effectively incorporated into policy, including: digital convergence; digital inclusion; organisational and industry development; and sustainability.
There is a growing divide between and within remote communities in terms of digital inclusion; access to appropriate information and services. Despite billions of dollars being spent on ‘closing the gap’ for Indigenous Australians, and numerous reviews over recent decades, the potential role of Indigenous media and communications in remote Indigenous communities remains largely unrecognised and under-utilised. At a time when the debate is re-emerging about the viability of remote Indigenous communities, the effectiveness of media and communications services and connectivity will increasingly become key determinants for community sustainability, effective service delivery, community capacity building, cultural maintenance and individual capability.
The research included a review of literature in the fields of Communications, Media Anthropology, Community Development and Development Communications. Summaries of issues were then prepared. Relevant past and current government policies in Indigenous affairs and Indigenous broadcasting and communications were also reviewed and key issues summarised, along with an historic overview of the development of remote Indigenous media and communications in Australia and potential future directions and challenges. This led to the preparation of a draft set of Policy and Evaluation frameworks to be reviewed using a series of case studies.
Using an Ethnographic Action Research methodology, the author undertook research over a nine year period while working as Manager at Ngaanyatjarra Media, the remote Indigenous media organisation for 15 remote communities in the Western Desert region of eastern WA. He worked closely with Yarnangu (Central/Western Desert Aboriginal people) media workers and communities, building on the existing BRACS network and cultural maintenance agenda to establish a range of innovative and integrated media and communications programs in the region. Six Ngaanyatjarra Media case studies were used to assess and revise the draft Policy and Evaluation frameworks.
While the unique context and ‘communicative ecology’ of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands differs from other parts of remote Australia, the evaluation outcomes suggest that the integrated approach to media and communications delivery can have broader application. The research found that a bottom-up approach to program development that considers the social, cultural, political and technological context promotes community ownership and participation and delivers locally relevant solutions and outcomes. In contrast, top-down initiated programs had significantly lower participation and outcomes. It proposes a consultative approach to program development that incorporates community strategic planning and locally specific delivery strategies. It also proposes an evaluation model that includes three sets of performance indicators: those specified by the funding agencies (typically Government); indicators considered relevant by the local delivery agencies (e.g. media organisations); and those that meet the needs of Indigenous community recipients to understand and evaluate the impact of the program.
A further key finding is the need for a ‘contingent’ approach to application of both the Policy and Evaluation frameworks; that is, selection and prioritisation of particular potential aspects to match the specific policy or evaluation need. The thesis provides justification for this approach and indicates how it may be developed.
This thesis seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in this field by documenting the growth of a little known remote Indigenous media organisation situated in the Ngaanyatjarra region of WA during a time of technological, political and social change within Australia. It brings together a deep understanding of community and cultural values and determinants as well as a solid knowledge of relevant government policy and programs. It helps fill a gap in field research and observation of remote Indigenous media activities in Australia since the 1990s. While aimed at the Australian context, the findings of this research may also have relevance for the international communications development sector.
The project’s objective was to develop appropriate Remote Indigenous Media and Communications Policy and Evaluation frameworks for use within the contemporary technological, social and political context. The proposed integrated delivery approach involves the use of existing and new media and communications activities that engage and empower remote Indigenous people and help build connected, creative and cultural communities
Thai cinema as national cinema: an evaluative history
Full text linkThis dissertation considers Thai cinema as a national text. It portrays and analyses Thai film from the introduction of cinema to Thailand during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910) up until the present day (2004).
At its core, this thesis adopts the ideas of Higson, O'Regan and Dissanayake in considering the cultural negotiation of cinema and the construction of nation. In this study of Thai National Cinema two principal methods are employed - economic and text-based. In terms of political economy Thai National Cinema is explored through the historical development of the local film industry, the impact of imported cinema, taxation, censorship and government policy, and the interplay between vertically and horizontally integrated media businesses. Special attention is paid to the evolving and dynamic role of the ruling class in the local film industry. The dissertation's text-based analyses concern the social and ideological contexts of these national productions in order to consider extant characteristics of Thai nationhood and how these are either reflected or problematised in Thai Cinema.
Of particular relevance is this dissertation's emphasis on three resilient and potent signifiers of Thai identity- nation, religion,and monarchy - and their interrelationship and influence in the development of Thai National Cinema. These three 'pillars' of Thai society form the basis for organising an understanding of the development of Thai cinematic tradition, now over a century old. This thesis argues that any discussion of the historical, or current, development of Thai National Cinema must accommodate the pervasive role that these three principal forms of national identity play in formulating Thai society, culture, and politics. The recent challenges of globalisation and postmodernism, as well as the rise of an educated middle-class, provide opportunity for reconceptualizing the relevance of these three pillars. In this way Thai National Cinema can be considered a useful barometer in both reflecting and promoting the construction of Thai identity and thought
You look normal to me: the social construction of disability in Australian national cinema in the 1990s
Full text linkThis thesis examines the social construction of disability in Australian national cinema throughout the 1990s. During that decade, disability was an issue that remained in the background of many film narratives and is (still) under-theorised in academic scholarship. Disability continues to be tangential to many social critiques, particularly in relation to cultural diversity and national identity. When it is foregrounded, as in Liz Ferrier's (2001) work, its theoretical premise is chiefly located in a damaged body, rather than examined through the lens of cultural construction.
The growing number of culturally diverse filmmakers in the Australian film industry during the 1990s initiated a critical focus on diversity, multiculturalism and minority group interests. However, an examination of the social construction of disability is conspicuously absent. I argue that a disability identity that focuses attention away from the body and onto society should be incorporated into notions of diversity concerning Australian national cinema. In this thesis I investigate both thematic and stylistic representations of disability with reference to socio-political contexts and influences. A disability identity - as it is included or excluded from Australian national identity - is explored through a variety of close readings of local films. I examine the methods filmmakers employ to problematise diversity in relation to the limitations of dominant representations of disability.
This thesis recognises the historical lack of scholarship in relation to disability as a diversity issue in Australian national cinema of the 1990s and is an attempt to open up this field to new modes of criticism
Is pay TV meeting its promise?
Full text linkThe broadcasting sector is a subject of continual debate in modern society. One of the oldest segments of the rapidly-evolving information technology and communications industry, it is still the most content rich and the most popular. Australians who watch television spend more time doing so than doing any other leisure activity - except those who fish (ABS 1998). Broadcasting is highly pervasive. Some kind of service is available and used in every Australian household. Everyone is an expert, everyone has an opinion. Since the Federal Government decided to allow the introduction of domestic subscription television in 1992, pay television has been broadly dismissed by its media rivals as being unpopular, unprofitable and unnecessary. In turn, the Australian pay television industry considers that it is over-regulated, especially compared to the free-to-air sector, and that much of this regulation severely constrains its ability to grow its subscriber base. This thesis examines whether the Australian subscription television industry has achieved the aims set for it by the legislators in 1992 - that is, whether it has 'met its promise'. To achieve this, the thesis first identifies the 'promises' of an Australian subscription television industry. In assessing whether the industry has met its promise, the thesis considers various aspects of the industry, including what the industry has needed to do to make itself profitable and ensure its longevity and the environment within which the industry operates. The thesis examines the role that content plays in attracting subscribers and considers whether minimal content regulation has resulted in a paucity of local content on subscription television in Australia. The thesis draws on existing academic literature, government publications, information released by the subscription television industry itself and interviews conducted in the course of the project with the Australian subscription television sector. It also uses and builds on ratings data to examine the programs and channels that are offered by Australian pay television services. In concluding, this thesis makes an assessment of whether the Australian pay television industry has met its promise
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