A series of short seminars
Wednesdays 3:10 – 4:00pm in the SVPA theatrette
Each Wednesday afternoon from 3.10-4.00pm researchers, writers, designers, curators, artists, performers, writers and directors, present a short seminar on their practice and/or research. Each seminar will run for approximately 30 minutes followed by a Q&A session.
Staff, students are especially encouraged to attend. The seminars are also open to the public. All welcome! Free entry!
Enquiries:
Email: jklabbers@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6933 2588
Spring Semester Programme
| Speakers & Seminars | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Professor Anthony Cahalan The Popularity of Fonts |
Wednesday 12 August |
 |
Anna Poletti The Uses of Writing (and Publishing) In Research Practice Download the audio podcast of this seminar 44.8Mb [MP3] |
Wednesday 19 August |
 |
Catherine Strong Remembering and forgetting the women of rock |
Wednesday 26 August |
 |
Jennifer Munday Are we there yet?? Getting over the line with a VPA doctorate |
Wednesday 2 September |
 |
Patrick Sproule HD OB, a new creative resource for CSU |
Wednesday 9 September |
 |
Sabine Pagan Beyond Archisculpture: the body as a site |
Wednesday 7 October |
|
Cath Bowdler ‘Colour Country: art from Roper River’ Research in the Cross-Cultural Interface |
Wednesday 14 October |
 |
Max Staples The disappearing village |
Wednesday 21 October |
 |
Bruce Gater A trilogy of creative concepts – past, present and future. |
Wednesday 28 October |
 |
Jamie Holcombe - |
Wednesday 4 November |
Professor Anthony Cahalan
A typeface (commonly known as a ‘font’) is the physical form of an alphabet. It is the method we use of transcribing spoken language for reading and reproduction in visual form. Professor Anthony Cahalan's research investigates the late twentieth century proliferation of Western typefaces by asking questions such as, 'Why do certain typefaces from the many thousands in existence become ubiquitous in a short space of time, while others never see the light of day?'
His PhD thesis ('Type, trends and fashion') was published as a book by Mark Batty Publisher in New York in 2008. It is an absorbing story of creation myths, market saturation, personal loves and loathing. It intertwines music, fashion, physical qualities, cultural connotations, piracy, computer bundling and the design avant garde.
Anna Poletti
In this seminar, Anna will discuss her use of the zine as a space of writing and reflection during the four year period of her PhD research. Examining the issues of voice, audience and genre, she will outline how making use of multiple sites of writing practice during a period of intensive research improved both her academic and creative writing, and strengthened her understanding of the ethics of research practice.
Anna lectures in English in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research investigates the intersections of technologies of cultural production and consumption, youth cultures, and life writing. From 2000-2005 she held programming roles with the National Young Writer’s Festival and Critical Animals. In 2008, her book Intimate Ephemera: Reading Young Lives in Australian Zine Culture was published by Melbourne University Press.
Catherine Strong
This paper will examine the processes of remembering and forgetting that have surrounded the women involved in the grunge and Riot Grrrl movements of the early 90s. Evidence will be drawn from present and past media sources, and from interviews with fans of grunge, to show how women are generally written out of historical accounts of music in order to reinscribe the creative dominance of men in this field. This, it is argued, is one of the ways in which the potential for societal change embedded in a cultural form such as grunge is diffused, and the status quo remains ultimately unchallenged.
Catherine Strong is a recent addition to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU. She completed her PhD on the sociology of grunge in 2008 at ANU, where she had also been teaching. Her research is focused on the relationship between popular culture and power structures in society as well as, more recently, vampires.
Jennifer Munday
The doctoral study, ‘adapting the novel for live performance’, set out to consider three main questions:
- Why do theatre artists choose to adapt a novel for live performance rather than write a new work?
- How do theatre artists proceed after choosing to adapt a novel for live performance?
- How do theatre artists adapt different styles and types of literature and novels in order to come up with contemporary new works?
These questions evolved from the progression of my earlier creative work in the performing arts that had included various forms of literature being translated, interpreted, being used as inspiration for, and adapted, for live performance. The evolution of professional work, for this study, was in considering one novel as the basis for adaptation for live performance. A novel, Vita Brevis by Jostein Gaarder, was successfully adapted and the play script forms the artwork for the higher degree.
This seminar will present an overview of the study. Since the degree is not yet complete there will be space for reflection on the process and progress, and the final plan of attack to get over the line.
Patrick Sproule
“Outside Broadcast”, or typically “OB” for short, refers in television production terms to the situation where a complete multi-camera television production facility is transported to and used to provide television coverage of an event such as a concert, live performance or sporting match. The use of OB’s worldwide is growing as are the number of mobile facilities being built to service them. This seminar will discuss aspects of the design, integration and construction of a six camera high definition television outside broadcast facility to be utilised within the Bachelor of Arts (Television Production) at CSU’s Wagga Wagga campus. Whilst given a budget of $500,000, industry pundits would regard this as less than half the figure required to build a basic HD OB facility. However with the use of new and alternative products and technologies the facility is nearing completion, both on budget and exceeding the original design specifications and expected capabilities. The seminar will examine the facilities’ use of some of these technologies, as well as providing an outline of the process and rationale behind the design and construction phase.
Patrick Sproule is a lecturer and Course Coordinator within the School of Visual and Performing Arts at CSU Wagga. Identifying as a “Creative Technologist”, Patrick seeks to embrace and understand the integration of new technology with human creativity in video and audio production environments.
Sabine Pagan
In her seminar Sabine will present a snapshot of her ongoing interest in cross-disciplinary research between Architecture and Contemporary Jewellery practice.
In 2004, a visit to Archisculpture at the Fondation Beyeler in Basle Switzerland became the starting point for her current line of research. This exhibition presented a selection of objects from sculptures to architectural models, showcased chronologically alongside images of selected works from both disciplines. The exhibition revealed how aspects characteristic of one practice may inform another; it also addressed the reasons why such crossovers have and continue to raise debate and serve as a source of new knowledge amongst artists, theorists and critics.
These points of reflection initiated a desire to include Contemporary Jewellery practice within the interdisciplinary discourse. Sabine’s current interest in referencing Architecture within her work draws on the body - a physical and emotional entity - as the common denominator to both disciplines.
In her presentation Sabine will briefly outline the significance of cultural heritage as a framework for research before focusing on her work and its concerns that arose from the examination of Swiss architectural archetypes.
Sabine is lecturing in Jewellery Design and Manufacture at CSU and is currently studying a Masters by Research in the School of Art, Architecture and Design at UNISA
Cath Bowdler
This presentation draws on PhD research carried out at ANU on visual art from a remote community called Ngukurr in south-eastern Arnhem Land. The talk centres not on the research as such but more on issues associated with research in the cross-cultural domain and the realities of shaping and honing a PhD thesis. There will also be reference to the Colour Country: art from Roper River exhibition, held recently at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.
Cath Bowdler is an artist, curator, writer and arts administrator currently working as Director of Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. She recently spent two years researching Indigenous visual art at the Centre for Cross Cultural Research at ANU. Before that she spent 15 years in the Northern Territory, during which time she was Director of 24HR Art – NT Centre for Contemporary Art, lecturer of Art Theory at Charles Darwin University and a public art consultant and artist. She has written widely about Australian Art and been published in Art Monthly, Australian Art Review, Artlink and Realtime.
Max Staples
This presentation looks at popular conceptions of the village, and the recent idea that the village is a place of support and positive community values.
The idea of the village has never been more popular. The word is applied to everything from shopping precincts in major cities to old people’s homes. The ideal tourist destination is a village in the south of France, or by a tropical lagoon. Literature and television depict the village as a place where you can escape the pressures of modern life, and find your true self.
At the same time, never before have so many people lived in cities. Western populations are cut off from the physical reality of the village and from direct knowledge of village life.
This presentation proposes a typology of attitudes towards the village, and points out that the village was not always viewed favourably. It goes on to question the contemporary belief that positive aspects of the village can be recreated in urban settings by constructing physical elements loosely associated with village life, such as pedestrianised shopping malls and outdoor cafes.
In conclusion, this presentation asks about the identity and nature of contemporary Australian life, and whether the idea of the village is invoked to conceal the very qualities of human scale, individuality, and community interaction, that we lack.
Bruce Gater
- ‘Youtube is yourtube to creative research and student learning’. Has Youtube broken the barriers of visual analysis?
- ‘An Exhibition of an Exhibition’ – a testament to School of Visual and Performing Arts’s collaborative work text/object. Creative work or just plain mechanical reproduction?
- Virtual learning environments – are they the way of the future?A discussion on a future research project with Distance Education students.
Bruce Gater is a lecturer within the School of Visual and Performing Arts at CSU Wagga. As a “Visual Communicator’, Bruce is constantly seeking ways to create learning environments that promote student learning, understanding and engagement using the foundations from creative industries to the latest online wizardry. This seminar is designed to promote discussion and concepts for fellow communicators.
Jamie Holcombe
Details coming soon.