Coming Soon, Thinking Back: Cineplex Entertainment and Exhibition Practice in Transition

In the 2010s, the North American film exhibition industry is undergoing a significant transformation as exhibitors introduce several new initiatives, including technologically and service-based enhancements to theatre experiences, offered in branded packages and available at a premium price. Behind the scenes, consolidation of theatre chains, diversification of exhibitor assets and other shifts in exhibitor business strategy are restructuring the industry in dramatic ways. This thesis seeks to examine these developments and the way exhibitors have framed them discursively both within the film industry and to the public. It takes the Cineplex Entertainment theatre chain as a key example in this moment of reconfiguration, examining the exhibitor’s implication in historical forces in the film industry and its investments in emerging exhibition practices in the present. Drawing from theoretical perspectives in cultural studies and scholarship on film exhibition and media industries, it examines trade publications, branding materials, press releases, and news sources to analyze the way contemporary movie theatres are being reconstituted through the formation and circulation of a new industry common sense about the cultural practice of cinemagoing. It interrogates how exhibitors imagine cinemagoing and cinemagoers and argues that, as they do so, they create cinema spaces and commodities organized around the perceived desires of the bourgeois audience

Interactive Virtual Directory for Shopping Mall (Suria KLCC)

As Internet-related technology advances rapidly, the number of system presenting information using VR techniques are also increasing to promote better understanding of information. The use of static directory nowadays is still very much lacking and not encouraging as an information provider. This is due its inability provide user adequate quality information in an interesting and interactive manner. The objective ofthis system is to help shopping mall visitors to know the direction of where they are and where they are going by using simple, intuitive, observable and interactive directory system. With the combination of VR technology and Interactive Directory, an Interactive Virtual Directory for Shopping Mall that provided with adequate information been developed. To form the basis of the system development, a pre-survey questionnaire was conducted to find out customers opinion on static directories. The result of the survey showed that 70% or 35 out of 50 respondents know and understand the VR technology.The results of the analysis provide motivations for the development of the interactive virtual directory system The development of the system is based on the approach proposed by Kulwinder Kaur's design framework which will analyze the requirement and project scope, task and domain of the project, the designation of the environment, designation of user support and navigational tools and also evaluation by determine the prototype and iterative process. The results of an evaluation on the system shows that by having experience on both static and virtual map help user precisely understand the system. However if the mouse click application could be replaced with the touch screen application, it help user to navigate easily. In conclusion, a directory with additional functionalities could be an informative and more usable director

The Evolution of the Retail Landscape

If the city is a theatre of social interaction (Mumford 1996), then one of the principle stage sets is the retail landscape. Retail districts are generally where people congregate, making places of shopping among the liveliest areas the city. In addition to being social settings, retail areas are also where a large component of the city’s economy is transacted, and they are implicated in the political dramas of the city, particularly those dealing with issues of growth and development. Retail shops are highly visible elements of the urban landscape, lining principle arteries and clustering at major transit nodes. Retailing is woven throughout the economic, social, political, and built fabrics of the city. The evolution of the retail landscape was studied throughout the development of London, Ontario, a typical mid-sized North American city. The functional and spatial composition of the retail sector was documented from the first settlement, thru the era of rapid industrialization, to today’s consumption-based city. Over time, the retail landscape exhibited much dynamism, reflecting changing socio-economic conditions, as well as technological innovation. Both the retailers themselves, and the environments in which their businesses were conducted, have evolved. From the primitive general store, thru the grand emporia lining ‘mainstreet’, to the contemporary planned shopping centres. Comparisons were made between the physical characteristics of the built environments constructed in various eras which make up the retail landscape. Drawing from the urban morphology literature (notably Conzen 1960), analysis was conducted of the town-plan, building forms, and land-uses of the various retail environments. In addition to documenting the general changes in these town-scape elements over time, further analysis was conducted on the form and function of the archetypical retail environments, the traditional ‘mainstreet’ district and contemporary shopping centres. Although they differ in many ways, a common logic was found in all retail landscapes, united through the drive for profit maximization by the retailers who shape their environments in striving towards this goal. Theoretical advancements to the field of urban morphology are presented, arguing that it is necessary to consider all elements of the town-scape in unison when describing the character of urban environments. A trialectic is proposed, taking into account how each of these elements simultaneously shapes and is shaped by the other two

Creative activation of the past: Mechanics' Institutes, GLAM, heritage, and creativity in the twenty-first century

This is an interdisciplinary, mixed-method thesis that explores contemporary curation as a means to creatively activate heritage collections and places. The central case study is Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute (BMI), in Ballarat, Australia, where practice and action-led research was undertaken by the curator over the three-year period 2016–2019. Creative connections between five interlinked areas are critically examined: heritage; curatorial practice, by which heritage sites, collections and experiences are managed; historic cultural organisations; their city contexts; and the ways in which such cultural work is valued. The framework for analysis encompasses museology, critical heritage, and approaches to cultural value. Contemporary urban Mechanics’ Institutes (MIs) are placed in the museum context both through historic parallels and their contemporary positioning in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) industry sector. This is in order to ask how heritage collections, and the organisations that house and present them, can creatively connect with the publics they serve with greater connectivity and relevance. Exhibitions and events held at BMI within Ballarat city are treated as case studies. Together with qualitative interviews with staff in the Ballarat GLAM sector and urban MIs, insights derived illuminate the role and challenges of such cultural organisations in the twenty-first century. It is argued that, when employing the practice and energy of the curator, creative activations have the potential to open new points of entry to, and provide alternative perspectives upon, heritage places and collections. This is achieved through arts practice, organisational thinking, and bringing to life the links between past, present and future. In this process, new and dynamic measures of value can be explored and create dialogic encounters between people, heritage and ideas.Doctor of Philosoph

The Moral Economy of Mobile Phones

The moral economy of mobile phones implies a field of shifting relations among consumers, companies and state actors, all of whom have their own ideas about what is good, fair and just. These ideas inform the ways in which, for example, consumers acquire and use mobile phones; companies promote and sell voice, SMS and data subscriptions; and state actors regulate both everyday use of mobile phones and market activity around mobile phones. Ambivalence and disagreement about who owes what to whom is thus an integral feature of the moral economy of mobile phones. This volume identifies and evaluates the stakes at play in the moral economy of mobile phones. The six main chapters consider ethnographic cases from Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu. The volume also includes a brief introduction with background information on the recent ‘digital revolution’ in these countries and two closing commentaries that reflect on the significance of the chapters for our understanding of global capitalism and the contemporary Pacific

The contradictions of freedom : freedom camping tensions, tourism governance and changing social relationships in the Christchurch and Selwyn districts of New Zealand : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

In 2011, the National led government of New Zealand hastily enacted the Freedom Camping Act (2011) in order to accommodate the bourgeoning number of foreign tourists expected to arrive for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. This was despite opposition concerns that existing public infrastructure, and particularly sanitation facilities, would not be able to meet the growth in demand. In the years since the introduction of FCA (2011), the popularity of freedom camping primarily among budget conscious Europeans has increased and there has been an ever growing number of freedom campers arriving on New Zealand’s shores. Freedom camping is defined in the Act as camping in self-contained and non-self-contained vehicles on public land managed by local governments or the Department of Conservation. Promoted by the national government and tourism industry for its potential to contribute to national tourism revenue, public and political concerns have surfaced around the social, economic, cultural and environmental costs and benefits of freedom camping. Significant points of tension and conflict have come to characterise freedom camping which illuminate multiple contradictions both in its conceptualisation and the way it is experienced by various groups. Freedom camping is embedded in neoliberal governance and discourse and is a policy directive enacted in national legislation. However, its management is devolved to local governments and its effects are highly localised. In this thesis I examine the different management approaches to freedom camping and the effects of these approaches in two neighbouring areas of New Zealand’s South Island: the Christchurch and Selwyn districts. Christchurch is a major urban area and tourism hub and since 2015 has had a freedom camping bylaw in place which restricts freedom camping in its environs. In contrast, Selwyn is a rural district with a rapidly growing urban centre. It has no freedom camping bylaw and manages two large freedom camping areas in its district. Drawing on extensive document analysis and three weeks of qualitative field research involving interviews, observation and site visits in the two districts in late 2018, this thesis speaks to two specific research questions: • How do people in the Christchurch and Selwyn regional districts feel about freedom camping, the Freedom Camping Act 2011 and its management? • How is freedom camping and the Freedom Camping Act 2011 reshaping social relations within and between the Christchurch and Selwyn regional districts? This thesis locates the FCA (2011) and freedom camping within current discourse on tourism governance in neoliberal government structures and in answering the research questions, explores three key areas. First, I examine the governance of freedom camping, the state of the legislation and how different regional approaches to freedom camping create inconsistency and community stress. Second, I consider freedom camping as a contradictory process of capitalism and interpret economic power over nature through the framework of political ecology. The third area is an analysis of tourist-hosts relations which sets a broader framework to examine tensions over freedom camping’s visibility seen through the cultural lens of the “New Zealand camper identity”. The thesis concludes that freedom camping through the FCA (2011) makes multiple interpretations of freedom compete in, and for, contested public spaces. Four freedoms are identified that emerge from the tensions. Freedom from cost relates to seeking free sites and overusing public space. Freedom of mobility is the legislation encouraging freedom campers to locate themselves in contested public places. Freedom as birthright is New Zealander’s interpretation of freedom in nature as a birthright which is utilized by the national tourism industry. The freedom of regulated responsibility involves the language of freedom being removed from freedom camping by the central government after eight years of significant social and environmental stress due to freedom camping. These freedoms are both interconnected and internally contradictory leaving the future meaning and practice of freedom camping uncertain

Recruiting undergraduate students in South Africa - towards a relationship orientation

Includes bibliographical references