What is the Value of Home? NOT FOR SALE - West End Interventions

Many Australians today are image consumers. We fail to question the importance of lifestyle imagery created and promoted by Real Estate Agencies whom have no actual part in the physical creation of house, or indeed the intimate making of "home" through our experiences of place. Real Estate Markets dictate how, where, when and what we buy. Re-sale values, profit-making, and value-adding interfere with the crafting of a home over time as a tangible, individual, collaborative, and rich lived experience of dwelling. The "NOT FOR SALE" project is a response and critique of the dominance of real estate forces in West End within the context and unshakable presence of a booming inner-city property market. This proposal originated from an experimental dwelling in Avebury St., West End. This project has been fashioned over a period of several years primarily from recycled local materials, interconnected with the changing needs and spatial requirements of the occupants and project participants. The influence of property markets is of little concern in this home "making". The "NOT FOR SALE" project attempts to question and critique the purely financial value that we as a society place upon our homes. By appropriating and re-coding the Real Estate Signage typologies, we aim to provoke social commentary on the dominance of real estate forces in the West End suburb. There is a strong and rich tradition of anti-consumerist activist graffiti in West End. Activists re-code signs and property with political commentary and critique. The "NOT FOR SALE" project draws upon this tradition through our RRESign (Recodified Real Estate Signs): we aim to redress the dominant commercial forces associated with the single house/property. Collectively, at the scale of the street, these RRESigns will reflect a critique of street scale, amenity, and character. Finally, at the scale of the suburb, the network of RRESigns will reflect a critique of the idea of place making. Collectively, the aim of the "NOT FOR SALE" RRESign interventions is to highlight the idea of making and the material characteristics of dwelling that challenges the cultural value of commodified property, re-defining and prioritising the idea of "home". Conventional Real Estate signs use images and text to sell an idea of home: our proposed interventions sell nothing, and are rather celebrations of the joy of making tactile, handcrafted objects, and by extension, the making and crafting of home. The intimate and experiential understanding of home will be harnessed through the engagement of local residents. Community groups within West End such as Local Push can further disseminate the RRESign interventions. The signs will be constructed West End-specific materials (old signs purchased from inexpensive second-hand material merchant Reverse Garbage in Montague Rd.): turning post-consumer waste into objects of material beauty and social critique. Residents and community groups will be encouraged to place their RRESigns outside their properties and adjacent real estate signs, frustrating and recoding the existing For-Sale signs that currently dominate the West End street scape. The project is dependent on the support of the local residents, extending from a few signs in Avebury St. to a network of RRESigns throughout West End. A commentary on people's responses to the project will be linked to the www.apbv.com.au website. What is the value of home

Foraging ecology of the endangered wood stork recorded in the stable isotope signature of feathers

Down feathers and regurgitant were collected from nestling wood storks (Mycteria americana) from two inland and two coastal breeding colonies in Georgia. The stable isotopic ratios of carbon ( 13 C/12 C) and nitrogen ( 15N/ 14N) in these materials were analyzed to gain insights into the natal origins of juvenile storks and the foraging activities of adults. Down feathers differed in δ 13 C between inland and coastal colonies, having average isotopic values that reflected the sources of carbon fixed in biomass at the base of the food web. Feathers from the inland colonies differed between colonies in δ 15N, while those from the coastal colonies did not. These patterns primarily reflected the foraging activities of parent storks, with individuals capturing differing percentages of prey of distinct trophic status at each colony. Collectively, the carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures of feather keratin were used to distinguish nestlings from each colony, except for instances where storks from different colonies foraged in common wetlands. The stable isotopic composition of food items in regurgitant was used to reconstruct the trophic structure of the ecosystems in which wood storks foraged. Predicted foraging activities based on the isotopic composition of keratin were generally consistent with the percentage of prey types (freshwater vs. saltwater and lower trophic level vs. upper trophic level consumer) observed in regurgitant, except for the coastal colony at St. Simons Island, where the δ 13 C of feathers strongly suggested that freshwater prey were a significant component of the diet. This inconsistency was resolved by aerial tracking of adults during foraging excursions using a fixed-wing aircraft. Observed foraging activities supported interpretations based on the stable isotope content of feathers, suggesting that the latter provided a better record of overall foraging activity than regurgitant analysis alone. Observed foraging patterns were compared to the predictions of a statistical model that determined habitat utilization based on habitat availability using a geographic information system (GIS) database. Observed foraging activities and those predicted from feathers both suggested that some adult storks preferred to feed their young freshwater prey, even when saltwater resources were more accessible in the local environment. This conclusion supports the contention that wood stork populations are sensitive to changes in the distribution of freshwater habitats along the southeastern coastal plain of the United States

Foraging ecology of the endangered wood stork recorded in the stable isotope signature of feathers

Down feathers and regurgitant were collected from nestling wood storks (Mycteria americana) from two inland and two coastal breeding colonies in Georgia. The stable isotopic ratios of carbon ( 13 C/12 C) and nitrogen ( 15N/ 14N) in these materials were analyzed to gain insights into the natal origins of juvenile storks and the foraging activities of adults. Down feathers differed in δ 13 C between inland and coastal colonies, having average isotopic values that reflected the sources of carbon fixed in biomass at the base of the food web. Feathers from the inland colonies differed between colonies in δ 15N, while those from the coastal colonies did not. These patterns primarily reflected the foraging activities of parent storks, with individuals capturing differing percentages of prey of distinct trophic status at each colony. Collectively, the carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures of feather keratin were used to distinguish nestlings from each colony, except for instances where storks from different colonies foraged in common wetlands. The stable isotopic composition of food items in regurgitant was used to reconstruct the trophic structure of the ecosystems in which wood storks foraged. Predicted foraging activities based on the isotopic composition of keratin were generally consistent with the percentage of prey types (freshwater vs. saltwater and lower trophic level vs. upper trophic level consumer) observed in regurgitant, except for the coastal colony at St. Simons Island, where the δ 13 C of feathers strongly suggested that freshwater prey were a significant component of the diet. This inconsistency was resolved by aerial tracking of adults during foraging excursions using a fixed-wing aircraft. Observed foraging activities supported interpretations based on the stable isotope content of feathers, suggesting that the latter provided a better record of overall foraging activity than regurgitant analysis alone. Observed foraging patterns were compared to the predictions of a statistical model that determined habitat utilization based on habitat availability using a geographic information system (GIS) database. Observed foraging activities and those predicted from feathers both suggested that some adult storks preferred to feed their young freshwater prey, even when saltwater resources were more accessible in the local environment. This conclusion supports the contention that wood stork populations are sensitive to changes in the distribution of freshwater habitats along the southeastern coastal plain of the United States

An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the COSMOS field: The extent of the radio-emitting region revealed by 3 GHz imaging with the Very Large Array

We determine the radio size distribution of a large sample of 152 SMGs in COSMOS that were detected with ALMA at 1.3 mm. For this purpose, we used the observations taken by the VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project. One hundred and fifteen of the 152 target SMGs were found to have a 3 GHz counterpart. The median value of the major axis FWHM at 3 GHz is derived to be $4.6\pm0.4$ kpc. The radio sizes show no evolutionary trend with redshift, or difference between different galaxy morphologies. We also derived the spectral indices between 1.4 and 3 GHz, and 3 GHz brightness temperatures for the sources, and the median values were found to be $\alpha=-0.67$ and $T_{\rm B}=12.6\pm2$ K. Three of the target SMGs, which are also detected with the VLBA, show clearly higher brightness temperatures than the typical values. Although the observed radio emission appears to be predominantly powered by star formation and supernova activity, our results provide a strong indication of the presence of an AGN in the VLBA and X-ray-detected SMG AzTEC/C61. The median radio-emitting size we have derived is 1.5-3 times larger than the typical FIR dust-emitting sizes of SMGs, but similar to that of the SMGs' molecular gas component traced through mid-$J$ line emission of CO. The physical conditions of SMGs probably render the diffusion of cosmic-ray electrons inefficient, and hence an unlikely process to lead to the observed extended radio sizes. Instead, our results point towards a scenario where SMGs are driven by galaxy interactions and mergers. Besides triggering vigorous starbursts, galaxy collisions can also pull out the magnetised fluids from the interacting disks, and give rise to a taffy-like synchrotron-emitting bridge. This provides an explanation for the spatially extended radio emission of SMGs, and can also cause a deviation from the well-known IR-radio correlation.Comment: 32 pages (incl. 5 appendices), 17 figures, 7 tables; accepted for publication in A&A; abstract abridged for arXi

Optical_surfaces: the emergence of surface distrubance and embodied affect in architecture

The means of conception and construction of architectural form has never before been so open to radical figurative and procedural transformation fuelled by the emergence of new computer-mediated design and fabrication technologies. It appeared that almost anything was possible at the turn of the new millennium, however the emerging techno-determinist approach to architectural design exclusively denied the human senses as an agent in design conception, continuing the prevailing traditions of western occularcentricism. The formal and spatial character of architecture was effectively reduced in the nineteen-nineties to questions of surface and flatness. However, a series of contemporary architectural projects began to question this monocular trajectory, choosing instead to mine the field of Art in search of optical effects that engaged directly with the observer on a cognitive and experiential level. This paper will demonstrate how the dazzle shed by Elenberg Fraser in 1995 and the Brisbane Girls Grammar School by M3 Architects in 2006 draw upon concepts of surface disturbance that is exemplified by the de Stijl project of the early twentieth-century, and op-art of the 1960’s. This paper speculates that these architectural projects represent an important transition in the treatment of surface in Architecture; embodying an understanding of the affective capacity of the image to transform the disembodied occularcentric traditions of surface composition in Architecture, to an embodied multi-sensory experience

Unframed Movement: Issues in digital media and a history of framed visuality

This dissertation explores the way in which image-technologies have been historically used to represent ‘space’ within Architecture, Art, and within the broader social history of visual culture. This research is undertaken in order to provide insights into the way in which new and emerging image-technologies might effect our understand of, and interaction with, both real space and image-rich virtual space. Several key historical image-artefacts and technologies are discussed and critiqued through both discursive analysis and conceptual demonstration. This technique is applied in order to demonstrate what is conceptually at stake in the exemplar, therefore providing insights into alternative applications and uses of these concepts. This research aims to explore cross-disciplinary connections so as to contribute to our understanding of visuality in new and informative ways. For example, the spatial and compositional concepts that underpin the use of image-technologies such as Virtual Reality and the seamless integration of computer generated imagery into cinema, still employ concepts that were developed in the fifteenth-century without question, i.e. Perspective. Therefore, contextualising the cultural and historical context in which Perspective was developed, whilst simultaneously demonstrating how perspective is used in the representation of space, affords a framework through which to question the relevancy of Perspective today. In this thesis, this is achieved through the exploration of new and innovative methods of analysis and documentation that explore the many related concepts that underpin how the representation of space has been theorised and understood historically, such as the interrelation between static and moving viewers and medieval pictorialism, the perspectival picture plane, viewpoint and viewfield, and the frame and ‘framelessness’ of new media. The subsequent knowledge and concepts that are drawn from these historical exemplars, and from my own demonstrations, will provide new ways of thinking about representation, the relevancy of which extends beyond the core discipline of Architecture into Art history and Visual Cultural studies

framelessness + temporality : the nineteenth-century & virtual reality panorama

This dissertation explores the way in which image-technologies have been historically used to represent ‘space’ within Architecture and Art, relative to both the static and moving viewer. In particular, this poster graphically narrates the final chapter of my dissertation. Virtual Reality Panoramas have fascinated me for some time, their interactive nature affording a spectatorial engagement not evident within other forms of digital imagery. This interactivity however is not generally linear, as is evident in animation or film, nor is the engagement with the image reduced to the physical or visual border of the image as its limit is never visible to the viewer in its entirety. So what is it about VR Panoramic images that are so different to traditional analogue and digital images or its nineteenth-century forefather? The historical and conceptual difference is related to two concepts; the image’s ‘framelessness’ and embedded ‘temporality’. The image’s ‘framelessness’ can be understood both in terms of the physical destruction of the images edge, or rather its subversion or interruption of the viewer’s perception of the image’s boundary, but also in terms of the image’s inseparable physical and conceptual relationship with the framing capacity of a corporeal viewer whom directly engages with the image. The image’s ‘framelessness’ therefore exists both as a consequence of bodily and non-bodily mediations. Secondly, the nature of the media that is used to compose the VR Panorama [the photograph] contains its own multiple temporalities that, through the typological framework of the Panorama, expose a looped temporal framework that is unlike any other image media. This research therefore investigates questions regarding the stasis, movement, framelessness, and temporality of both the image and the observing subject, that provide new insights into the nature of the nineteenth-century panorama, the VR panoramic image, and potentially to that of emerging image technologies and artefacts that continue the immersive and conceptual affects of the panoramic genealogy

Optical affects: Fenestrations and optical fascinations in the re-embodied architecture of South-East Queensland

Fuelled by the emergence of new computer-mediated design and fabrication technologies, the means of conceiving and constructing architectural form has never before been so open to radical figurative and procedural transformation. It appeared that almost anything was possible at the turn of the new millennium. However, this emerging techno-determinist approach to architectural design generally denied the synaesthetic human body as an agent in design conception, effectively perpetuating the prevailing traditions of Western occularcentricism. The formal and spatial character of architecture that resulted in the 1990s was effectively reduced to questions of surface and flatness. However, a series of Australian contemporary architectural projects by architects Elenberg Fraser in Melbourne, and by M3 Architects in Brisbane, began to question this monocular tradition, choosing instead to mine the field of Art in search of optical effects that engaged directly with the observer on an embodied sensorial level of cognition. This chapter will demonstrate that such new conceptions of surface affect provides an alternative functional and conceptual method through which to transcend the dictatorial constraints presented by vernacular traditions; such as those effecting climatic screening and compositional fenestration in the architecture of South-East Queensland. This chapter will demonstrate how Elenberg Fraser’s Dazzle Shed and M3’s moiré screen used in the Brisbane Girls Grammar School are exemplars of projects that seek ‘cognitive surface disturbance’ in order to sensorialy embody the beholder. These projects directly draw upon concepts of pictorial composition and optics borrowed from the de Stijl art project of the 1920-30s, and upon the Op-art experiments of the 1960-70s. This chapter, therefore speculates that such projects proffer a dramatically different conception of surface and spectatorial engagement than that which is purported by the prevailing ‘sup-trop-arcadian’ and ‘timber & tin’ traditions of South-East Queensland architecture