"Exploring the Gap": intercultural learnig in literature and the arts in Lifelong Learning

Lev Manovich (2001) suggests that the heart of the new media relationship is language, programmes and people in collaboration producing and interpreting new representations of the world through «cultural interfaces — Web pages, CD-ROM titles, computer games». In this paper, I explore the gap in-between the artist, the programme and the cultural interface. Gaps are something into which we either fall — or we fill. We may rush to fill an awkward gap in a conversation; or alternatively, we may use that gap — relish the silence — and take the opportunity to explore it creatively. This paper provides a contribution towards filling the digital gap in new media learning via analysis of student questionnaires, recorded interviews and exemplar material, and concludes with reflections on the pedagogical and intercultural theoretical issues involved.Manovich (2001) sugiere que en la base de las relaciones entre los nuevos medios de masas se encuentran el lenguaje, los programas informáticos y los individuos que producen e interpretan de manera colaborativa nuevas representaciones del mundo mediante «interfaces culturales — páginas web, carátulas de CD- rom, juegos de ordenador». En este artículo se exploran los espacios existentes entre el artista, el programa y la interfaz cultural. El ser humano puede apresurarse a rellenar un vacío conversacional o disfrutar del silencio y explorarlo de manera creativa. Este artículo contribuye a rellenar el espacio digital producido en la enseñanza realizada con nuevos recursos multimedia, a través del análisis de cuestionarios, entrevistas grabadas y materiales ilustrativos realizados por los estudiantes, concluyendo con una reflexión sobre los aspectos pedagógicos e interculturales de naturaleza teórica derivados de tales cuestiones

‘Through Collaboration to Sharawadji: Immediacy, Mediation and the Voice.’

This article analyses the composition and experience of Proto-type’s The Good, the God and the Guillotine (2014) from three critical positions central to the making process: Andrew Westerside, from the position of director and performer-singer; Martin Blain, from the position of composer-performer and Jane Turner, from the position of Dramaturge. It addresses an emergent connection between the sharawadji effect and the techno-sublime, made possible in this performance through the disturbances of technology and the ‘technologically uncanny’. The objective of the article is twofold. The first is to demonstrate how both internally (to the performer) and externally (to the spectator) experiences of sharawadji and the sublime might emerge. Secondly, it proposes these experiences – notably sharawadji – as a product of the interdisciplinary process, and suggests in doing so a productive relationship between the often conflicting or unresolved dramaturgies that are created across performance disciplines

Editorial introduction

This article frames the journal special issue by offering a broad reflection on the historical development of ideas that have informed debates concerning intermediality and its pedagogical contexts. It opens with a brief articulation of media and intermedial theory to inform the debate. The challenges of contemporary media hybridity are then set within an historical context by tracing the origins of current (perceived) knowledge dichotomies and hierarchies into the philosophical canons of western antiquity. In examining distinctions between the different types of knowledge and expression that form the constituent parts of contemporary intermedial theatres, the article considers philosophical debates, traces historical trajectories and probes social dynamics from Aristotle to the present. Moving on to the current historical and social context of intermedial practice and pedagogy, the article examines specific challenges and opportunities that emerge from our own intermedial age. This multifaceted and trans-historical approach leads the authors to suggest that old hierarchical and divisional structures impact upon contemporary practices, affecting how those are perceived, received and valued

Hard to Reach: Examining the National Disability Insurance Scheme Experience - A Case Study in Wollongong

We report on interviews conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Our aims were to assess the effectiveness of the NDIS in communicating with people with disabilities who are socio‐economically disadvantaged, to consider the types of assistance required, and to provide recommendations to improve the NDIS. Our interviewees are characterised as ‘hard to reach’, a cohort that is missing out on benefits they might receive under the NDIS because of the socioeconomic disadvantage that compounds their disability hardship. Some of our key findings were that many of our interviewees were unaware of the NDIS, the application process was overwhelming for them, and that the vast majority lacked family and friends to help them apply. We propose a number of measures that will help to bring the ‘hard to reach’ population within the ambit of the NDIS. Recommendations: 1. That the NDIA revise its communication strategy to socioeconomically disadvantaged groups with disabilities. 2. That resources are allocated to providing advocacy support for socio‐economically disadvantaged groups with disabilities. 3. That the classification and eligibility criteria used to access the NDIS are reviewed. 4. That further research is undertaken into specific geographic, economic and social cohorts, particularly where the potential for sub‐optimal outcomes from the NDIS exists