Unfolding projects: Afghan and Australian artist’s books collaborations

In August 2009 an email was circulated to a number of Australian women artists with an offer to participate in a project of dialogue with women in Afghanistan. The project grew as a response to the dire situation of many women in Afghanistan, particularly in relation to education; many women are illiterate because they were and often still are, forbidden, restricted, or discouraged from attending school. By April 2010, 53 artists’ books by 14 women artists from various parts of Australia were delivered to Afghanistan, thereby beginning a process of creative collaboration between women situated in different places, cultures, and languages, attempting a productive connection through image and text. Each artist had created a small series of concertinas of imagery consistent with her current studio practice, which were then delivered to Afghanistan and distributed amongst women participating in literacy education. The women were asked to relate to the images by writing their own words directly within. The general intent was for the concertinas to be sent back to Australia, then bound and exhibited to raise public awareness, and possibly sold to raise funds. The artistic intent, however, was not the fundraising aspect as much as to take part in a process of support and dialogue with women in Afghanistan. It was a manoeuvre that said \u27you are not alone\u27. The aim was to mobilise a conversation of sorts through the visuality and materiality of the artist’s book, despite the limitations of cultural, experiential, and physical distance. Just over six months from their delivery to Afghanistan, 36 of the 53 books returned to Australia, each marked with handwritten stories and poems in Dari and Pashto. This paper discusses the processes and considerations involved in the project, and the partnership formed with SAWA-Australia (Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan)

The unstable print: Material challenges in printmaking and the moving image

The past few years have seen an emergence of printmakers motivated by moving-image technology to use print as performative creative practice; in film and animation, as installation and in various processes of thinking and production. Notions of movement and change that could be said to identify much of our contemporary world reflect the interests of a number of printmakers who utilize printmaking characteristics of multiplicity and reproduction by integrating the digital and the handmade within the moving-image. There seems to be a restlessness by some artists who wish to explore an unbounded, experimental approach to printmaking; perhaps it is a natural progression for printmakers to relate their processes of thinking and production to concepts of frame-by-frame production – to additive and subtractive methods, multiple imagery and the reproduced or copy. But what happens when printmaking that has entered the realm of multimedia technology returns to the physical, material print? This paper presents and discusses printmaking as moving image, and in particular the practice of printmaking that utilizes the copy and multiplicity while exploiting qualities of change through, for example, organic non-archival materials. Drawing from my own print projects and practice as well as the work of other Australian printmakers, the paper asks: can the physical print convincingly perform, not only represent, movement and change as analog experience through its materiality, and how is it to be valued within printmaking conventions concerned with longevity and permanence

Financial Risk and Unemployment

Abstract There is a strong correlation between the corporate interest rate (BAA rated), and its spread relative to Treasuries, and the unemployment rate. We model how interest rates and potential default rates impact equilibrium unemployment in a Diamond-Mortesen-Pissarides model. We calibrate the model using US data without targeting business cycle statistics. Volatility in the corporate interest rate can explain about 80% of the volatility of unemployment, vacancies, and market tightness. Simulating the Great Recession shows the model can account for much of the rise in unemployment. Without Fed action, unemployment would have been 6% higher. JEL Classification:E22, E24, E32, E44, J41, J63, J6

Radiolabelled peptides for oncological diagnosis

Radiolabelled receptor-binding peptides targeting receptors (over)expressed on tumour cells are widely under investigation for tumour diagnosis and therapy. The concept of using radiolabelled receptor-binding peptides to target receptor-expressing tissues in vivo has stimulated a large body of research in nuclear medicine. The 111In-labelled somatostatin analogue octreotide (OctreoScan™) is the most successful radiopeptide for tumour imaging, and was the first to be approved for diagnostic use. Based on the success of these studies, other receptor-targeting peptides such as cholecystokinin/gastrin analogues, glucagon-like peptide-1, bombesin (BN), chemokine receptor CXCR4 targeting peptides, and RGD peptides are currently under development or undergoing clinical trials. In this review, we discuss some of these peptides and their analogues, with regard to their potential for radionuclide imaging of tumours

Quite distant before me

5 books, each constructed from 3 panels as a triangle. Two facing panels have images that are reflected in the third panel of black perspex

The Anonymous Portrait

1. \u27MotherDaughter\u27, Six works, 75 cm x 75 cm each, watercolour and ink wash, charcoal, graphite, photocopy transfer, on Arches 300gsm 2. \u27MotherDaughter II\u27. One work made up of 15 images, 30 cm x 37 cm each, watercolour and ink wash, charcoal, graphite, eye-shadow powders, photocopy transfer, on Arches 300gsm. 3. \u27MotherSon\u27. One work made up of 15 images, 30 cm x 37 cm each, black and coloured photocopy transfers, on Arches 300gsm. 4. \u27MotherSon II\u27. One work made up of 8 60 cm x 40.5 cm each, black and coloured photocopy transfers, on Arches 300gsm. 5. \u27MotherSon III\u27. One work made up of 6 images, 60 cm x 40.5 cm each, black and coloured photocopy transfers, on Arches 300gsm. 6. \u27FatherDaughter\u27. One work made up of fourteen images, 37.5 cm x 52.5 cm each, ink and watercolour wash, photocopy transfer, charcoal and graphite, on Arches 300gsm. 7. \u27his/ her\u27. Twenty-six bound books, 25 cm x 23 cm x 1.5 cm each when closed, letterpress text and facial imprints (eye-shadow powders), charcoal, on Magnani Velata Arvorio 210gsm. 7. \u27Closed Book\u27. Ten books comprising 10 to 12 drawings, 16.5 cm x 8 cm each image, photocopy transfer, charcoal, on Arches 300gsm