Special affects : compositing images in the bodies of Butoh

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.This thesis examines how the relationship between 'the body' and 'the image' may be understood within the Japanese dance movement called butoh. The aim of the thesis is twofold – to investigate what it means to construct a body specific to butoh, and to consider how the image in butoh may be seen to affect this body. In the first instance, I examine how the materiality of the butoh-body constrains or delimits its expressive capacity. In the second instance, I investigate how the materiality of the butoh-image performs a generative function, to stretch the bounds of this body and the limits of its expression. As far as theorising the butoh-body is concerned, what interests me are the points of confluence that may be explored through the materialist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. I seek to demonstrate how the ideas of Tatsumi Hijikata (butoh's co-founder) may be discussed through the writing of Antonin Artaud, whose approach to the body influenced both Hijikata and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. As far as the butoh-image is concerned, I seek to show how Deleuze's cinephilosophy may also inform an understanding of Hijikata's choreographic method of working with images, called butoh-fu. Here, I develop a conceptual model with which to probe the materiality of the butoh-image and the cinematic qualities of the butoh-body. This twofold approach stems from my own art practice as a filmmaker and performer. The initial impetus for the research emerged through an intensive period of butoh dance training, as well as the production of a short film. This film experiments with a dynamic interaction of performers, sculptural elements, plus digital and optical effects. In the thesis, I use the theory of complex systems and the ideas of Deleuze, Guattari, Hijikata and Artaud, to discuss how the film may be imagined as a 'systemic narrative'. This approach explores interactions between the filmic elements, to produce the narrative as an ongoing process of construction. This thesis is a work in progress towards two outcomes. The first of these is a diagrammatic model for butoh dance notation, to provide a graphic template for Hijikata's choreographic method. The second is a proposed video-installation, which may further implement the systemic narrative with a technical configuration that corresponds to the diagrammatic model. Through this research, I seek to develop my own praxis, which investigates a systemic approach to the embodiment of the image

Aspects of cell death and autolysis in Saccharomyces cerevisae : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Microbiology at Massey University

The kinetics of cell death and autolysis of twenty two haploid yeast strains were examined over a period of eight months in wine and synthetic media. Eight distinct patterns of cell death were observed using methylene blue staining and sample plating for viable cells. The rate of death was both yeast strain dependent and influenced by environmental factors such as temperature, nutrient supply and the presence or absence of ethanol. The activity of extracellular killer yeast toxin concentrated by ultrafiltration was examined under various environmental conditions. Toxin activity was pH and temperature dependent. Concentrations of ethanol greater than 2% completely inhibited killer toxin activity. A difference of 12 hours was detected between a yeast ce71 becoming incapable of reproduction as the result of killer toxin action and this inability becoming discern­ible by methylene blue staining. A maximum kill of 97 - 99% was obtained independent of cell or toxin concentration. Toxin induced death was accompanied by the release of arginine and lysine. A bioassay was developed to quantify the amounts of arginine and lysine released

Recognition of Bahrain’s National Qualifications Framework in the wider world

Purpose: The focus of this research is on the experience of Bahrain’s National Qualifications Framework (NQF) over the last decade and how it has related – and could relate – to the wider world. The three dimensions of this research are: (1) how the application of the framework can best facilitate recognition internationally and locally of the graduates of the kingdom’s universities and training institutions; (2) the key principles, standards and processes that enable such recognition; and (3) how the recognition can be sustained. Methodology: A qualitative interpretivist case study method has been adopted. Findings: The research identifies key challenges encountered by higher education and training institutions in implementing the NQF requirements and the impact of the implementation on learning and teaching processes. Originality/value: The lessons learned in implementing national qualifications frameworks worldwide have been examined and highlighted in the interests of supporting and improving the Bahraini experience

Sponging the chair: diagramming affect through architecture and performance

This doctoral research, conducted through both practice-based and theoretical inquiry, is located within the field of psychophysical performance practice, informed by and intersected with philosophical and architectural approaches to diagramming. The aim of the research is to develop ways of understanding how affectivity works in a particularly diagrammatic manner within a performative event. This is considered through the experience of an individual person, between people as intersubjective and collective bodies, and within the built environments they occupy. The research begins with the problem of attaining a condition of ‘openness’, whereby performer(s) produce an affective, collectively held state of embodied presence. This may be recognized as moments in which we feel 'moved' by a performance, or when an inexplicable potential seems to emerge that transforms our habitual perceptions of time, space and subjectivity. This opening to affectivity is a double-edged sword. It radically de-centers the subject, but also allows a sense of shared constraint to act like an intangible glue, connecting individuals and even nonhuman or inanimate elements within the environment. This approach is very different to other performance practices such as Ballet or Contemporary Dance, especially in the way specific methods deal with sensation and movement, form and intention, memory and the image. A performer may often enact a sense of openness between selves and/or things when these qualities become tentative or indeterminate. Because of the importance of objects, artifacts, and built environments as ‘intermediaries’ within these performances, a comparison with theories of architectural diagramming and situated cognition provides a broader context for the research practice. In particular, I draw on a Deleuzian notion of ‘the diagram’ - an abstract or conceptual device for generating processes of transformation. In working through the experience of developing my own performance practice, alongside theories of diagramming and affect, I develop specific principles and procedures for generating openness. I draw on my training in Butoh dance and Grotowski physical theatre method to consider how bodies and selves are affected by the way they situate themselves within a given site. Objects, artifacts, and built environments are seen to stand in as intermediaries for holding open a tentative disposition and through which collective shifts in affectivity may occur. Using the conceptual figure of a ‘sponge-body’ I explore how this moves through many different openings in thinking, feeling and doing. In the project work, the constructed nature of this holding open becomes more overt by using chairs as physical performance apparatus. This culminates in the final project with the appearance of a gargoyle - a character who comes to stand in as an architectural figure for locating what may be at stake for resituating the role of the body within the built environment. The gargoyle presents a grotesque figure sitting on the very cusp of normal social interaction. In doing so, it reveals how the collective nature of affective openness - across diverse levels of experience, may have far-ranging implications for the future becoming of bodies and buildings, selves and environment

Buddy-Motivational Interviewing (buddy-MI) to Increase Physical Activity in Community Settings: Study Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

This article describes the development and evaluation of a novel buddy-motivational interviewing intervention intended to help apparently healthy but relatively sedentary adults to adopt and maintain regular physical activity for health and fitness. Many people experience great difficulty in initiating physical activity (“the getting going problem”) and behavioural regression is common (“the keeping it going problem”). Typically there is a rather large gap between what people know to be healthy and what they actually do. This intervention is an adaptation of motivational interviewing in that it adds client-selected motivational-buddies who can provide in-session input as well as ongoing out-of-session support focused on strengthening clients’ motivation for and movement toward their physical activity goals. A pragmatic parallel group randomised controlled trial with 12-month follow-up aims to deliver and assess the effectiveness of the intervention in a format that could realistically be implemented within primary care, workplaces, schools or other similar setting. The study is due to report clinical effectiveness findings in 2014

Buddy-motivational interviewing (buddy-MI) to Increase Physical Activity in Community Settings: Results of a Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

This article describes the implementation and evaluation of a novel buddy-Motivational Interviewing intervention intended to help apparently healthy but relatively sedentary adults to adopt and maintain regular physical activity for health and fitness. This intervention is an adaptation of Motivational Interviewing which adds client-selected motivational-buddies who can provide in-session input as well as ongoing out-of-session support focused on strengthening client’s motivation for and movement toward their physical activity goals. A pragmatic parallel-group randomised controlled trial with 12-month follow-up was implemented to test the intervention. The trial demonstrated that buddy-MI was feasible and could be delivered with equivalent fidelity to standard MI and both groups demonstrated statistically significant changes across a range of behavioural and health-status outcomes. Moreover, the experimental group participants generally ‘outperformed’ the control group participants as shown by the consistent trends observed over three repeated measures out to 12-months (although these between-group differences were statistically non-significant). Qualitative data indicated participant acceptance of the programme as well as providing initial evidence of positive collateral health effects (‘ripple effects’ whereby buddies changed their behaviours also). Consideration for further development, evaluation and applications are also discussed

Ship-based measurements of ice nuclei concentrations over the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans

Ambient concentrations of ice-forming particles measured during ship expeditions are collected and summarised with the aim of determining the spatial distribution and variability in ice nuclei in oceanic regions. The presented data from literature and previously unpublished data from over 23 months of ship-based measurements stretch from the Arctic to the Southern Ocean and include a circumnavigation of Antarctica. In comparison to continental observations, ship-based measurements of ambient ice nuclei show 1 to 2 orders of magnitude lower mean concentrations. To quantify the geographical variability in oceanic areas, the concentration range of potential ice nuclei in different climate zones is analysed by meridionally dividing the expedition tracks into tropical, temperate and polar climate zones. We find that concentrations of ice nuclei in these meridional zones follow temperature spectra with similar slopes but vary in absolute concentration. Typically, the frequency with which specific concentrations of ice nuclei are observed at a certain temperature follows a log-normal distribution. A consequence of the log-normal distribution is that the mean concentration is higher than the most frequently measured concentration. Finally, the potential contribution of ship exhaust to the measured ice nuclei concentration on board research vessels is analysed as function of temperature. We find a sharp onset of the influence at approximately 36 C but none at warmer temperatures that could bias ship-based measurements. © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License