Alexander Sokurov’s Francofonia: Museum Studies

n this contribution, Alex Munt focuses on the third installment in Russian director Alexander Sokurov’s museum trilogy, 2016’s Francofonia, a work set predominantly in the Louvre. For Munt, our understanding of Francofonia can be enriched by an analysis of the paintings shown in the film and the historical context in which they came to be included in the museum’s collection. For Munt, the juxtaposition of this canonical content with Sokurov’s experimentation with new digital filmmaking techniques lends the film a hybrid, playful quality that is formally located between the cinematic essay and the poetic documentary

Thaliporphine Preserves Cardiac Function of Endotoxemic Rabbits by Both Directly and Indirectly Attenuating NFκB Signaling Pathway

Cardiac depression in sepsis is associated with the increased morbidity and mortality. Although myofilaments damage, autonomic dysfunction, and apoptosis play roles in sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction, the underlying mechanism is not clear. All of these possible factors are related to NFκB signaling, which plays the main role in sepsis signaling. Thaliporphine was determined to possess anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective activity by suppressing NFκB signaling in rodents. The purpose of this study is to further prove this protective effect in larger septic animals, and try to find the underlying mechanisms. The systolic and diastolic functions were evaluated in vivo by pressure-volume analysis at different preloads. Both preload-dependent and -independent hemodynamic parameters were performed. Inflammatory factors of whole blood and serum samples were analyzed. Several sepsis-related signaling pathways were also determined at protein level. Changes detected by conductance catheter showed Thaliporphine could recover impaired left ventricular systolic function after 4 hours LPS injection. It could also reverse the LPS induced steeper EDPVR and gentler ESPVR, thus improve Ees, Ea, and PRSW. Thaliporphine may exert this protective effect by decreasing TNFα and caspase3 dependent cell apoptosis, which was consistent with the decreased serum cTnI and LDH concentration. Thaliporphine could protect sepsis-associated myocardial dysfunction in both preload-dependent and -independent ways. It may exert these protective effects by both increase of “good”-PI3K/Akt/mTOR and decrease of “bad”-p38/NFκB pathways, which followed by diminishing TNFα and caspase3 dependent cell apoptosis

Influences of club connectedness among young adults in Western Australian community-based sports clubs

Background: Along with physical benefits, community-based sport provides opportunities to enhance connectedness, an important protective factor of social and emotional health. However, young Australians participating in sport have been found to drink alcohol at higher levels than their non-sporting peers, and many clubs serve unhealthy food and beverages. This study explored the association between the dependent variable, level of alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C) and connectedness to club and other health behaviours among young people aged 18-30 years who play club sport in Western Australia. Methods: An online cross sectional survey measured levels of alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C), alcohol-related harm, connectedness (including volunteering and team cohesion), mental wellbeing, healthy food options and club sponsorship among young adults aged 18-30 years involved in sports clubs in Western Australia (n = 242). Relationships and association between the dependent variable (AUDIT-C) and independent variables were assessed. Results: Male sportspeople were more likely to drink alcohol at high-risk levels than females (p <.001), and respondents belonging to a club that received alcohol-related sponsorship were more likely to drink at high-risk levels (p =.019). Females were significantly more likely to want healthy food and beverage options provided at their clubs (p = 0.011). When all factors were considered team cohesion (p = 0.02), alcohol expectations (p = <.001), occurrences of experienced alcohol-related harm (p = <.001) and length of club membership (p = 0.18) were significant predictors of high-risk AUDIT-C (R 2 =.34, adjusted R 2 =.33, F (4, 156) = 20.43, p = <.001). High-risk AUDIT-C and club connectedness predicted strong team cohesion (R 2 =.39, adjusted R 2 =.39, F (2, 166) = 53.74, p = <.001). Conclusions: Findings from this study may inform policy and practice to enhance healthy behaviours among young adults participating in community sports clubs in Australia and other countries

Pop-Art in the Digital Media Ecology (Portfolio)

Research background: in this portfolio Alex Munt uses the affordances of digital media to explore aesthetic questions. 24 Hour Franco is a Two-Channel television sculpture that explores the intersection of celebrity and art-based image economies via cultural icon, celebrity and visual artist James Franco. SPRING BREAKERS 4 EVA is a glitch-based moving image work which explores the aesthetic impact of the error and accident in digital media as a new ‘meta’ mode of Pop-Art. LINDSAY is a short experimental film that revisits the Structural Film movement in the age of Reality TV. The Cloud was a site-specific media arts installation that explored new representations of the vapour cloud in the age of the internet and digital media. Research contribution: these pieces revisit and rework the works of earlier artists in order to demonstrate their continuing relevance and relationship with contemporary culture. They explore the ways in which pop culture collides with the ecology of the art-image and that popular forms of screen entertainment remediate experimental film aesthetics to produce related screen spectatorship and audience experiences. The works show that digital media can create a ‘meta’, or second-tier, mode of pop aesthetics and can unite historical motif from art with the materiality of modern data. Research Significance: the pieces were exhibited at venues including the Vancouver Art Gallery for the ISEA 2015: the International Symposium on Electronic Arts

The Cloud

THE CLOUD Biljana Jancic + Alex Munt Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world. Representations of vapour clouds are entrenched in visual cultures. The amorphous appeal of the cloud finds form across media from Chinese painting of the Ming Dynasty to the photography of Edward Weston. More recently, artists have sought to interiorise the cloud within gallery spaces, from the Sliver Clouds of Andy Warhol (with engineer Billy Klüver) to the atmospheric interior clouds of Berndnaut Smilde. For architects Diller & Scofidio a cloud operates as an architectural façade in their Blur Building. With Super Mario Clouds Cory Arcangel ‘mods’ a Nintendo video game to erase all but the scrolling cloud graphics. Colloquially, any talk of ‘clouds’ is less likely to be in relation to the amorphous vapour phenomena drifting high above and more likely to be in relation to new forms of cloud computing. If the former is transcendental in its elevation from our terrestrial plane – new conceptions of ‘the cloud’ are radically different. That is, despite the intentions of corporate branding and iconography, the data clouds exist as highly-concrete terrestrial and sub-terrestrial silicon-based network structures. ‘The Cloud’ aims to conflate these two associations. It refers to both natural tempests of the cloud and the new anxieties associated with the potential threat of the malevolent gaze across the internet. The work functions as a site-specific media installation at Mosman Art Gallery. A ‘cloudscape’ is captured with an industrial monochromatic surveillance camera mounted to a gallery window. Here, localised cloud forms are projected as a real-time feed into the ‘black box’ of The Cube. On the floor, a highly-reflective mirror surface generates a double image of this cloudscape to produce an immersive experience. On the adjacent wall, another video channel captures visitors in The Balnaves Gift exhibition, on the floor below, as they interact with the landscape paintings. The camera is trained on ‘The Spit’ (1935, Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm) by James R. Jackson, which documents the clouds above The Spit in Mosman. Together these references create an environment that allows us to reflect on the way in which mediation and transmission keep us in a permanent state of suspension. In other words, we are both located in space and time but also players in a floating world

Lindsay (For Those Who Don't Have The Time)

Experimental Fil

24 Hour Franco

In 1973 Nam June Paik asked ‘How soon will artists have their own TV channels?’. In 2015 Kubrick or Korine™ respond with a channel conceived for cultural producer, icon and visual artist James Franco. 24 Hour Franco pays homage to the screen visions of Paik and the presence of Franco. It encases Hollywood image-flow within avant-garde form and speaks to the commingling of art and celebrity in the global image economy. Part project and part product: 24 Hour Franco can be retro-fitted to discarded CRT's to deliver a TV sculpture for airports, hotels or shopping malls in the spirit of Paik's 'global groove'