Letter from Istanbul

Research Background Having undertaken research at the Kassel Documenta and the Venice Biennale, I was invited to prepare a short paper on the Istanbul Biennale for Art Monthly. There had been little direct reporting done on this relatively new contemporary art event and my experience in international contemporary art reviewing provided Art Monthly with coverage which included a broad overview with some specific analysis of the Australian artist Callum Morton (who would represent Australia in a future Venice Biennale). Research Contribution: Whilst the article is brief, as specified by the editor, the field work has introduced a direct narrative with a significant international art event. The review format adopts an autoethnographic approach making direct commentary on current phenomena. Research Significance: A number of journals have adopted this short review approach which facilitates a much greater global perspective of contemporary art, especially Australian art, in international settings. Callum Morton’s work Stonewash, has only been reviewed once in the national framework; he has made special mention of this article as the one of the few that recognised his earlier work utilising a sophisticated narrative approach based on authentic fieldwork

Development and accuracy determination of a two-component Doppler Global Velocimeter (DGV)

A two-component Doppler Global Velocimeter (DGV) system was constructed and tested to research problems associated with the accuracy of this unique system. The uniqueness of the system lies in its ability to simultaneously and non-intrusively measure velocities in a laser illuminated plane. A key component of the system is a frequency discriminating optical filter containing iodine vapor which allows direct measurement of the Doppler frequency shift caused by particle motion. Corrections for optical distortions and non-uniform intensities as well as the conversions from intensity data to velocity data are performed by an extensive image processing algorithm. Measurements were made of a 12″ diameter rotating wheel and turbulent pipe/jet flow. Both RMS deviations and velocity range measurement errors from a single component for the rotating wheel with a maximum velocity of 58 m/s were less than 2%, better than most published results, to date, for similar systems. Pipe/jet flow profiles agreed very well with the shape of pitot probe measurements. RMS errors were on the order of 5--10%, but velocity offset error was as much as 10--15% of the 42 m/s velocity range. DGV measured turbulence intensities at the center of the pipe, 4 diameters downstream agreed with hot wire data, with some reservations. Several factors such as repeatability of calibrations, precision of wheel/pipe speed measurement, measurement of viewing angles, and 8-bit camera digitization contributed to the errors in DGV velocity data. Proper techniques for preparing and acquiring correction images are also critical steps toward the goal of producing accurate velocity data

Taking Northern Queensland into Account: Another View of Australian Art

This paper seeks to bridge a gap in Australian art histories by examining the contribution of Northern Queensland to the Australian arts narrative. The story of the visual arts in Australia is often written from the perspective of the southern states, and the story of Queensland art is often written from the perspective of its capital, Brisbane. This is despite the early depiction of the rich flora and fauna of Far North Queensland recognised in early surveys. In examining the history of the arts from the north however, key themes emerge that characterise and challenge understandings of the visual arts in Queensland. By exploring the work of artist Clem Forbes (1938-1997) and sculptor Tom Risley (1947-2010) this paper suggests that the contribution made by artists living and working in Northern Queensland can throw light on what is distinct about the north as a vision of Australian art

Where is the trust? For the good of the people

In an era where the public has greater access to information than ever before, why is it that social capital in many communities is so divided and diminished? Traditionally people have experienced and generated social capital through direct contact with families and social spaces, including neighbourhoods, communities, clubs and the workplace. Nowadays, many relationships and networks operate at a global level and in cyber-space – enabled through technology and screen-mediated interactions. While there are many benefits to contemporary technologies and innovations, including new forms of sociability, these same developments have also resulted in a loss of sociability; a loss of social capital, social cohesion and trust in institutions. Western democratic societies, including Australia, appear to have become open to the exploitation of change and uncertainty in communities, amplified by propagandists and the manipulation of both mainstream and social media; to sow social discord and create fear and uncertainty, including a loss of trust in scientific research originating from universities. It is the trust in knowledge and research that has guided many governments to look beyond political cycles and plan for inclusive, tolerant societies, receptive to population diversity creating unique social assets. It is in this context that the development of new forms of social spaces, including well-designed public buildings, prospectively hold the regeneration of social capital in pursuit of more economically successful and socially cohesive communities. Regional Australia, including the regional city of Townsville, is negotiating this shift

Jenny Mulcahy: sensing the silence

Sensing the 'Silence: Mary Kathleen' is a series of sculptural works that explore the visual phenomena and the essences of silence endemic to the now abandoned Mary Kathleen mine site, township and immediate surroundings. Her work is haunting and enigmatic and the ceramic practices are condensed into her forms that stand as sentinels to a little known chapter of Australian history

Why National Media Systems Matter: A Longitudinal Analysis of How UK Left-Wing and Right-Wing Alternative Media Critique Mainstream Media (2015–2018)

In recent years, the growth of new alternative media has brought greater editorial choice and diversity to political coverage in many advanced democracies. But their coverage of mainstream media and portrayal of professional journalism has been subject to little academic attention. This study examined the role alternative political media play in advancing public debate about the value and editorial standards of a national media system. Drawing on a longitudinal content analysis of UK alternative media between 2015 and 2018 (N = 3452), we found that mainstream media was often crticised—particularly in left-wing sites—and that disapproval of professional journalism intensified over time, most strikingly during the 2017 general election campaign. We also discovered that BBC news was often singled out for its political reporting, with criticism directed at its perceived bias and lack of impartiality. Overall, we argue it is the dominant characteristics of mainstream media in national media systems that help shape the editorial agenda of alternative media and the nature of criticism directed at professional journalism. We conclude that more comparative research is needed about how alternative media represent professional journalism, and whether they are influencing people’s understanding of politics and public affairs

On the development of power drive trains for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles

PhD ThesisThe world faces a major problem. Fossil fuel sources are finite and the economic and environmental cost of those that actually remain make finding an alternative one of the great technological challenges of our age. Nearly 70% of refined oil is used for transportation making it one of the key sectors where change could yield large-scale global benefits. Combustion engine passenger vehicle technology is after a long period of stagnation progressing at a pace. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are also starting to penetrate the mass market. Unfortunately, HEVs do not remove our dependency on oil and the prospects of battery technology advancing sufficiently to allow BEVs to progressively replace the entire oil fuelled vehicles are currently slim. Their limited range and long recharge times prohibit them being useful for most modes of driving. One solution to the problem may be hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (H2FCEVs) as they offer great promise, but realistically face many challenges. The fuel cell allowed man to voyage to the moon in the 1960s and recent material advances have enabled them to be packaged into motor vehicles, so providing a zero emission replacement for the internal combustion engine. However, substantial infrastructure and geopolitical changes are required to make hydrogen production and delivery economic but this gas potentially offers a clean and sustainable energy pathway to entirely replace fossil fuels in motor vehicles. Few reported studies have comprehensively examined the optimal method of building power drive train subsystems and integrating them into an architecture that delivers energy from a fuel cell into driven road wheels. This project investigated the optimisation on the most efficient drive train topology using critical analysis and computer modeling to determine a practical system. No single drivetrain was found suitable for all driving modes and worldwide markets as the current ones typically offered either optimal performance or optimal efficiency. Consequently, a new drivetrain topology was proposed, developed, tested with a simulation environment that yielded efficiency and performance gains over existing systems. Also analysed was the effect of wider vehicle design optimisation to the development of sustainable hydrogen powered passenger vehicles and this was set against the wider social, scientific and engineering challenges that fuel cell adoption will face

Mapping the Human Plasma Proteome by SCX-LC-IMS-MS

The advent of on-line multidimensional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry has significantly impacted proteomic analyses of complex biological fluids such as plasma. However, there is general agreement that additional advances to enhance the peak capacity of such platforms are required to enhance the accuracy and coverage of proteome maps of such fluids. Here, we describe the combination of strong-cation-exchange and reversed-phase liquid chromatographies with ion mobility and mass spectrometry as a means of characterizing the complex mixture of proteins associated with the human plasma proteome. The increase in separation capacity associated with inclusion of the ion mobility separation leads to generation of one of the most extensive proteome maps to date. The map is generated by analyzing plasma samples of five healthy humans; we report a preliminary identification of 9087 proteins from 37,842 unique peptide assignments. An analysis of expected false-positive rates leads to a high-confidence identification of 2928 proteins. The results are catalogued in a fashion that includes positions and intensities of assigned features observed in the datasets as well as pertinent identification information such as protein accession number, mass, and homology score/confidence indicators. Comparisons of the assigned features reported here with other datasets shows substantial agreement with respect to the first several hundred entries; there is far less agreement associated with detection of lower abundance components

Preliminary design of the wavefront sensor for CCAT

CCAT1 is a submillimeter telescope currently under development that will be located at an altitude of 5600 meters in the Andes mountains of northern Chile. The atmospheric transmission at this site will allow CCAT to achieve high sensitivity over a wide field of view and a broad wavelength range to provide an unprecedented capability for deep, large area multicolor submillimeter surveys. In order to achieve high aperture efficiencies out to frequencies of ~ 1 THz, the 162 individual panels that form the 25 meter aperture of CCAT must be aligned to a tolerance of a few microns rms. The design of a wavefront sensor to achieve this goal is presented