Toward A New, Musical Paradigm of Place: The Port River Symphonic Of Chester Schultz

In privileging music as a focus for applied ecology, the goal of this essay is to deepen perspectives on the musical representation of land in an age of complex environmental challenge. As the metaphor driving public narration of environmental crises, the notion of Earth as our home—signified by the prefix “eco”—brings with it a critical expectation for the musical academy to retreat from bland talk about a “sense of place.” Based on the premise that damaged ecologies are a matter of concern to many people, Indigenous and Settler; and building on the late Val Plumwood’s theory of “shadow” or “denied” places (Australian Humanities Review 44, 2008), the author introduces Within Our Reach: A Symphony of the Port River Soundscapes by anti-elitist South Australian composer Chester Schultz (b. 1945). Inspired by the tradition of R. Murray Schafer’s performances for outdoor sites, Schultz predicated this niche symphony on the noise-polluting defoliation of Adelaide’s “wetland wonder,” the Old Port Reach. Presented as a series of narrative soundscapes, the symphony harnesses the power of music, including popular genres, to engender a sense of local “belonging” to the Port. In an ecological subtext an Indigenous Elder sings in the re-awakening language of the Kaurna people who, in 1890, were evicted from their “nourishing terrain” (terminology after Rose, 1996) by the CSR Sugar Refinery. Schultz’s ethical musical representation of local oral, natural and industrial history generates a benchmark opus for what shadow place composition might sound like in the modern global city

No Human Ever Made a Cathedral Such as This : Scoping the Ecology of the Carols by Candlelight Effect in Australia\u27s Open-Air Environments

During Australia’s dry December, traditional and popular forms of caroling shape the sight and sound of the key Christian festival of Christmas. Creative connections between belief, place, and music are characteristically manifest in focused open-air environments of beach, bushland or park. Reasoning from gospel belief that the very first “Christmas carol” emanated from a heavenly host of angels singing to an audience of shepherds in a field, caroling alfresco is an appropriate activity. How, then, do Australian caroling venues become conducive to environmental spheres of sound and influence? While the annual mass Carols by Candlelight concerts televised from Melbourne and Sydney elaborate quasi-hysterically on familiar themes, local churches produce diversified candlelit events in ecumenical public space. Based on research into the ecological connections between the caroling public and multi-sited land- and sound-scapes, the article considers the influence of these environments on national performance practices. With respect to a body of Australian carols referencing iconic landscape imagery, I scope the aurality of concerts vis-a-vis their capacity for promoting respect for creation. Ideally, singing from inside the soundscape” (after Westerkamp 2001) engages the resonances between participatory caroling and the poetics of southern hemisphere nonhuman sound. It is proposed, moreover, that the inclusion of previously silenced Indigenous voices at caroling events might enhance public understanding of the nation’s past and present. Potential remains for images of the nativity event so richly reflected in Aboriginal Christian art to be expressed, complementarily, in Indigenous carols. Reference Westerkamp, Hildegard. “Speaking from Inside the Soundscape.” In The Book of Music and Nature, edited by David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus, 143–52. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2001

Building a national vocational education and training system

This study seeks to establish that policy in vocational education has oscillated between two poles. At one, vocational education is seen largely as an adjunct to economic development and the primary concern of the sector is to meet the needs of industry rather than of students. At the other, vocational education is seen as primarily student centred, encompassing goals of individual self-development and the creation of a more equitable society. In practice both these perspectives are present at any time, and both may be almost equally emphasised in VET policy and rhetoric.https://research.acer.edu.au/saier/1000/thumbnail.jp

Embedding calculus knot invariants are of finite type

We show that the map on components from the space of classical long knots to the n-th stage of its Goodwillie-Weiss embedding calculus tower is a map of monoids whose target is an abelian group and which is invariant under clasper surgery. We deduce that this map on components is a finite type-(n-1) knot invariant. We also compute the second page in total degree zero for the spectral sequence converging to the components of this tower as Z-modules of primitive chord diagrams, providing evidence for the conjecture that the tower is a universal finite-type invariant over the integers. Key to these results is the development of a group structure on the tower compatible with connect-sum of knots, which in contrast with the corresponding results for the (weaker) homology tower requires novel techniques involving operad actions, evaluation maps, and cosimplicial and subcubical diagrams.Comment: Revised maps to the infinitesimal mapping space model in Sections 3 and 4 and analysis of cubical diagrams in Section 5. Minor expository and organizational changes throughout. Now 28 pages, 4 figure

Master concept or defensive rhetoric : evaluating Australian VET policy against past practice and current international principles of lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning has become a frequently repeated mantra of national planning and policy agencies in Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET). Critics claim the use of the term is rhetorical rather than a real commitment to the principles and practices of lifelong learning. A review of research indicates that real progress has been made in implementing some aspects of lifelong learning in VET, but that contemporary practice falls far short of internationally agreed principles of lifelong learning or even the sector’s earlier experience with the similar concept of recurrent education. Current policy settings impose too many barriers to the adoption of lifelong learning in VET and need comprehensive reform. [Author abstract

Special Recreation: A Manual for Theraputic Riding Programs

Recreational opportunities are limited to individuals with disabilities. Recreation and learning how to utilize leisure time can be more important to individuals with disabilities than to others. Therapeutic riding was studied as a means to meet this perceived need. A manual was developed describing a professionally directed service designed to meet the recreational needs of individuals with disabilities in a therapeutic riding program

The game jam movement:disruption, performance and artwork

This paper explores the current conventions and intentions of the game jam - contemporary events that encourage the rapid, collaborative creation of game design prototypes. Game jams are often renowned for their capacity to encourage creativity and the development of alternative, innovative game designs. However, there is a growing necessity for game jams to continue to challenge traditional development practices through evolving new formats and perspectives to maintain the game jam as a disruptive, refreshing aspect of game development culture. As in other creative jam style events, a game jam is not only a process but also, an outcome. Through a discussion of the literature this paper establishes a theoretical basis with which to analyse game jams as disruptive, performative processes that result in original creative artefacts. In support of this, case study analysis of Development Cultures: a series of workshops that centred on innovation and new forms of practice through play, chance, and experimentation, is presented. The findings indicate that game jams can be considered as processes that inspire creativity within a community and that the resulting performances can be considered as a form of creative artefact, thus parallels can be drawn between game jams and performative and interactive art