The Cut : an Artist's Film (3 mins.)

The Cut (2010) is a short film by Kate Davis and David Moore, produced in conjunction with UK: ME/WE Productions. It was commissioned by the Bristol based artist and curator Louise Short for the exhibition Super8station3 and screened at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, during the Old Media season (25 Sept - 21 Nov 2010). Continuing her exploitations of surrealist tropes and methods, Davis & Moore, used machinic framing, chance encounter and the time it takes to boil an egg to construct the film narrative. The film was shot on a single reel of three minute super-8 film, edited in camera and sent un-seen to the exhibition. There is a direct correlation between the chosen subject, the apparently benign act of boiling an egg, and the short time limit of the film reel. Davis and Moore elaborate the surrealist concerns of the relationship between sexuality and violence and cycles of birth and death such as seen in the work of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou. The Cut was shortlisted for the Swedenborg Short Film award, 2011, and screened along with the works of international filmmakers at the Swedenborg Institute, London (Dec 2011). It was included in the exhibitions: Mrs Darling’s Kiss at Arch 402, London (8 July - 5 Aug 2011); You Are Ok at De Toekomst, Amsterdam (5-15 July 2012)

The release of a captive-raised female African Elephant <em>(Loxodonta africana</em>) in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Wild female elephants live in close-knit matrilineal groups and housing captive elephants in artificial social groupings can cause significant welfare issues for individuals not accepted by other group members. We document the release of a captive-raised female elephant used in the safari industry because of welfare and management problems. She was fitted with a satellite collar, and spatial and behavioural data were collected over a 17-month period to quantify her interactions with the wild population. She was then monitored infrequently for a further five-and-a-half years. We observed few signs of aggression towards her from the wild elephants with which she socialized. She used an area of comparable size to wild female elephants, and this continued to increase as she explored new areas. Although she did not fully integrate into a wild herd, she had three calves of her own, and formed a social unit with another female and her calf that were later released from the same captive herd. We recommend that release to the wild be considered as a management option for other captive female elephants

Investigation of the Hydrogeology of the Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Shaw Wellfield, Shelby County, Tennessee

The dynamics of sources and pathways of recharged water to the semi-confined Memphis and confined Fort Pillow aquifers were investigated to assess the sustainability and vulnerability of groundwater resources within the Shaw wellfield located in Memphis, Tennessee. Geochemical and environmental tracer data were used to study compartmentalized groundwater flow in the Memphis and Fort Pillow aquifers, assess the vulnerability of the Memphis aquifer to modern water recharge (\u3c60 years old), and to determine the source(s) and pathways of modern water recharge. Hydrologic tracer data indicate wells in the northwest corner of Shaw wellfield are vulnerable to modern water recharge, with wells 704 and 708 having up to 17% component of modern water. Isotopic data show the Fort Pillow aquifer water has an older and chemically distinct source from the Memphis aquifer, which supports groundwater flow to the Fort Pillow aquifer is compartmentalized from that in the Memphis aquifer

Deal Pier Arts Festival

Deal Pier Arts committee invited Kate Davis as lead artist to design and curate the inaugural Deal Pier Arts festival, in the spirit of her solo exhibition headhearthole at the Wordsworth Trust. The festival, funded by local businesses and entrepreneurs focused on Deal’s pier and architecturally award winning restaurant. Davis, working with artist David Moore as ME-WE Productions, brought together diverse multi-disciplinary elements that could involve the local community. The 5 day festival incorporated; Golden Boat ,a float , a series of community clay workshops with local story tellers, Twist Something Forcibly, a video show reel and sculptural installation , 1062FT Supper Club evenings which included Aphrodite Umi, a signature cocktail artwork and designed table ware, and with story telling and live music by local residents and bands. The festival culminated in a community procession and ‘Golden Bouy’ ritual led by Davis and Moore with sea shanties. Elements that Davis believes that when experienced together represent a complete sensory intellectual and human testament to our existence with art being at its centre: it’s heart. Davis and Moore’s theme of the festival was inspired by the American marine biologist and explorer William Beebe’s book ,The Arcturus Adventure 1926 and responded to the local myths and legends. They reintroduced the tradition of the talisman or “Cabbo” to Deal. These largely forgotten objects or grotesque figureheads were fashioned from local clay and fixed to the front of fishing and smugglers boats in Deal and the south Kent coast. Twist Something Forcibly was a compilation of video works that referenced water and were selected by Davis and Moore from the University for the Creative Arts Canterbury, the Royal College of Art, and Edinburgh College of Art’s graduate and post-graduate 2015 degree shows

Putting Words in Their Mouths: Russian Byliny as Discursive Space

This article follows the Melnitsa Animation Studio into the imagined medieval space of their bogatyr films. With particular focus on Melnitsa’s use of the Il’ia Muromets corpus in Илья Муромец и Соловей Разбойник [Il’ia and the Robber], we consider the complex set of conflicts among characters and ideas that reflect concepts of identity and social issues in contemporary Russia

A Practice of Faith: Actors and Rehearsal (A Tragedy in One Act)

An Australian actor completes actor training, leaves drama school, and accepts low-skilled, casual employment while he begins auditioning for performance roles. Finally he lands a role in a theatre production. What does this 'landing a role' mean for him? What does it mean to win a job and become a legitimate player in the theatre scene? What does it mean to enter rehearsals—to be in the enviable position of rehearsing? Drawing on a sociological analysis of actors entering the industry, as Well as fieldwork studies of actors in rehearsal, this paper seeks to account for the place 'rehearsal' has in the life of a jobbing actor. Presented in the form of a playscript, it charts the story of Peter (a median actor), his girlfriend, and his agent, as Peter struggles to win, and eventually loses, a role in a theatre production.The conference was sponsored by A.D.S.A., the Department of Performance Studies, the School of Letters, Arts and Media, and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Sydney