Being There and Not Being There: Historiography and the Digital Arts

Histories of the digital arts have their own distinctive concerns. These interests also deserve to be compared to more general historiographical discussions of history writing where there have been fierce debates about empirical analysis and theoretical developments allied to postmodern linguistic theory. Through this comparison, the ways in which history can be a creative process will be examined

Innovation for Added Value: Experimentation With Aluminium in the Fine Crafts and Design.

Aluminium is often described as a 'material of accents'. Although an essential component of everyday life, it has never overwhelmed the design landscape but has been associated with multiple attributes including preciousness, versatility, economy, strength and lightness.In the 19th century aluminium failed, unlike plastics, to pass itself off as a substitute material. When accepted on its own terms aluminium made its reputation based on its aesthetic neutrality. It is also popular for its lightness, malleability and ability to be recycled and ability to be transformed through printing and colouring. More recently aluminium has become part of aesthetic statements about technology in the work of Ron Arad and Marc Newson. Aluminium has been the subject of popular academic attention through the publication Aluminum By Design, edited by Sarah Nichols and published in 2000, which accompanied a Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh USA) travelling exhibition. This has brought fresh attention to the potential of this area for historical and critical investigation.In this paper it will be argued that areas for further investigation include:a deeper understanding of the aesthetic properties of aluminium products in the context of its use both as a precious 'art' material and within the production of mass consumer goods.a critical understanding of materials innovation within design and craft in AustraliaThis will be demonstrated through the discussion and contextualisation of a project that aims to explore the innovative use of aluminium in craft and product design. Form: Contemporary Craft and Design Inc, (the Western Australian based craft and design organisation) is in partnership with Alcoa to explore the innovative use of aluminium in craft and product design through a series of projects over three years. The dynamics (communication and collaboration) between industry, arts organisations, education and the public within this project will be discussed to provide a regionally specific understanding of current debates and interpretations of design. In particular this discussion will consider issues highlighted by The Myer Report (Commonwealth Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts 2002. Report of the Contemporary Visual Arts and Crafts Inquiry) which describes the commercial contemporary visual arts and craft sector and its interaction with the wider economy as a network, or chain, of individuals, businesses and organizations, with craft practitioners at the supply end. This will include considering what kinds of conditions are most conducive for the promotion of materials innovation as part of a wider creative, cultural discourse and for economic growth.The research investigates: (1) the channels of communication through which contributions to effective innovative solutions are disseminated (2) the nature of value-adding and impact value of the creative arts

Values, visions, strategies and goals: Is coaching a viable pathway?

There is no doubt that higher education is in a state of continuous change. Academics have to consider how they balance teaching, research, and community and professional involvement. Alongside this they have to offer leadership and manage change, which in turn demands an understanding of the shifting relationships between information, finance, physical and human resources and quality control. Some of the challenging agendas resulting from the management of these functions can be mapped against external, often politically-motivated shifts within the education culture. Others enter the realm of personal responsibility and personal choice.In this context, to be a successful researcher often means balancing the demands of leadership agendas breadth of knowledge, strategic planning and resource management) against the personally motivated activities of a research agenda (creativity, originality, discipline based identity and allegiances).In this paper we examine how existing support systems such as mentoring empower individuals to prioritise research or enable a balance to be made between management roles and research activity. Secondly we examine the role coaching might play in this context. The paper provides a case study of the coaching experience from the viewpoint of a senior academic who has recently made a transition between educational institutions. We offer insights into different management styles and examine strategies for leadership and working relationships, which includes reflection on working methods and the capacity for change as a form of personal development

Complexity and Choice: Reassessing Support for Women in Leadership Programs

Advice and support for achieving promotion is often one of the main tasks of leadership programs aimed at women in higher education. This paper will consider how leadership development strategies can be extended to meet current developments in higher education, where there is a need to respond to increasing complexity within the system, resulting from changes in government policy and the impact of globalisation.We propose that there is a need to address diversity in leadership roles to meet the challenge of complexity, as one outcome of a focus on promotion in leadership programs has been to emphasise and reinforce conventional managerial, hierarchical expectations of leadership. In this context, leadership is predominantly role-related and positional in nature. The ability to develop and change circumstances is gained through the power given by the role. Women in these roles are most often seen as successful leaders when they additionally demonstrate a nurturing and supportive approach.The paper will address the limitations of adopting this view of leadership and examine how leadership can be broadened by and for women in higher education. The paper will consider how different models of leadership in teaching and in research can be developed, and then their potential to influence broader leadership programs in higher education management

Emerging Research Cultures in Design Education: the Pure and the Applied

This paper will report on and evaluate the extent to which stereotypes of design research exist within UK design education. In a context where institutional policies promote practice-based research, a series of ten in-depth interviews were conducted with educators in a UK art and design faculty from October to December 2001. Subsequent analysis has shown that distinctive stereotypes of the artist versus the designer exist and have been perpetuated from long-held modernist assumptions about the relationship between art, design and society.This paper will inform debates about our understanding of creativity, inspiration, and intuitive responses for design. It will also show how designers interpret the difference between 'blue skies' and applied research. Artists have variously been portrayed as outsiders, or bohemians with a 'private' space for reflection, where intuition is paramount. In contrast to this the designer is seen as working in the 'real' world; collecting, observing and then re-using data and impressions. How far these models are still relevant to the 21st century will be questioned through this presentation as a means of understanding the nexus between teaching, learning research and professional practice within art and design education

Sight or Insight: accounting for the visual in design research

There has always been plenty of scope for examining the visual in relation to design practice and design research. In design research, methodologies have often been adapted from other disciplines. This is most evident in academic studies of the consumption of design and representations of design, where skills from visual culture studies or semiotic analysis have become integral to design research and analysis. This paper will consider whether doctoral students in design can continue to adopt, or adapt skills from other disciplines in order to make sense of the visual in design. Or, is the act of creating new methodologies for investigating the visual an essential part of a doctoral student's original contribution to knowledge? As a response to this question, this paper will examine conceptions of the 'visual' and reflexive forms of visual analysis

Visiting the Past as a Way to the Future: Virtual Environments for Social Memory Construction

In considering the future it is often necessary to re-visit the past. New communication and visualisation technologies have enhanced the ability of individuals and groups to create narratives to portray ideas about the past. Museums in particular have created projects about the past that offer rewarding experiences for their audience in all kinds of contexts. However, in the last few years the results of these activities have moved from being called 'histories' to being called accounts of cultural or social memory, where museums and libraries have become memory institutions. This paper will examine how traces of the past can be brought together to inform the future and whether this emphasis on memory denotes a more active and participatory role for those who are involved as visitors or 'users' of digital resources.The first part of this discussion is a theoretical examination of history making and within that process, how ideas about physical environments relate to virtual spaces that are created to support the 'memory institution.' Local/global communication and interchange is discussed in detail in the context of migration. This shows how records of the movements of people across continents and between nations are constructed and deconstructed, how far such accounts need to make reference to material objects within the physical landscape, and how constructions of place are layered, destroyed, permanent or transient.In order to explore migration in detail, a project that explores memory traces between mining heritage in Cornwall, UK and Western Australia is discussed to show what aspects of past mining heritage can meaningfully be connected to aspects of present economic growth. It is proposed that memory institutions need to provide a rich experience for social memory to be constructed; where 'history' might have many ways of telling and is fluid and re-traceable