Creative Approaches
(Asynchronous - Online Only)
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A Spatial Exposition of wujūd View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rafik Patel
On March 15, 2019, the Al-Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch were the sites of New Zealand’s first prosecuted terrorist attack. In the aftermath, fifty-one people were killed (shuhada’s), forty persons wounded, and family and community members traumatized. New Zealand’s Muslim community warned authorities of threats in the fear that something was imminent; however, their voice was not met with gravitas and instead was relegated to the margin. This paper presents practice-led research that ‘draws’ on the attack as tahqiq (witnessing/attestation) and kashf (unveiling) bringing forth a Muslim voice from the margins to the center. That is to say, the event became the force for a possible Islamic ontological turn. The study undertakes a close reading of 12th century Islamic philosopher Ibn al-‘Arabī’s ontology of wujūd (existence/being), emphasizing that a New Zealand Muslim diaspora’s fundamental experience of the world today requires an inquiry into three modalities made up of Dunya (present-world), barzakh (intermediate-world), and akhira (afterworld). Expressive possibilities of the locus of this diasporic experience are expressed in a drawing installation practice. It mirrors the shadow play process of the divine’s tajallī (radiant brilliance) that is projected through the veil of the barzakh (intermediate world) giving rise to the shadow world of Dunya – our reality. In this sense, the drawing practice is the projected shadow play of wujūd. Therefore drawing, poetry, and installation are used as methods of expression to create a makān (place/location of being) that is appropriate for remembering the event.
Close the Loophole: Placing the Fulfillment of Human Needs at the Very Center of Graphic Design View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gareth Fry, Jason Fowler
This is a call to refocus—as designers, as citizens, and as members of the human family. To one degree or another, we all recognize we have certain fundamental needs including food, water, safety, love, self-respect, and to accomplish the things for which we are uniquely made. We might assume, therefore, that this would constantly motivate us to help others to meet their needs. The truth, though, is that our limited human capacities make it difficult for us to keep this impulse at the forefront of our minds including when we assume the role of a designer. From the distant vantage point of our workplaces, it’s easy for us to lose sight of others’ needs and to solely focus on doing our clients’ bidding. This presentation seeks to bring awareness to this loophole and to entreat designers to close it by placing the fulfillment of fundamental human needs at the very center of their processes. This not only includes trying to ensure that the output for each of our projects is likely to be beneficial but also to make the very creative process itself a means to fulfilling human needs. This entails listening to, learning from, and collaborating with the people for whom our work is intended especially if their cultural experiences are different than ours. By cultivating these relationships, we can create meaningful connections that both enhance the potency of our work and engender profound feelings of safety, unity, respect, love, and accomplishment for designers and our creative partners alike.
The Playable City: Refashioning Spaces Within Urban Social Design View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Craig Hight, Clare Irvine, Andrea Cassin, Mario Minichiello, Paul Egglestone, Jon Drummond, Simone O'Callaghan
Play is an essential part of life, a vital part of urban design, and in the case of Newcastle a possible panacea for late night inner-city anti-social behaviour. This paper introduces a pilot urban design project focused on the design of sets of interactive ‘henges’ across three central Newcastle city locations. Developed through collaborative design with the city council and local SMEs, these henges feature site-specific digital and sensor-based forms of interaction. They represent an innovative approach to shifting patterns of night-time anti-social behaviour within specific locations by re-imagining these sites as arenas for individual and social play. The henge sites aim to prompt discussion with city communities over the value of play within urban design and engage citizens in future smart city initiatives. This study discusses the challenges of deploying interactive technologies within urban social design, argues for the need to prioritise forms of play within smart city planning, and outlines a collaborative research design involving multiple urban stakeholders.
Humanizing Data: A Framework for Open Government Data Decision Making View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hannah Chafetz
The objectives of Open Government Data (OGD) are to promote transparency, accountability, and collaboration with the public. Structural issues within Canada’s Subnational OGD and limited governance of urban data collection technologies have led to public concerns about ethical data collection, privacy, and digital human rights. Additionally, OGD research is often purpose-driven evaluating parts of the system from a technical perspective and forgoes what data means to us as humans living in cities. This research examines OGD use in Canada’s cities from a values-based and system-wide perspective. The information used was gathered through a literature review, 24 semi-structured interviews, and horizon scanning and synthesized using design thinking, strategic foresight, and systems thinking methodology. The purpose of this research is to provide OGD decision makers and open data advocates with the principles for designing a data sharing future that supports human values. First, this research investigates the current data sharing system by combining system mapping, orthodoxies, and the Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). Second, this research imagines new ways of thinking about data in 2036 that challenge the current system structure. Three alternative future scenarios are explored using CLAs to identify areas of critical uncertainty for policy making. Last, this research submits decision making principles drawn from design thinking, systems thinking and intersectional feminist epistemology to humanize data. These principles could result in more urban initiatives targeting emerging human needs and citizen participation in policy making. The principles could support human-centered governance initiatives and as a result benefit Canadians’ health, safety, and wellbeing.
The Clyde Street Precinct : A Case Study Exploring a Distributed Model of Arts Education within a Community-based Creative Ecosystem View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Paul Egglestone, Braddon Snape, Leicha Stewart, Michele Oshan, Jennifer Milam, Mario Minichiello
A step change is needed in the way higher education supports professional learning and development to ensure independent graduate artists are adaptable, resilient, and adequately prepared to build their creative practice. Adopting a social constructivist view, this study uses an advocacy and participatory framework to explore a distributed model of arts teaching and learning for creative industries students to work and study alongside a diverse community-based culture of artists and creative practitioners. This case study is a grounded example of a bottom-up approach examining the development of a creative ecosystem within which artists maintain a thriving, sustainable practice, and citizens are imbricated as co-creators of community facilities and liveable city landscapes. While the cultural and geopolitical context of this study is localised to the formerly industrial city of Newcastle, Australia, this area’s evolution from a coal-port towards a cosmopolitan city is part of a broader trend of industrial towns navigating their own progression towards thriving, liveable cities.
Design-based Research Methodology in Developing and Evaluating a Collaborative Music Production Platform View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nathan Scott, Scott Stickland, Rukshan Athauda
This paper presents observations of design science research methodology and Boehm’s spiral software process model in a multidisciplinary project to develop and evaluate a collaborative music production platform. The iterative nature of design-based research methodology facilitated the development, evaluation, and validation stages and communicated intermediate results through peer-reviewed publications as the project progressed. The development and evaluation of the software artefacts followed a staged approach adopting a spiral software process model. Initially, the focus of the project was to overcome technical challenges to facilitate a music collaboration platform based on researchers’ experience as a practitioner. Later, after several iterations of requirements gathering, a final evaluation of the platform was undertaken with practitioners to evaluate and validate the platform in real-world settings. Overall, the research project adopted a design science research methodology while incorporating a spiral software process model for the development and evaluation of the software artefacts. Both approaches shared similar traits, such as iterative processes, real-world deployments and assessments and periodic involvement of end-users/research participants. It also provided stable reference points when mapping the spiral model’s iterative sequence of steps with design science research’s nominal sequence of activities. The resulting methodological framework grounded the research project in the tenets of design-based research and software design while including the opportunity for periodic presentation of research findings. This approach yielded peer and industry feedback that guided and strengthened the research outcome. The project demonstrated that cross-disciplinary design research methodologies could provide justifiable rigour and structured pathways for multidisciplinary research projects.
Singleton Sounds Like…: A Site-specific Community-focused Sound Installation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nicole Carroll, Jon Drummond
"Singleton Sounds Like…" is a site-specific interactive multichannel audio installation working across acoustic ecology and soundscape composition. The work includes field recordings gathered in Singleton, NSW, Australia, highlighting daily life, wildlife, and soundmarks (R. Murray Schafer). Recordings are played through audio transducers mounted in existing benches in the installation space, a busy pedestrian alleyway; thus, the work augments the current infrastructure. The work is a platform for the community to participate in the art-making process as the field recordings are largely community-sourced with some contributions from the artistic team. The project is an inquiry into community engagement with public art and is primarily measured by engagement with the online components of the project. Social media and QR codes at the installation site prompt the community to engage with the website, submission portal, and virtual gallery. These online components run in conjunction with the physical installation, and the community is encouraged to upload audio submissions on a rolling basis for inclusion in the project. The project is guided by the following questions: Does the installation enrich the urban environment, and does it improve the community's experience in the environment? Does the work generate interest in the local sonic landscape that might otherwise go unnoticed? Does the inclusion of community recordings generate more interest in the work, and does that carry over to other public artworks in the area? This work is a component of "Singleton Living Laneways," supported by Singleton Council, FASTLab, and The University of Newcastle.
