... need to store the elements of the digital self. For signs of such changes, it is instructive ... more ... need to store the elements of the digital self. For signs of such changes, it is instructive to compare the personal memo-randa sections of the early 1900s with those of the late 1990s. In the latter, for example, there is a range ...
The author gives an overview of the major themes and five keynote addresses of a recent conferenc... more The author gives an overview of the major themes and five keynote addresses of a recent conference held at the University of Technology, Sydney in December 2000. The 'Working Knowledge' conference provided an opportunity to reflect on the changing nature of the economy and to explore the implications of an education system that works in closer alliance with business and industry. The five keynote addresses provided a particular construction on the nature of this knowledge and the manner in which it challenges much of the orthodoxy surrounding educational systems and their practices. The keynote addresses were given by James Gee, Robin Usher, Catherine Casey, Stewart Clegg and Paul du Gay.2 page(s
Analysis of the Linguistic Landscape of schools has by and large concentrated on that in classroo... more Analysis of the Linguistic Landscape of schools has by and large concentrated on that in classrooms rather than that mounted on their boundaries, on their perimeter architecture. In the last decade, this architecture has become a rich site for semiotic expression, where schools project not just their own brand but also that of enterprises that sponsor and support them. Following an extensive analysis of the advertisements, signs, and banners around schools located in the inner-west of Sydney, Australia, this paper argues that their presence is emblematic of the neo-liberalist imperatives that now impel education and that is evident in the need for government schools to bolster their income streams and student enrolments. Hence comes the pressure for schools to advertise their qualities and attraction to their communities using a range of semiotic devices, including electronic message boards.
... Taking People for a Ride: Dreamworld, Sea World and Movieworld as Excursive Practice ... Unde... more ... Taking People for a Ride: Dreamworld, Sea World and Movieworld as Excursive Practice ... Undergirding the notion of escape is also that of Utopia, realised in three dimensions, that within the perimeter of the theme park is a perfectly realised world, where fantasies and dreams ...
Although much has been written about the creative process, much of this writing has been concerne... more Although much has been written about the creative process, much of this writing has been concerned with specifying the optimum conditions of creativity and with determining its general features and traits. By contrast, there is much less analysis of the particular features of creative production, of how it is artifacts are generated and achieve ontological status and aesthetic convincingness. One feature of this production, especially prevalent in literature and other arts with a narrative dimension, is the generation of proper names that, paralleling those of the "real" world, assist in granting veracity to an otherwise fictive universe. A more general and pervasive form of this nomenclaturizing, though, is the act of titling, which, with the notable exception of certain applied arts like pottery and jewelry,1 is characteristic of most forms of cultural production, be it academic papers or novels, rock albums or poetry. Among other things, the title is an important rhetorical device, which is instrumental in confirming the material existence of an artifact and evoking some initial exegetical parameters. Critics often invest considerable significance in titles, ascribing to them the capacity to encapsulate authorial intentions as well as other features of overriding import in the decipherment of meaning. Indeed, as a configuration of words, that of the title is almost unrivalled in terms of the density of its nominal and hermeneutic properties. As a practice, that of titling is one which commences at an early age, with children being set titles to exercise their imagination, to cue their thoughts, and direct their writing or painting, as if there was a causal relationship between them and no act of the imagination was ever complete without the accompaniment of a title. This, in itself, says much about the way children are socialized into the material practices of art, and they may come to accept the dogmas of authorship and titles without appreciating their function or significance in the art world.
ABSTRACT Railway posters from the 1920s and 1930s are now regarded as one of the high points of t... more ABSTRACT Railway posters from the 1920s and 1930s are now regarded as one of the high points of twentieth-century graphic art. While their iconographies have been the subject of considerable scholarly analysis, the contexts in which they operated and functioned have received much less attention. This paper, which focuses on posters produced by Victorian Railways for a range of purposes not necessarily travel related, redresses this. It is argued that railways posters, which operated in conjunction with other forms of railway propaganda, provided a convenient and attractive way for the state to operate on its population, at a distance. Hence, they were used as rhetorical devices to exhort Victorians to travel by rail, to eat more fruit and thereby assist the state’s primary producers. As competition from motorisation became more intense during the Depression, resulting in pronounced and unsustainable rail deficits, the need to diversify the sources of railway revenue, as the analysed posters reveal, became more exigent.
As well as transforming the way terrestrial space was traversed, railways spearheaded texts that ... more As well as transforming the way terrestrial space was traversed, railways spearheaded texts that enabled passenger traversal of such spaces to be regulated and monitored. Among the most important of these texts was the railway ticket, which as a pre-electronic information storage device, was capable of encoding through semiotic inscription, details of a passenger’s spatial entitlements, both on and off a train. Yet curiously these facets of the ticket have not hitherto been the subjects of analysis. Through analysing the railway ticketing system of Australia’s Victorian Railways during the 1930s and 1940s and the manuals that regulated the choreography of ticket inspection and the associated performances of passengers, this article redresses this oversight. Using Foucaultian and semiotic concepts, it argues that the railways tickets of the past, like their contemporary counterparts, provide convenient and portable mechanisms for gate-keeping and calibrating mobile populations.
School badges, though an integral part of education’s “aesthetic order,” of its signage and appar... more School badges, though an integral part of education’s “aesthetic order,” of its signage and apparel, have not been the subjects of much of analysis. In addressing this oversight, the following paper examines the badges of New South Wales government schools and argues that like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, they draw on heraldic models and are constructs of colors, names, motifs, and mottoes that in various ways have local cogency and significance. For example, many badges draw on Australia’s flora and fauna or refer to aspects of its colonial history and thereby induct pupils into the nation’s identity. Some schools, under the pressure to be more business-oriented, have turned their back on the traditional badge in favor of logos and slogans that, arguably, are more commensurate with their times.
... need to store the elements of the digital self. For signs of such changes, it is instructive ... more ... need to store the elements of the digital self. For signs of such changes, it is instructive to compare the personal memo-randa sections of the early 1900s with those of the late 1990s. In the latter, for example, there is a range ...
The author gives an overview of the major themes and five keynote addresses of a recent conferenc... more The author gives an overview of the major themes and five keynote addresses of a recent conference held at the University of Technology, Sydney in December 2000. The 'Working Knowledge' conference provided an opportunity to reflect on the changing nature of the economy and to explore the implications of an education system that works in closer alliance with business and industry. The five keynote addresses provided a particular construction on the nature of this knowledge and the manner in which it challenges much of the orthodoxy surrounding educational systems and their practices. The keynote addresses were given by James Gee, Robin Usher, Catherine Casey, Stewart Clegg and Paul du Gay.2 page(s
Analysis of the Linguistic Landscape of schools has by and large concentrated on that in classroo... more Analysis of the Linguistic Landscape of schools has by and large concentrated on that in classrooms rather than that mounted on their boundaries, on their perimeter architecture. In the last decade, this architecture has become a rich site for semiotic expression, where schools project not just their own brand but also that of enterprises that sponsor and support them. Following an extensive analysis of the advertisements, signs, and banners around schools located in the inner-west of Sydney, Australia, this paper argues that their presence is emblematic of the neo-liberalist imperatives that now impel education and that is evident in the need for government schools to bolster their income streams and student enrolments. Hence comes the pressure for schools to advertise their qualities and attraction to their communities using a range of semiotic devices, including electronic message boards.
... Taking People for a Ride: Dreamworld, Sea World and Movieworld as Excursive Practice ... Unde... more ... Taking People for a Ride: Dreamworld, Sea World and Movieworld as Excursive Practice ... Undergirding the notion of escape is also that of Utopia, realised in three dimensions, that within the perimeter of the theme park is a perfectly realised world, where fantasies and dreams ...
Although much has been written about the creative process, much of this writing has been concerne... more Although much has been written about the creative process, much of this writing has been concerned with specifying the optimum conditions of creativity and with determining its general features and traits. By contrast, there is much less analysis of the particular features of creative production, of how it is artifacts are generated and achieve ontological status and aesthetic convincingness. One feature of this production, especially prevalent in literature and other arts with a narrative dimension, is the generation of proper names that, paralleling those of the "real" world, assist in granting veracity to an otherwise fictive universe. A more general and pervasive form of this nomenclaturizing, though, is the act of titling, which, with the notable exception of certain applied arts like pottery and jewelry,1 is characteristic of most forms of cultural production, be it academic papers or novels, rock albums or poetry. Among other things, the title is an important rhetorical device, which is instrumental in confirming the material existence of an artifact and evoking some initial exegetical parameters. Critics often invest considerable significance in titles, ascribing to them the capacity to encapsulate authorial intentions as well as other features of overriding import in the decipherment of meaning. Indeed, as a configuration of words, that of the title is almost unrivalled in terms of the density of its nominal and hermeneutic properties. As a practice, that of titling is one which commences at an early age, with children being set titles to exercise their imagination, to cue their thoughts, and direct their writing or painting, as if there was a causal relationship between them and no act of the imagination was ever complete without the accompaniment of a title. This, in itself, says much about the way children are socialized into the material practices of art, and they may come to accept the dogmas of authorship and titles without appreciating their function or significance in the art world.
ABSTRACT Railway posters from the 1920s and 1930s are now regarded as one of the high points of t... more ABSTRACT Railway posters from the 1920s and 1930s are now regarded as one of the high points of twentieth-century graphic art. While their iconographies have been the subject of considerable scholarly analysis, the contexts in which they operated and functioned have received much less attention. This paper, which focuses on posters produced by Victorian Railways for a range of purposes not necessarily travel related, redresses this. It is argued that railways posters, which operated in conjunction with other forms of railway propaganda, provided a convenient and attractive way for the state to operate on its population, at a distance. Hence, they were used as rhetorical devices to exhort Victorians to travel by rail, to eat more fruit and thereby assist the state’s primary producers. As competition from motorisation became more intense during the Depression, resulting in pronounced and unsustainable rail deficits, the need to diversify the sources of railway revenue, as the analysed posters reveal, became more exigent.
As well as transforming the way terrestrial space was traversed, railways spearheaded texts that ... more As well as transforming the way terrestrial space was traversed, railways spearheaded texts that enabled passenger traversal of such spaces to be regulated and monitored. Among the most important of these texts was the railway ticket, which as a pre-electronic information storage device, was capable of encoding through semiotic inscription, details of a passenger’s spatial entitlements, both on and off a train. Yet curiously these facets of the ticket have not hitherto been the subjects of analysis. Through analysing the railway ticketing system of Australia’s Victorian Railways during the 1930s and 1940s and the manuals that regulated the choreography of ticket inspection and the associated performances of passengers, this article redresses this oversight. Using Foucaultian and semiotic concepts, it argues that the railways tickets of the past, like their contemporary counterparts, provide convenient and portable mechanisms for gate-keeping and calibrating mobile populations.
School badges, though an integral part of education’s “aesthetic order,” of its signage and appar... more School badges, though an integral part of education’s “aesthetic order,” of its signage and apparel, have not been the subjects of much of analysis. In addressing this oversight, the following paper examines the badges of New South Wales government schools and argues that like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, they draw on heraldic models and are constructs of colors, names, motifs, and mottoes that in various ways have local cogency and significance. For example, many badges draw on Australia’s flora and fauna or refer to aspects of its colonial history and thereby induct pupils into the nation’s identity. Some schools, under the pressure to be more business-oriented, have turned their back on the traditional badge in favor of logos and slogans that, arguably, are more commensurate with their times.
Uploads