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my 2016 JB thoughts for P

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Lancaster
INTRODUCTION
South African Greg Mills’ (2014) draws on personal life experiences to write about how to affect positive change – on the scale of “country” (p. 1). Traumatised societies are Mills’ primary targets for reform and he seeks to identify their “operations, drivers and symptoms” (p. 28). During his professional life Mills has identified “local politics, customs and rules” as any society’s most important factors and now, schooled by his high-level career, he sets the context for a new “common path” in our constantly-changing world.

Mills (2014) concentrates on three specific issues:
“why and how some states are fragile;
where and why reforms succeed and [how] some states recover
and the role of insiders and outsiders in this process” (p. 6).

KEY IDEA 1
Mills (2014) is determined to identify, develop and work in a “different and long-term operating system” ( p. ?). He asks why some efforts:

improve serious matters
are highly successful

Mills has decided his new system will require the “people, governance and infrastructure”, to have the same goals. To structure this system “strategy, institutions, policy and leadership” must all be fully incorporated within the recovery structure (p. 29).

KEY IDEA 2 – SINEK
Sinek contributes a vital idea to Mills’ fledgling system: that any participant motivation should emanate from places “beyond just the need to make money”. He emphasises how it is imperative participants appreciat[e] the real purpose of the organisation to keep uppermost the “people and social currency” (cited by Mills, 2014, pp. 28, 29).
KEY IDEA 3
Mills has seen the real power in Sinek’s “just-beyond profit” views – in some of the global arenas he worked are some of the still more than 1.1 billion very poor people, and has learned first-hand, in-situ, how most economically-constrained individuals live in countries that either do not or soon will not work properly (p. 1). Mills focusses on the lessening of poverty, which he maintains is “principally a result of economic growth”. In fragile and failing states, and recovering states, Mills saw, and now knows: the “underlying conditions” (p. xii) must first be identified. Only then is it possible to design and construct successful “different” reforms.

MILLS’ KEY IDEA 4
From his own experiences, Mills (2014) knows those underlying conditions will remain essential parts of “the road from state weakness to strength”. He illustrates this with quotes by Singapore’s elder statesman S. R. Nathan, who says: “low income countries cannot escape the low-income model in creating jobs”, and describes the “common faith” of the early American society, how its individuals did not instantly demand the type of democracy in existence in America today (Nathan, cited by Mills, 2014, p. 467).

Nathan describes those early American workers, how they started off with a “low-skills” base, and got into “the chain” (pp. 467, 468). Although it takes hard work, once in the chain, “as demand goes up, so pay goes up” (cited by Mills, 2014, p. 467). Since Singapore first began its rise to prosperity “increased productivity… [is] viewed as the key to job creation” (p. 464).

KEY IDEA 5 – NATHAN
Nathan emphasises: “security, labour relations, economic policy, foreign investment, promotion” are the essential building blocks (cited by Mills, 2014, p. 466), and Mills explains: improvement in local production, and thus quality of life, only follows along with the development of “better security, governance and policy” (p. 2).

KEY IDEA 6
While Mills (2014) says outsiders must be aware their engagement will, inevitably, fall within places that contain complicated “political circumstances” (p. xii), Mills encourages informed outsiders, says it is here informed, thoughtful and flexible “outsiders” can provide positive support to “insiders” (pp. xii, 1), and while slow in failed or fragile states, they assist in development, and provide gateways to improvements in economics and production.

KEY IDEA 7
Mills believes reforms should always be “problem-driven”, although in this Africa is very different in Singapore, where reform is ongoing and successful. In Singapore improvements begin when “someone identifyi[es] a “best practice” reform. Mills explains Singapore never stops there, but immediately goes through “a step-by-step process of experimentation and learning” (p. 464). His analyses show Singapore always uses a “broad engagement by myriad players… who ensure that the emergent solutions will actually work and who ulitmately owns the results”.

KEY IDEAS 8, 9, 10
Matt Andrews (2012), of Harvard, states there are three key lines of success:
prioritise
then identify and remove impediments
thereafter stick to the decided plan – & – maintain the will to succeed
(cited by Mills, 2014, p. 467).

KEY POINT 11
Andrews emphasises “accountability” (cited by Mills, 2014, p. 467), and Nathan says “you cannot protect the employed at the expense of the unemployed”. He describes his nation’s productivity and “growth as the essential glue and moderator of extremism” (cited by Mills, 2014, p. 466). Mills says this growth is hardly possible without valid government. He explains that today “political power is… easier to obtain… but… harder to retain and to use”. Mills calls this a “diffusion” of power, and emphasises this political failure has dangerous, powerful links to “asymetrical warfare”.

KEY POINT 12
Mills associates these dangers with a further factor he describes as an “absence of an over-riding plan by outsiders” (p. 4). Holland (June, July, 2016), in two recent articles obliquely provides analyses of this matter. He explores the horrifying results of outsider involvement in Syria. He discusses the enrichment of some traditional, established US-military components – supportive, pro-active activities, coming out of climate-change concerns. These aim to protect, and maintain peace, and are held in areas the military identified as soon to be at risk of conflict. The military actions may be encouraging actions in a critical arena, may be identified as types of “cultural templates and methods people use to organize their worlds and create their identifies” (Lull, 2007).

KEY POINT 13
As Lull (2007) explains, now templates and methods fluctuate: “to such an extent that the very meaning of culture is changing” (Lull, 2007), and a big difference is these military pro-active initiatives are prior to conflict. Like Singapore’s model they are “problem driven”, are borne out of a will and determination to reduce conflict. For many reasons these military decisions sync with Mills, wrestling with problems such as revealed by Oxfam: “conflict shrinks the economies of affected African countries by at least 15 per cent per year” (2014, p. 2).

KEY POINT 14 – ANDREWS
Andrews provides a summary of most of the above when he states:
“An improved reform approach takes shape after the analysis of interventions that have yielded more functional governments. This approach, called problem-driven iterative adaptation (PDIA),7 is akin to the way one imagines carpenters craft pegs to fit real holes – where the process is as important as the product. This process begins with problem identification, given the argument that reforms are more likely to fit their contexts when crafted as responses to locally defined problems. Relevant solutions – those that are politically acceptable and practically possible – emerge through a gradual process of step-by-step experimentation to solve such problems. This process yields solutions that resemble bricolaged hybrids blending external and internal ideas. The solutions arise through engagements between many agents playing multiple functional roles, and not solitary champions (Andrews, 2012).

KEY POINT 15 – HOLLAND
Holland discusses initiatives good for both insiders and outsiders, which are not reactive engagements via negative conflict. They may exemplify “global integration, modernity, risk, and progress” (Friedman, cited by Lull, 2007), become positive, global aspects of Lull’s views that; “today the scope, speed and consequences… stand out from any other historical period” (2007). While these military initiatives are planned to, and will ultimately, and in many ways, probably protect Western futures (Holland, 2016), these activities will also positively assist less-fortunate “insiders” (Mills, 2014).

Mills (2014) reminds readers terrorism acts in Western countries can emanate from these “fragile” societies (p. xii). He explains how “unfairness and alienation” imposed on individuals who originate in failed societies (p. xii). These individuals, he says, can generate tragic acts in the West (p. 1), as terrorism may originate in these “loser” societies, but is “unlikely to remain at home” (p. 1).

Holland’s July 2016 describes the American military, a most important subject in Western society though it seems various strange, contradictory nexus exist. For example, today (in Australia) “Western-society”, members generally seem to reserve deep admiration those who protect ‘our’ society, culture – and our children’s future. Furthermore, ‘we’ remember, revere, and very often grieve and regret sincerely, and deeply respect, the military’s countless numbers who perish.

Yet, in tandem with the above solidarity many Western citizens now consider warfare unacceptable, entirely alien, and as spectre. Today much of the Western populace’s thinking about the military is difficult and complicated: honour mixed with revulsion, admiration with grief, respect with confusion, joy with sadness. In these current 4-year planning cycle of the US Department of Defence, the new direction, climate-change-directed programmes may also help resolve these very complicated, (and extraordinarily valuable), Western social and cultural binary values.

KEY POINT 16 – PERKINS
Mills calls essential the “domestic learning processes, and the necessity for space to be left for these processes to take effect” (p. xii). Mills views on education in this environment seem to be similar to holistic education, the value of which: ” lies in its responsiveness to the diverse learning styles and needs of evolving human beings… [and is] the art of cultivating the moral, emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions (2016). Perkins (2016) echoes each of these when he says he learned early in his Peace Corp years, and thereafter, over many years, one positive and useful technique to empower ‘insiders’ is to encourage and assist them to set up their own structures, (such as co-ops), slowly, learning as they go, and thus provide strength and support to each other (p. 30).

KEY POINT 17 – OBAMA
On 20 July, 2016 President Obama addressed “a lot of do-gooders in one room”. He explained he’s seen the substantial benefits in local and global capacity-building.
The President states: global development is not “charity. [He says:] In an increasingly interconnected world, it’s a crucial investment in the security and prosperity of us all.
When children cannot go to school, or businesses lack reliable roads or electricity, that holds back entire economies. Where poverty and despair take root, conflict, instability, and violent extremism can flourish. Fragile and failing states can incubate or exacerbate a wide range of threats that spill across borders — from pandemics to nuclear proliferation, human trafficking to climate change” (The White House, 20 July, 2016).

The President’s 2016 speech followed from 2010 in the United Nations, when President Obama said: “In our global economy, progress in even the poorest countries can advance the prosperity and security of people far beyond their borders, including my fellow Americans” (The White House, 20 July, 2016). Perhaps these positive actions will recall ‘the Americans’ actions – in earlier world theatres of war when that military was viewed more positively by others’ communities with whom they engaged.

Reference
Andrews, M. (2012). The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Holland, A. (July, 2016). Preventing Tomorrow’s Climate Wars. Scientific American. Volume 314, Number 6. 53-57.
New York, NY: Nature America Inc.

Infed. (2016). A brief introduction to holistic education.
from: http://infed.org/mobi/a-brief-introduction-to-holistic-education/

Perkins, J. (2016). The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
London, UK: Random House.

Mills (2014). Why States Recover: Changing walking societies into winning nations – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Johanneburg: Picador Africa (Pan MacMillan).

The White House, 20 July, 2016.
from: https://www.whitehouse.gov/campaign/globaldevelopment

my 2016 JB thoughts for P

Maximise your interview: good communication 16 May, 2016

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REPORT

Maximise your interview:
good communication

Date of submission: 16 May, 2016

for general readership

Susanne Lorraine Harford

INTRODUCTION

This report analyses one particular interview, it, as Grellier and Goerke (2010) say, “mak[es] meaning from that text” (p. 17). This interview with an individual was conducted during a specific period, and in a particular, though dynamic social environment of “global integration, modernity, risk, and progress” (Lull, p. 52).This report’s primary objective is to examine the positive effects of three groupings of interpersonal communication techniques, used by the interviewer throughout this assignment. The primary research showed a combination of interpersonal communication techniques have benefits: venue and tone; some types of non-verbal communication; question type and mix; all of which are added to pro-active listening and thinking (Jarvey, Week 9, S1, 2016) and strong management. This tiny report is in stages: introduction, preparation, interview, and report development and is made up of small steps as Bilefield (April, 2016) recommends in this digital age. Yet it is founded in, and straddles, an enormous subject. This report ends with a conclusion and eight recommendations.
1.0 PREPARATION

The interview was held in April, 2016, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The interviewer is: Australian, woman, 70s, Caucasian, educated, pro bono worker. The chosen interviewee is: James Smith, Australian, male, 30s, Caucasian, educated, employed professional. The parties occasionally work together in teams. Both appear to fit Hofestede’s (1997) description of the ability to deal with change. Each live and work in an established,
western-world global social environment (personal experience, 1980-2016).

Although that society operates globally, it’s “culture… or beliefs or values that give meaning to ways of life and produce” (Crang, 1998, p. 2) it changes. While now driving force remains economics (Bonnett, 2004), today this society’s “cultural geography” (Crang, 1998, p. 2) is the digital-information era, where democracy is foundering (Bonnett, 2004). In this environment, as Grellier and Goerke (2010) say, communication is “not a single process” (p. 17).

1.1 Initial meeting (refer also to Appendix 6.1)
As the objective of this report is to assess communication techniques, at the initial meeting the interviewer checked interpersonal compatibility (ECU RPS1100 Unit Plan, S1, 2016)
2.0 INTERVIEW
The interviewee is an expert on the crowd-fund sector. The interviewer’s first questions, or small steps (Bilefield, April, 2016) focussed on that specific digital subject (appendix 1). Those questions were deliberately chosen to relax the interviewee (appendix 6.1). These questions created comfortable entry into the more speculative questions about the internet (appendix 6.1.1).

2.1 Analysis: Communication factors’ positive impact

2.1.1 VENUE and TONE
pleasant surroundings and physical comfort
friendly communication and warm engagement
awareness of impact of age difference

Communications, as King says, are complicated because “psychological… relational… situational… environmental… cultural” factors all play their part (7 April, 2016). Those factors are kept in mind in this analysis of an interview whose subject is: “The internet: is it a force for good or evil?”

The positive effect of the venue could be seen. Crouch explains “understanding the culture that surrounds” is an essential component in the design of communications created to convey to others our “… ideas about [our culture] and [our] perceived place in it” (1999).

The interview was assisted by the tone, which was helped by the type and location of venue: a quiet, pleasant, room. Upon entry and warm welcome, the interviewee relaxed visibly. Comfortable, neutral-coloured chairs set at oblique angles ensured the parties faced outwards. This configuration allowed the interviewer to make subtle posture adjustments to match the interviewee.

2.1.2 NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
interviewer-mirrored interviewee posture adjustments
active listening and verbal adjustments by interviewer
use of “chronemics”, or pause before replying (Oxford Reference, 2016)
regular eye contact, or “mutual gaze” (Oxford Reference, 2016)

Kinesics showed the interviewee relaxed back in the chair. There were thoughtful pauses to look at the pleasant view. This clearly gained time. The interviewer “negotiate[d] the relationship” (Hargie,2011) with mirrored
posture and gave respect to timing (figure 1).

Morris (1991, figure 1) demonstrates how a physical pause assists in
reasoning: perhaps this also occurs during interpersonal communication. Crouch (1991) says communicators “… work in a culture that conforms to certain ideological principles (sets of governing ideas) [these can] determine the way in which [ideas] are both presented and understood”. Relaxed body and non-verbal language, subtle face expressions, gentle yet animated voice, body configuration, choice of clothing show the interviewee
enjoyed this “face-to-face” (Oxford Reference, 2016) experience.
The age-related communication differences of the interviewer’s ” … task and mental abilit[y]” compromises … [and] reduction in everyday competence levels” Willis (1991) are taken into consideration (figure 2).

Figure 2: (Willis, 1991). Shows impact of age-related factors on competence.

The interviewee “… communicate[d] successfully … [and] underst[ood the audience’s] expectations” (Crouch, 1999). The body contact, or haptics
(Oxford Reference, 2016) occurred upon handshake at beginning and end of encounters.The interviewee made regular eye contact at key points.
2.1.3 QUESTION TYPE and MIX
a dynamic mix of structured and unstructured questions
“the power of words” (Bilefield, April, 2016) fully employed
helped refine the interview guide (appendix 6.1)

2.2 Writing the report
The preparation stage built the foundation for the single interview. There also the report stage began. The initial meeting was important, a window of primary research. Cultural similarities became mutually clear. The interview followed in a specific social and cultural mode, in time and place. It provided primary factual evidence in this report. Jarvey’s (9 May, 2016) advice applied thoroughout the assignment, (figure 3). It helped in the report-writing and editing stages.

Figure 3: Wise Words by Ali Jarvey (9 May, 2016).

Key initial information: essential, fundamental, social, cultural,
provided report background. As Bilefield (April, 2016), says of
investigations of the cultural: “the hardest part of a successful digital transformation… [is a] proverbial journey of a thousand miles”. Research was essential: to amplify the information gained at the early meeting and better understand the context.
This writer acknowledges the considerable level of relevant digital date available in this era, and this report deals with only a fraction.
3.0 CONCLUSION
This report met the objective and is a personal record of one interpersonal0communication, in a specific social, cultural context, in the digital era. A mix of primary research began at the first meeting. Secondary research had established the cultural and social theoretical base.Communication theory helped the interviewer understand how to create an integrated approach. Active listening and learning provided strength and refinement to a
prior-established communication base. The initial meeting displayed some
mutual social and cultural values. Non-verbal communications had an affect on questions planned for the interview. In the interview the choice of venue and a relaxed, friendly tone, and mirroring of behaviour further
enhanced the same positive results. Continued active listening, wide
research, and reflection, underpinned the analysis of the interview and its conversation. Analysis shows positive results came from choice of venue, meeting tone, watching and sometimes mirroring non-verbal
communications, reflections on and manipulation of question types.The key techniques are thus to listen and think, choose the optimum interview venue, present with a friendly tone, observe and consider all non-verbal communication clues. The careful structure of question types and preparation to work within a dynamic mix of these factors provides further benefits.

4.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
These eight interpersonal communication techniques below recently proved successful in this era in western society. A major outcome was that the success of this interpersonal communication techniques, in this interview, appear to have relied strongly upon interviewer abilities: active observational powers, to quickly make valid decisions, to implement meaningful and relevant changes. In particular active-listening-with-learning appears to be the pivotal in-interview skill/s. This links with the ability to quickly analyse and make decisions to benefit the interpersonal communication, and thereafter subtly and successfully implement those changes into interview components in meaningful ways.

research and reflection: continual craft of communication tools
build a great interview guide: consider, adjust, and use
construct constant communication: for inter-party compatibility
plan, structure carefully and manage throughout: venue and tone:
listen actively about all: think about, act on incoming information
when/if to mirror: gain non-verbal communication compatibility
mix of flexible questions: monitor and change as needed
manage all potential communication benefits consciously

 

5.0 REFERENCE

Bilefield, Article. (April 2016). Digital transformation:
The three steps to success.
In McKinsey Digital and Marketing & Sales Practices. Barr Seitz.

Bonnett, A. (2004). The Idea of the West: Culture, Politics and History. Houndmills: Macmillan Palgrave.

Crang, M. (1998). Place or Space? Cultural Geography.
London, UK: Routledge.

ECU RPS1100 Unit Plan.(S1, 2016). Task 2. Analytical report

Grellier, J., and Goerke, V. (2010). Communication skills toolkit:
Unlocking the secrets of tertiary success.(3rd. Ed).
South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning Australia.

Hargie, (2011). Skilled Interpersonal Communication:
Research, theory and practice. (5th Ed). Hove, East Sussex, UK: Routledge.

Hofstede, G. (1997). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the mind.
New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill

Jarvey, A. (9 May, 2016). ECU BlackBoard. RPS1100,
Discussion Board. S1, 2016. Week 10.

Jarvey, A. (Week 9, S1,2016). ECU RPS1100. Slide 3, Lecture Notes.
King, D. (7 April, 2016). Three Classes of Vocalised Pause. Donn Kings’ Corner. from: http://donnellking.com/blog/2016/04/three-classes-of-vocalized-pause/#more-6054

Lull, J. (2007). Culture-on-demand: Communication in a crisis world.
Melbourne, Australia: Blackwell.

Oxford Reference. (2016). definition of Chronemics. from:
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095611277

Oxford Reference. (2016). definition of Face-to-face. from:
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199568758.001.0001/acref-9780199568758-e-0942?rskey=j7AIEV&result=1879

Oxford Reference. (2016). definition of Haptics. from:
http://www.oxfordreference.com/searchq=haptics&searchBtn=Search&isQuickSearch=true

Oxford Reference. (2016). Eye contact. from:
http://www.oxfordreference.com/search?q=e+contact&searchBtn=Search&isQuickSearch=true

Willis, S. L. (1991). Cognition and everyday competence.
In K. W. Schaie, and M. P. Lawton (Eds.), (1991).
Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics. (80-109).
New York, NY, USA: Springer.

6.0 APPENDIX

6.1 Interview Guide:
6.1.1 Interview
INTERVIEW LENGTH: 20-30 minutes
NUMBER OF INTERVIEWER QUESTIONS: 11 questions
TYPE: 2 open (lead-in). 8 specific. 1 closing question

First Question (open)
“Please tell me about the role of crowd-fund. On the internet?”
Specific questions used in the interview
2. “Can you expand on that – about crowd-fund being a shop?”
3. “Shops are pretty familiar places: do you mean a crowd-fund is set up in a way most people already understand?”
4. “Does the understandable crowd-fund shop (people go for money) – have other benefits?”
5. “Why is crowd-fund a tool – what sort of tool?”

Sixth Question (open)
“Your overall view of the internet, it’s a force? Is it for good or evil?”
Further specific questions
7. “The internet is neither good or bad – It’s another tool – a good tool?”
8. “For the internet to be good for the user they must learn it?”
9. “You say the internet is no longer optional – is that good?”
10. “So, neither good or bad. Doesn’t that cut down individual’s options – isn’t that bad?”

Closing Question
11. Thank you. I appreciate your time. It’s been great. Talking with you has opened my eyes about the internet – there anything you’d like to know? OK to ring you next week – if I need to clarify any point? Thanks again.”
6.1 Interview Guide:
6.1.2 decisions and organisation
Initial Ideas on how to conduct the assessment.
Communication is a dynamic process. It is strongly affected by place, society and place (life-time personal experience, 1950-2016). Research, learn, think about and apply relevant theory.

spend effort and time on pre-preparation
identify social/cultural/era (digital eta)
psychology/relations/situation/environment/cultural
too much theory available (digital era)

Understand this dynamic process:
create plan
associated timesheet
maintain both right up to date

Apply current social, cultural conventions
Build and maintain premier communication environment:
record, watch and adjust personal performance
search for all levels of plan and performance
choose how to dress
be aware of any weaknesses
build on strengths
adjust for threats
take advantage of opportunities

Periods of reflection throughout entire campaign
Begin draft report early
read current, comparative interviews and reports
continually adjust plan and keep to deadline

  1. 1 Interview Guide:
    6.1.3 pre-preparation notes
    In the Week 9 set reading: Professional Communications:

“Do not take lightly… the “structured interaction… [which is the] Interview”.
Explain this “basic professional tool” may be developed into a strong vehicle for achieving success – in a number of unseen ways.

It is important to learn how to maximise the learning benefits inherent in the interview , as it is now a fully structured and regulated mode of gaining information not necessarily readily available in other ways, and, it “standarise[s]
information-gathering”.

A “more rigid pattern of rules” applies and the interview works to formalise relationships “by setting them on a professional level”.

To gain the maximum actual “information exchange” and to catch the desired data it is necessary to imagine, design and create an efficient communication structure well beforehand, and to reflect upon that structure before use.

All of which takes time, especially as there are “many extraneous factors” to know about, and to take into account – “Interviews are [not] straightforward, standardised speech events… [they are] complex”.

Thus “each interview task has to be analysed in relation to the particular situation at hand”

Some examples in interviews:
the “question-answer sequence plays a much larger role than most casual conversations”
the communication has “little to do with generating shared understandings”
“may not be in the interests of both parties”
“may inhibit as well as enable communication”
“unlikely… [both parties] will have the same idea of what should occur”
“different understandings of the purpose and nature of the interaction”
“can lead to considerable confusion”

  1. 1 Interview Guide:
    6.1.3 pre-preparation notes

Thus
Agree to:
1. share information
2. set some mutual goals
3. clarify problems as they arise
4. allow:
attitudes
beliefs of any/all kind
behaviours
persuasive behaviours
commitments
understand any problems and attempt to find
solutions – find information (take break)
probes
backtracks
reactions
In this interview I conduct what is the objective?
its “primary purpose”?
“the degree of structure” necessary?
the optimum “setting”?
“other significant variables”
Keep in mind, “information is generated out of interaction” and when the interview’s PRIMARY PURPOSE[S] are decided – these are never “simple gathering process[es]”. Listen closely.

PRIMARY PURPOSE[S]
information-gathering/evaluation/problem-solving

A. Information: needs more structure: i.e., date of interview, age, gender, background, occupation, location
less structure: personal experiences (who/what/when/why/how), discuss issues, provide expert comments

B. Evaluation: needs less structure: “new ideas/information not fully known or understood, but stimulating; any conflicts in thinking; things forgotten or discarded in the thought process; experiences where ideas are interpreted differently by others; non-judgemental facets”

C. Problem-solving: as with B, above.
6. 1 Interview Guide:
6.1.3 pre-preparation notes
ACTUAL QUESTIONS:
Structured composite: Questions group 1: date of interview, age, gender, background, occupation, location you are in (example: lounge in apartment, city, country)

Loose composite: Questions group 2: Use your unique voice to answer the following (2) questions – – (personal experiences (who/what/when/why/how), discuss issues, provide expert comments – long as you like.

VIP: remember no ‘ums’. “create rapport… goodwill… eye contact” (p. 127) and”setting, seating arrangements the way the interviewer structured the conversation” (p. 127).

draft a plan of action and timing
locate interviewee contact details
plan initial meeting: date/time/place/write first questions
phone to arrange initial meeting and confirm
decide interviewer dress style for initial meeting
identify several possible date/time/place interview
pre-meeting practice. Rehearse and watch in mirror. Record
playback/listen to self. Note when smile, eye contact, active listening, posture
refine questions. Eliminate “ums”, “buts”.
adjust physical presentation
(King, 7 April, 2016).

6.1.4 initial meeting
To decide at initial meeting:
Type: friendly or rigid – to decide at initial meeting
Venue: before initial meeting
identify several locations/types choose possible times/dates – for interview
Tone: informal or formal – seating, space between parties?
Initial meeting:introductory meeting to gain information
– for interview structure. take notes
– phone or coffee
– handshake
– eye contact

During initial meeting:
ask “age, gender, background, occupation”
decide on venue – informal or formal – confirm
offer dates/times – confirm place/date/time of interview
(Putnis & Petelin, 1999).
Focus Closely on Set Task

6.1.4.1 In the meeting
the interviewee wore formal clothes
the interviewee matched the identified social context
background, cultural similarity/dissimilarity of parties became clear
the parties understood each other
their discussion provided information for interview guide and timing
interviewer refined the interview structure

6.1.4.2 Interviewer was focussed
used specific, pre-set questions
actively listened and managed obvious age disparity factors
offered confidentiality and transparently discussed use of material
gained all necessary authorities from interviewee
gained interviewee age/location/background/occupation data
recorded interviewee answers
decided on interview venue as initial meeting progressed

6.1.4.3 interviewee relaxed
seemed suited to dynamic structure planned for interview
agreed with interview date/time/place/length as suggested

6.2 Analysis
The interviewer listened carefully, stayed flexible, made many minor changes during the meeting. These observations prepared the way for the interview .

6.1.4. 4 Task focus:
The April, 2016 meeting settled interview arrangements with the busy interviewee. Active listening led to active thinking (Jarvey, Week 9, S1, 2016).

6.1.4.5 Overall benefits:
– mutual understanding between interviewee and interviewer
– positive interviewee response

6.1.4.6 Positive results: information obtained in the meeting
– enriched the interview guide
– helped refine the interviewer’s approach, and interview operation

6.1.5 Task
TASK: This report focuses on a communication analysis of an interview conducted with another person of your choosing. The content of the report is an analysis of the interview itself and what you have learnt about inter personal communication. You can include some reflection on your in terviewee’s response to the topic under discussion. The report will examine aspects of the interview such as non-verbal communication, questioning techniques, active listening skills and other points highlighted in the lectures.
Discussion topic: The internet: is it a force for good or evil?
Monday, 16 May, 2016

Maximise your interview: good communication 16 May, 2016

Small Business Online-nouse

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DESIGN RATIONALE
Today many factors impact on visual communications in Australia, a land where independent small businesses formerly flourished. In this huge continent the logic of e-business is not yet accepted by most Australians. The design rationale of this presentation is to convey information that may be useful to the Australian small-business sector.

Connolly, Norman & West say: “in 2011… around 95 per cent of the 2 million actively trading businesses in Australia… were small businesses” (2011, p. 3). Liz Colley says “in ten years time, the workforce and working environment will look nothing like it does today” (cited by SGS Economics & Planning, December 2013, p. 6). The type of change Colley describes is already apparent as only around 40 per cent of small businesses operate online while 95 per cent of large Australian businesses do (digitalbusiness.gov.au, 2 July 2013).

Shaw says: “ the means of communication have been transformed… global communications systems… dominated like most other economic fields by Western corporations with global reach” (cited by Beynon & Dunkerley, 2000, p. 186). However, Cassells Duncan, Abello , D’Souza & Nepal, say “Australians [are] industrious… are a nation of inventors, born in part through our isolation from the rest of the world” (October, 2012, p. 3). So, the specific target audience for the presentation is Australians of any ethnic background, involved in any type of small business.

More than half of small businesses are sole operators (Connolly, Norman & West, 2011, p. 3, and personal family experience, 1954-2014). These are busy people, so the design decision was to use standard business communication in-print format. This is predominantly white space with sparse written text designed for a relaxed tone.

For legibility the font choice is fresh, clean sans serif Helvetica Neue, 35/17/14 point, ‘thin’ weight. To help retain key facts, occasional words or phrases are enlivened with Comic Sans MS, mostly 26 point, weight bold, in bright, quirky, ‘non-business’ colour combinations. For example, on page 3 the colours “red, orange and yellow… called by Kalmus the warm or advancing colours” are featured throughout the page, as they “call forth sensations of excitement, activity” (cited by Dalle Vacche & Price, 2006, p. 26).

Australia, possibly now the country with the greatest ethnic diversity (Our Country Our People, 2014) is today a puzzling place. Paul Maginn (27 January 2013), says Western Australians will soon… [be] increasingly diverse in terms of their cultural background”. Good visuals can slice “through the clutter” (Langton and Campbell, 2011, p. 16) and a big part of the design is in the choice of illustrations, especially the wry initial graphics on page 2, (Fig. 1) and page 3 (Fig. 2),

Langton and Campbell say In this melting-pot society “clever” and credible visual designs can masterfully exhibit many goods and services. Effective visuals can “establish a unique voice and brand” (2011, p. 16). Graphics like the artistic English-language vowel, ‘A’ on page 8 (Fig. 4) and the surreal orange/apple photograph (Fig. 6) on page 9, work in today’s complicated “language context“ Featherstone, 2006), where concreteness no longer exists.

In 2013 the internet was an accepted major communication mode with more than 80 per cent of Australian households (potential customers) connected to the internet (Dane, Mason and O’Brien-MacInally, 2013, p 9). Yet, while the internet is now the main communication channel, only about 37 per cent of Australians “used the internet on a monthly basis or more to… buy goods” (p. 17). Yet, as Derewianka (1946) says, humans “are constantly learning language, learning through language, and learning about language” (p.3).

Today many Australian small businesses have, as Connolly, Norman & West say, “a higher degree of volatility… [than medium and large] businesses with more diversified customer bases” (2011, p. 8). The design rationale is to return to what Trilling (2001) explains are two of the “seven pairs” of the “framework for … visual appreciation”. These, “determinacy versus indeterminacy” and “comprehensibility versus complexity”. These are necessarily dialectic, as they continue to rely on each other (p. 11). Today they provide background for the “unfamiliar style” (p. 11). of current, and dynamic local and global visual communciations. As Shaw says:

Although less easily summarized… [and] intermeshing
with economic and political globalization, people are
coming to see their lives in terms of common expectations,
values and goals. These cultural norms include ideas of
standard of living, lifestyle, entitlements to welfare,
citizenship rights, democracy, ethnic and linguistic rights,
nationhood, gender equality environmental quality, etc.
Many of them have originated in the West, but they are
increasingly , despite huge differences in their meanings in
different social contexts, parts of the ways of life and of
political discourse across the world. In this sense, we can
talk of the emergence of a global culture.
(cited by Beynon and Dunkerley, 2004, p. 186)

Imagery can assist. On page 3, this image is from the cover of a recent best-selling novel for Western readers by an ethnic Chinese writer. The picture shows a gentle, Western-user-friendly ‘bird in a tree’ (Fig. 2) The written text reminds about other invaluable visual tools – like cross-cultural dictionaries. On page 6 (Fig. 3) is chosen to demonstrate how California, USA, like Australia, is now a global, world society, which as ‘the West’ no longer exists needs to develop a “unity of working and learning” (McCullough, 1996, p. 9).

One visual communications tool in this difficult new world is photography. Sturken &
Carwright (2001), explain the subjective and objective combine in photography, whose
“details… can show off textures ” (Langton and Campbell, 2011,p. 8). For example, with
Australia’s extraordinary range of climate and terrain and associated lifestyles, photography can, when “ top-notch… [increase] the perception of a premium product” (p. 21) and elicit heightened audience response.

For small businesses like B&Bs, boutique hotels, farm and home-stays, camping grounds, trekking, restaurants, cafes, bars, etcetera, images like the two ‘Vintage Trailer’ photographs (Figs. 6 & 7), page 8 can, as Lilly Schonwald says, quickly “show how the building looks from daybreak to nightfall.” Schonwald explains as designs are “based on the light and the air…[they relate] back to nature and its surroundings and how it changes during different time periods throughout the day” (cited by Langton and Campbell, 2011, p. 12).

The presentation is designed to assist Australia’s small business sector to understand how visual communications in business in Australia today are affected by current major social changes The design rationale focussed on Australia’s now diverse, ‘world’ local community and engaging small-business operators in a dialogue about the internets’ ability to deliver visual communications locally and globally. Instead it became a personal learning experience. This allowed me to gain some understanding of how to use PowerPoint. While the initial design decision was to link engaging illustrations and small functional blocks of text to present these complicated, and possibly new ideas, I am unsatisfied with my result.
REFERENCES
Beynon J, Dunkerley D. (Eds.) (2000). Globalization. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. From:
http://ecu.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQSDMsjQxTO1MSlwTDVOt-
DRNSTQ2tTS2ANYlQJZJLnwhJmjlHK0dxNiYErNE2WQcXMNcfbQTU0ujYeOYcQnAWtZYxNg48JQjlEF2C901-WBQMDQGpr9ko8m0TjZwjNKCU1OcnEONnSMC01GQCYTiFd

Cassells R, Duncan A, Abello A, D’Souza G and Nepal B, (2012) Smart Australians: Education and Innovation in Australia, AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report, Issue 32, October 2012, Melbourne, AMP. From:
http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/storage/AMP.NATSEM%2032%20Income%20and%20Wealth %20Report%20-%20Smart%20Australians.pdf
Connolly, E., Norman, D., & West, E. (2011). Small Business: An economic overview. From:
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/4a256353001af3ed4b2562bb00121564/ d291d673c4c5aab4ca257a330014dda2/$FILE/RBA%20Small%20Business%20An%20economic %20Overview%202012.pdf
Dalle Vacche, A. and Price, B. (Eds,) (2006). Colour: The film reader. New York, NY: Routledge.

Dane, S. K., Mason, C. M., and O’Brien-McInally, B. A. (2013).Household internet use in Australia: A study in regional communities. CSIRO Report: EP1310907. From: http://www.csiro.au/content/ps6d0

Derewianka, B. (1946 & 2000). Exploring how texts work. Newtown, Australia: PETA

Digital Business Online. (2 July 2013). ABS statistics. From: http://www.digitalbusiness.gov.au/2013/07/02/lat est-abs-statistics-many-australian-businesses-still-not-engaging-online/

Featherstone, M. (2006). Genealogies of the Global. Theory Culture Society 2006 23; 387 doi: 10. 1177/0263276406062704

Geoscience Australia. (2014). Australia’s size compared. From:
http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/geo-graphic-information/dimensions/australias-size-compared

Langton, D., and Campbell, A. (2011). 99 proven ways for small businesses to market with images and
design. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell. From:
http://ecu.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQMAZVEsBq2cwkJcXUMi01MR-
WYigxSkkzMUpKN0gxS4QsxQUPmSKW5mxADU2geKlOMm2uls4duanJpPHQMlz4PEDGypmJoZiD-
CzAfnGqBINCkkGacapRkpRmomFCBCes0i1NE9OM00BNpktlQzNjQGH2CCD

Maginn, P. (day/2014) Western Australia must embrace its new diversity. The Conversation. From:
http://theconversation.com/australian-census-booming-wiestern-australia-must-embrace-its-new-
diversity-7832
McCullouch, M. (1996). Abstracting Craft: The practiced digital hand. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Our Country Our People. (2014). From: http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people.
SGS Economics & Planning. (December 2013). Valuing Australia’s Creative Industries. From:
http://www.creativeinnovation.net.au/ce_report/webapp/static/pdfs/CIIC-Valuing-Australias-Creative- Industries-2013.pdf
Sturken, M., and Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of Looking: An introduction to visual culture. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Trilling, J. (2001). The Language of Ornament. London, England: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Small Business Online-nouse

2014, CCA1108, for Presentation Guru-my thoughts for small business online

susanneah, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

 

DESIGN RATIONALE

Today many factors impact on visual communications in Australia, a land where independent small businesses formerly flourished. In this huge continent the logic of e-business is not yet accepted by most Australians. The design rationale of this presentation is to convey information that may be useful to the Australian small-business sector.

Connolly, Norman & West say: “in 2011… around 95 per cent of the 2 million actively trading businesses in Australia… were small businesses” (2011, p. 3). Liz Colley says “in ten  years time, the workforce and working environment will look nothing like it does today” (cited by SGS Economics & Planning, December 2013, p. 6). The type of change Colley describes is already apparent as only around 40 per cent of small businesses operate online while 95 per cent of large Australian businesses do (digitalbusiness.gov.au, 2 July 2013).

Shaw says: “ the means of communication have been transformed…  global communications systems…  dominated like most other economic fields by Western corporations with global reach” (cited by Beynon & Dunkerley, 2000, p. 186). However, Cassells  Duncan, Abello , D’Souza & Nepal, say “Australians [are] industrious… are a nation of inventors, born in part through our isolation from the rest of the world” (October, 2012, p. 3). So, the specific target audience for the presentation is Australians of any ethnic background, involved in any type of small business.

More than half of small businesses are sole operators (Connolly, Norman & West, 2011, p. 3, and personal family experience, 1954-2014). These are busy people, so the design decision was to use standard business communication in-print format. This is predominantly white space with sparse written text designed for a relaxed tone.

For legibility the font choice is fresh, clean sans serif  Helvetica Neue, 35/17/14 point, ‘thin’ weight. To help retain key facts, occasional words or phrases are enlivened with Comic Sans MS, mostly 26 point, weight bold, in bright, quirky, ‘non-business’ colour combinations. For example, on page 3 the colours “red, orange and yellow…  called by Kalmus the warm or advancing colours” are featured throughout the page, as they “call forth sensations of excitement, activity” (cited by Dalle Vacche & Price, 2006, p. 26).   

Australia,  possibly now the country with the greatest (recent) ethnic diversity (Our Country Our People, 2014) is today a puzzling place. Paul Maginn (27 January 2013), says Western Australians will soon… [be] increasingly diverse in terms of their cultural background”. Good visuals can slice “through the clutter” (Langton and Campbell, 2011, p. 16) and a big part of the design is in the choice of illustrations, especially the wry initial graphics on  page 2, (Fig. 1) and page 3 (Fig. 2),

Langton and Campbell say In this melting-pot society “clever” and credible visual designs can masterfully exhibit many goods and services. Effective visuals can “establish a unique voice and brand” (2011, p. 16). Graphics like the artistic English-language vowel, ‘A’ on page 8 (Fig. 4) and the surreal orange/apple photograph (Fig. 6) on page 9, work in today’s complicated “language context“ Featherstone, 2006), where concreteness no longer exists.

In 2013 the internet was an  accepted major communication mode with more than 80 per cent of Australian households (potential customers) connected to the internet (Dane, Mason and O’Brien-MacInally, 2013, p 9). Yet, while the internet is now the main communication channel, only about 37 per cent of Australians “used the internet on a monthly basis or more to… buy goods” (p. 17). Yet, as Derewianka (1946) says, humans “are constantly learning language, learning through language, and learning about language” (p.3).

Today many Australian small businesses have, as Connolly, Norman & West say, “a higher degree of volatility… [than medium and large] businesses with more diversified customer bases” (2011, p. 8). The design rationale is to return to what Trilling (2001) explains are two of the “seven pairs” of the “framework for … visual appreciation”. These, “determinacy versus indeterminacy” and “comprehensibility versus complexity”. These are necessarily dialectic, as they continue to rely on each other (p. 11). Today they provide background for the “unfamiliar style” (p. 11). of current, and dynamic local and global visual communications. As Shaw says:

Although less easily summarized… [and] intermeshing

with economic and political globalization, people are

coming to see their lives in terms of common expectations,

values and goals. These cultural norms include ideas of

standard of living, lifestyle, entitlements to welfare,

citizenship rights, democracy, ethnic and linguistic rights,

nationhood, gender equality environmental quality, etc.

Many of them have originated in the West, but they are

increasingly , despite huge differences in their meanings in

different social contexts, parts of the ways of life and of

political discourse across the world. In this sense, we can

talk of the emergence of a global culture.

(cited by Beynon and Dunkerley, 2004, p. 186)

Imagery can assist. On page 3, this image is from the cover of a recent best-selling novel for Western readers by an ethnic Chinese writer. The picture shows a gentle, Western-user-friendly ‘bird in a tree’ (Fig. 2) The written text reminds about other invaluable visual tools – like cross-cultural dictionaries. On page 6 (Fig. 3) is chosen to demonstrate how California, USA, like Australia, is now a global, world society, which as ‘the West’ no longer exists needs to develop a “unity of working and learning” (McCullough, 1996, p. 9).

One visual communications tool in this difficult new world is photography. Sturken &

Carwright (2001), explain the subjective and objective combine in photography, whose

“details…  can show off textures ” (Langton and Campbell, 2011,p. 8). For example, with

Australia’s extraordinary range of climate and terrain and associated lifestyles, photography can, when “ top-notch… [increase] the perception of a premium product” (p. 21) and elicit heightened audience response.

For small businesses like B&Bs, boutique hotels, farm and home-stays, camping grounds, trekking, restaurants, cafes, bars, etcetera, images like the two ‘Vintage Trailer’ photographs (Figs. 6 & 7), page 8 can, as Lilly Schonwald says, quickly “show how the building looks from daybreak to nightfall.” Schonwald explains as designs are “based on the light and the air…[they relate] back to nature and its surroundings and how it changes during different time periods throughout the day” (cited by Langton and Campbell, 2011, p. 12).

The presentation is designed to assist Australia’s small business sector to understand how visual communications in business in Australia today are affected by current major social changes  The design rationale focussed on Australia’s now diverse, ‘world’ local community and engaging small-business operators in a dialogue about the internets’ ability to deliver visual communications locally and globally.  Instead it became a personal learning experience. This allowed me to gain some understanding of how to use PowerPoint. While the initial design decision was to link engaging illustrations and small functional blocks of text to present these complicated, and possibly new ideas, I am unsatisfied with my result.

REFERENCES

Beynon J, Dunkerley D. (Eds.) (2000). Globalization. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. From:

http://ecu.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQSDMsjQxTO1MSlwTDVOt-

DRNSTQ2tTS2ANYlQJZJLnwhJmjlHK0dxNiYErNE2WQcXMNcfbQTU0ujYeOYcQnAWtZYxNg48JQjlEF2C901-WBQMDQGpr9ko8m0TjZwjNKCU1OcnEONnSMC01GQCYTiFd

 

Cassells R, Duncan A, Abello A, D’Souza G and Nepal B, (2012) Smart Australians: Education and Innovation in Australia, AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report, Issue 32, October 2012, Melbourne, AMP. From:

http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/storage/AMP.NATSEM%2032%20Income%20and%20Wealth %20Report%20-%20Smart%20Australians.pdf

 

Connolly, E., Norman, D., & West, E. (2011). Small Business: An economic overview. From:

http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/4a256353001af3ed4b2562bb00121564/ d291d673c4c5aab4ca257a330014dda2/$FILE/RBA%20Small%20Business%20An%20economic %20Overview%202012.pdf

 

Dalle Vacche, A. and Price, B. (Eds,)  (2006). Colour: The film reader. New York, NY: Routledge.

 

Dane, S. K., Mason, C. M., and O’Brien-McInally, B. A. (2013).Household internet use in Australia: A study in regional communities. CSIRO Report: EP1310907. From:  www.csiro.au/content/ps6d0

 

Derewianka, B. (1946 & 2000). Exploring how texts work. Newtown, Australia: PETA

 

Digital Business Online. (2 July 2013). ABS statistics. From: http://www.digitalbusiness.gov.au/2013/07/02/lat est-abs-statistics-many-australian-businesses-still-not-engaging-online/

 

 Featherstone, M. (2006). Genealogies of the Global. Theory Culture Society 2006 23; 387 doi: 10. 1177/0263276406062704

 

Geoscience Australia. (2014). Australia’s size compared. From:

http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/geo-graphic-information/dimensions/australias-size-compared

 

Langton, D., and Campbell, A. (2011). 99 proven ways for small businesses to market with images and

design. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell. From:

http://ecu.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQMAZVEsBq2cwkJcXUMi01MR-

WYigxSkkzMUpKN0gxS4QsxQUPmSKW5mxADU2geKlOMm2uls4duanJpPHQMlz4PEDGypmJoZiD-

CzAfnGqBINCkkGacapRkpRmomFCBCes0i1NE9OM00BNpktlQzNjQGH2CCD

Maginn, P. (day/2014) Western Australia must embrace its new diversity. The Conversation. From:

http://theconversation.com/australian-census-booming-wiestern-australia-must-embrace-its-new-

diversity-7832

McCullouch, M. (1996). Abstracting Craft: The practiced digital hand. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

  

Our Country Our People. (2014). From: http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people. 

SGS Economics & Planning. (December 2013). Valuing Australia’s Creative Industries. From:

http://www.creativeinnovation.net.au/ce_report/webapp/static/pdfs/CIIC-Valuing-Australias-Creative- Industries-2013.pdf

Sturken, M., and Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of Looking: An introduction to visual culture. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Trilling, J. (2001). The Language of Ornament. London, England: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

2014, CCA1108, for Presentation Guru-my thoughts for small business online

Dream-scape is South-West Australia

susanneah, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This essay is set in the cultural life, as it is lived in the current era, in the
landscape of the South-West of West Australia. This essay presents and briefly analyses three of this region’s in-landscape local artistic and community
practice cultural achievements. Some display the successful use of traditional methods, and all work to develop unique regional identity. This essay briefly
considers and analyses the particular ways these cultural creations bear
witness to change and contestation of landscape.

This essay describes three arts or community practice in the everyday
(Williams, 1958) cultural life of the South-West region of Western Australia. This essay describes only a tiny sliver of the society’s “cultural geography” (Crang, 1998, p. 2). This community and region are is diverse, increasingly so in this digital-information era (Bonnett, 2004).

In that region of Australian (as elsewhere now, in this modern world) ” … social and ritual” values emanate from a uniquely ” … heterogenous … ethnic, cultural and social mix” (Kaino, 1995,p. vii). In this region art locates itself and its audience visibly within its landscape. The first cultural landscape this essay describes is “Re-Discover Bunbury”.

This is the Bunbury Street Art project (SixTwoThreeZero, 2016). This fits the definition of the arts:

the expression or application of human creative skill and
imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting
or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily
for their beauty or emotional power
(Oxford Dictionaries, 2016).

Locals and visitors alike experience: “the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested” (McKenzie, S1, 2016, Week 1) as they adore or detest the street art. They view, talk about and reflect on right there in Bunbury, in these South-West streets. A visitor-blog entry on “Life Images by Jill” (26 January, 2016), and associated Facebook website, provides an animated, personal experience of Re.Discover Bunbury, amplify this community practice.

Social activist group Six Two Zero Three (2016) run the project, and so contribute to the overall quality of Bunbury landscape. They maintain and use excellent statistics gathered from this project to peacefully support cohesive community,
They develop a regional arts dialogue and enliven regional landscape.

However, Wilson shows how projects like this may still be contested, due to:

insufficient interest… in progressing the artistic agenda…
exacerbated by a paucity of data and insufficient
community between arts, higher education and research
policy and the practitioner worlds that are governed by
them (cited by Hare & Lousieksien, 23 March, 2016).

Wilson, an academic researcher, who demonstrates this failure is not confined to universities, says: “artists need audiences, both critics and public, to hone their skills” (cited by Hare & Lousieksien, 23 March, 2016). This is a high level of contestation of landscape and Wilson is shown to be instigating a counter-movement.

The contestation begins by those who could communicate “the arts and learning —the special processes of discovery and creative effort.” (Williams, cited by McKenzie, Week 1, S1, 2016). Wilson states there may be some positive change to this situation (cited by Hare & Lousieksien, 23 March, 2016).

Change came through generations of community who have continued to lobby for the Busselton Jetty (Busselton Jetty Timeline, 2016). Here, generational
success is an example of: “Orr’s work, [1990] and later, Wave[‘s] and Lenger’s [1991, which] presents a key insight; namely, that knowledge, and therefore learning, [are] embedded in cultural practices” (Hoadley, 2012). The Busselton Jetty
communicates to its community as an excellent long-term example of often
continuous, harmonious landscape-building: positive power and people in work.

Now a cultural community installation, the jetty dexterously operates both “Lexus… [and] Olive Tree” (Lull, 2007, p. 52). The Busselton Jetty, and its story, display as almost-magical, historic theatre (Busselton Jetty Timeline, 2016). The beginnings of this working jetty were over a century ago; a working life, hard-wrought by community, endeavour, and entreaty. This month the jetty landscape will be enlivened with hot cups of tea and Arnott’s biscuits.

Jetty length will be activated as visitors stroll the long walk, view the mural and play arranged games at its end in the “Busselton Jetty Biggest Morning Tea” (2016). The jetty will, as it has now for generations, awaken, live, and work fruitfully – on many arts and community practice levels. Even while it delivers high community theatre – right there, onto its South-West landscape.

The gentle community practice-role of arts and crafts of the South-West
community is in the “Waroona Yarn Bombers’ Heartfelt Project”. (Trip Advisor (May, 2016), It lends thoughtful, creative, highly-visible support to community of the South-West and the landscape terribly affected by bushfire (Hondros, 15 January, 2016).

This community endeavour expresses solidarity for sad and awful loss in the
bushfires (Waroona Yarn Bombers, 2016). The wider West Australian community empathises strongly and actively with this project. This peaceful and spontaneous endeavour reflects the arts and crafts movement. Founded in the 19th century England, where:

decorative arts… sought to revive the ideal of craftsmanship
in an age of increasing mechanization and mass production
(Oxford Dictionaries, 2016).

This community response; authentic, cultural communication, employs
traditional Caucasian handicraft skills, like crochet. These products project
“… certain ideological principles (sets of governing ideas)… displayed,
perceived, [and] conform” (Crouch, 1999, page1). Their Facebook sites (2016) widely communicate this re-gain of burned landscape.

Facebook widely communicate this identification with landscape and event. The the artwork works how , as Hall (1959) explains, “culture is communication and communication is culture” (p. 169). Via this adornment of landscape, sadness and support are expressed, for the people’s wounds, and the landscape’s.

This swell of support is cultural community practice. It communicate messages to and about community (Brown, cited by Kaino, 1995, p. 115). These regional
practitioners, culturally innovative, “re-creat[e] more traditional and less alienating lifestyles” (Kaino, 1995, p. ix). The artistry on the burned trees use traditional modes.

This is a strong confirmation of craft as “cultural production” (Kaino, 1995, p. ix). In those communications are key factors, cultural: “psychological … relational …
situational … environmental… ” (King, 7 April, 2016). They operate within Australia’s diverse landscape of “culture… or beliefs or values” (Crang, 1998, p. 2).

They crochet mandalas, or “circular figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism” (Oxford Dictionary, 2016)”. These reflect the landscape, the region’s cultural diversity, and its inclusiveness. These regional cultural practices are:

(micro)movement[s] …. [not] grand-scale and calculable
transformations in society … [these are] tiny or almost
imperceptible actions … [with the] potential to produce
change (Harlot of Hearts, 2016).

Furthermore, the digital plunges these three real, regional cultural products, into the virtual, and into the “international”, (Brown, cited by Kaino, 1995, p. 115). There each communicates its unique “cultural geography” (Crang, 1998). There they
show and develop meaning for [many] people” (McKenzie, Week 1, S1, 2016, slide 10).

This essay is set in South-West of Western Australia, where three particular art, and community practices create identity and argument about that landscape. This essay describes how the region enjoys a rich in-landscape of local artistic and community practice. These cultural achievements arising from and continue the use of successful, traditional methods of peaceful cultural dispute. All work to develop unique regional identity. This essay considers and analyses the particular ways these cultural creations bear witness to change and contestation within the South-West landscape. These are places of cultural ideas, communicate and
respond to thoughts and ideas about landscape and place. These three places are good examples of how digital communication may extend, globally. knowledge of regional, novel cultural product, and of regional landscape and identity may extend far and wide. So these cultural communications activate their own
landscape globally. This essay thus communicates about a most complicated, culturally alive and well landscape. While economic support is critical and yet uncertain, art activates this South-West place, is disputed within that
landscape is vital and changing. Via community practice the people re-use,
re-engineer their environment. This landscape is supportive of the identity of the region and its people. The impact of the South-West on its artisans, and its landscape is, opportunity: places to practice, places to mount and exhibit art, to air their identity, to practice change and to grow.

Reference

Bonnett, A. (2004). The Idea of the West: Culture, Politics and History. Houndmills: Macmillan Palgrave.

Busselton Jetty Biggest Morning Tea. (2016).
from: http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au/3056/

Busselton Jetty Timeline. (2016).
from: http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au/the-jetty/history-of-the-jetty/

Crang, M. (1998). Cultural geography. London: Routledge.

Crouch, C. (1999). Modernism in art, design & architecture. London, UK: Palgrave.

Hall, T. (1959). The Silent Language. New York, NY, USA: Anchor Books.

Hare, J., and Loussikian, K. (23 March, 2016).
University art collections fail to have impact on broad society. The Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/university-art-collections-fail-to-have-impact-on-broad-society/news-story/caee4a15d1bf05d1633aa3e6a8e410fb

Harlot of Hearts. (2016).
from: http://harlotofthearts.org/index.php/harlot/article/view/340/192
Hoadley, C. (2012). What is a community of practice and how can we support it?
In D. H. Jonassen & S. M. Land (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning
environments (Second ed., pp. 287-300). New York: Routledge.

Hondros, N. (15 January, 2016). WA fires: heartbreaking aerial photos emerge of
Waroona,Yarloop bushfire damage. WA Today.
from: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-fires-stunning-aerial-photos-emerge-of-waroona-and-yarloop-bushfire-damage-20160115-gm73rx.html

Kiano, L. (Ed). (1995). The necessity of craft:
Development and women’s craft practices in the Asian-Pacific region. Perth, WA: University of WA Press.

King, D. (7 April, 2016). Three Classes of Vocalised Pause. Donn Kings’ Corner. from: http://donnellking.com/blog/2016/04/three-classes-of-vocalized-pause/#more-6054

Life Images by Jill. (May, 2016). blog and website.
from: http://lifeimagesbyjill.blogspot.it/2016/01/australia-day-re-discover-street-art.html

Life Images by Jill. (May, 2016). Facebook site. from:
https://www.facebook.com/Life-Images-by-Jill-854589601225869/
Lull, J. (2207). Culture-on-demand: Communication in a crisis world.
Melbourne, Australia: Blackwell.

McKenzie, V. (S1, 2016). ECU CCI1103. Lecture and Tutorial notes.

Oxford Dictionaries. (2016). definition of the arts.
from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/art

Oxford Dictionaries. (2016). definition of arts and crafts movement.
from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/arts-and-crafts-movement?q=arts+and+crafts+movement

Oxford Dictionary. (2016). definition of mandala.
from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/mandala

Re.Discover Bunbury. (2016). Bunbury Street Art Festival.
from: http://www.sixtwothreezero.com

Sixtwothreezero. (2016). website. from: http://www.sixtwothreezero.com

Waroona Heartfelt Project. (May, 2016).
from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g495084-d2457518-i185015962-Waroona_Visitor_Centre_and_Gallery-Waroona_Western_Australia.html

and

Waroona Heartfelt Project. (May, 2016). Facebook. from:

Waroona Yarn Bombers. (2016).

Waroona Mandalas Project. (2016).
from: https://rubyjaneslane.com/2016/03/11/waroona-community-lifting-the-spirits-of-recent-fire-victims-with-crochet-mandalas/
Williams, R. (1958). Culture is ordinary. In Gray, A. & McGuigan, J. (Eds.). (1993). Studying culture: An introductory reader. (pp. 5–14). Melbourne: Edward Arnold.

Dream-scape is South-West Australia

Louise Nevelson – a refugee inspiring

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Louise Nevelson, Sculptor

This essay briefly analyses the multi-faceted life of the sculptor-artist Louise Nevelson, 1899-1988. A leader in a discipline dominated by men, Nevelson maintained a high, l
ife-long commitment to sculpture, and this essay will show how, during the period when old and famous her endurance and talent, when combined with fame, impacted on her cultural output. Then, for the first time her opportunities expanded to include commissions to create “public sculptures [which] translated her earlier private symbolism and narratives into a grand scale” (The Arts Story Foundation, 2016).

Louise Nevelson is recorded as a great modern sculptor (The Arts Story Foundation, 2016). Born Leah Berliawsky, Nevelson”s diverse and colourful life is “the quintessential American success story” (Lisle, 2001). In Russia her family was part of a rich, deep and strong culture and religion, yet, there it was “unlucky to be born a Jew” (Lisle, 2001).

In 1905 her Jewish-Russian parents and their children fled the Tsarist-Russian violence and hopelessness. Nevelson was about six years old. The strength and foresight of her parents, their urgent and dramatic journey, and subsequent cross-cultural migration, all worked to provide Louise with leadership qualities (Lisle, 2001).

Puccio, Mance & Murdock say: “successful leadership relies heavily on an individual’s ability to effectively respond to and proactively drive change – in short, to be creative” (9 December, 2010). Nevelson’s successsful career as creative artist began with her nine-year old’s instant response to learning of sculpture (Lisle, 2001).

Later in her life an art dealer, and close friend Arnold Glimcher described Nevelson’s “life itself is her greatest work of art” (cited by Lisle, 2001). Nevelson honoured her early decision to become a sculptor throughout her life, and this led, finally, to great success.
Cowan’s analysis of historic, economic factors confirms Nevelson’s elevated status and leadership (21 January, 2016).

Nevelson’s cultural output transcended male-domination in the field of sculpture. (Cowan, 21 January, 1996). In Cowan’s paper “Why women succeed and fail in the Arts” he acknowledges “women traditionally have faced lower returns to investing their energies into art” (21 January, 2016). He concentrates on four major “cultural economic” factors which may affect the cultural production of artists who are not men.

His specific factors are: genes, artistic parity, maternal instinct. The one wide, general factor is discrimination (21 January, 1996).In Nevelson’s case, as shown in her family’s decision and flight to safety and subsequent success in their new society, and hers in her chosen cultural field, genes appear to have superbly equipped her for greatness. Genes created her “smarter, more artistically gifted, more driven” (Cowan, 21 January, 2016).

Smarter to make vital life choices, as will be shown below. Cowan says Nevelson is shown as artistically gifted and an artist leader in “Linda Nochlin’s famous 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”… [and] major influence on the new generation of women struggling to redefine femininity in art” (21 January, 2016). Nevelson inherited strong, smart genes, used them well and worked them hard, and so attained parity with men in her chosen field of art.

Her art practice cost Nevelson an agonisng marriage break-up (Lisle, 2001). When her close-knit, well-loved family did not support her in her chosen discipline (Lisle, 2001), Nevelson departed overseas to further her studies. She left her husband, and their son with him. Nevelson retained her married name upon the divorce that soon followed, and Nevelson’s actions here subsume Cowan’s third cultural economic factor, the maternal instinct (21 January, 1996).

This is even though Alba (April 7, 2016) says a recent study by MacEacheron, (date?) proposes women take actions about which they are not fully conscious, and these actions sometimes do not appear logical to the observer, wherby “marital surname change serves as part of a general strategy… for [women to] maximise the[ir] offspring’s fitness”.

These points may be re-considered under Cowan’s (21 January,1996) single external factor where “potential artists look at the ease of obtaining training, the social responsibilities, their alternative occupations, and the market for their work” (21 January, 2016). Sculpting is complicated as suitable materials are bulky, and generally expensive to obtain. Beginning her practice Nevelson choose wood, a familiar medium in her father’s lumber yard, and her inherent drive and creativity again assisted her to decide upon, locate, “scavenge” and then find ways to use unwanted or discarded wood (MoMa, 2016). This she re-cycled into her ground-breaking and unique cultural output (Lisle, 2001).

MoMa (2016) says Nevelson was a member of the Abstract Expressionist group. Her success appears to be “part of historic dominance breaking down, over time and over genres” (Cowan, 21 January, 2016). America, in particular, in that era relaxed many social conventions. Crouch describes this Modern Movement period, when Pevsner presented his important 1936 concept of “a strange contradictory set of ideas about the universal and the individual… in which powerful individuals create a rational universal style” (1999). Nevelson’s family’s trans-culture move to America made it possible for her to easily learn about these ideas, and to decide to sculpt (Lisle, 2001).

In her teens Nevelson briefly considered another career. Instead, her early decision to marry, and subsequent move to New York, with its extraordinary array of quality artistic support systems of all types gave her access to top-level training and superb channels to market her art (The Arts Story Foundation, 2016). Marriage is thus another decision which appears based upon her cultural output, as, whether conscious or unconscious, that decision located Nevelson in the city where she gained status as wife-socialite and provided her greatest chance of success as sculptor (Lisle, 2001).

Once in New York and thereafter over long periods Nevelson built up her political position with diverse artistic collaborations, exhibits with other important emerging artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenburg (Scott, 9 May, 2007), their families and in a strong artist-womens’ group. She made sincere life-long friends with a huge number of important galleries and dealers, strengthened control of her ouvre with important teachers and trained in other fine arts, and dance, music, voice. Nevelson wore clothes designed and made for her by Canadian designer Arnold Scaasi, another close friend (Jacobs, 4 August, 2015), and was regularly photographed (Lisle, 2001)

Nevelson, credited as “integral to the renaissance of American sculpture” (Lisle, 2001), rose to the challenge at about 68 years when apparently all “factors contingent on human belief or conduct” were satisfied (Cowan, 21 January, 2016):

in 1967, the Whitney Museum of American Art hosted
her first museum retrospective and exhibited over 100
of her works spanning her entire oeuvre. Two years later,
already in her 70s, she received her first commission for
a monumental outdoor sculpture from Princeton University,
which she fulfilled in 1971 (Lisle, 2001).
Nevelson had achieved her objective for her “private symbolism and narratives” (The Arts Story Foundation, 2016) – from the family’s early journey at an early age of life, throughout her unusual life, all her innovative, creative, cultural output led to this point.

Throughout her life, Louise Nevelson made internal cultural economic, and other important external decisions. These decisions aided her to develop and manage her life and her cultural output and she became a leader as a sculptor. To keep her internal childhood commitment Nevelson studied, travelled, experimented, made a new type of art and developed her enormous political base into an ever-evolving base comprised of: close friends, fraternities, joined-ventures with individuals and collaborative artist groups. Nevelson worked with these and developed her circle of knowledge via her strongest key friendships and work relationships with famous art teachers, art dealers, and galleries. She nurtured her artistic talent with other fine arts including voice, music and dance and key overseas studies. Her superb and yet light management skills ensured the manuscript of her biography was finished and she signed off the final document completely, bringing the work into actuality. Louise Nevelson is an important lesson for all aspirants to greatness.

Reference:

Cowan, (21 January, 1996). Why women succeed and fail in the arts.
Journal of Cultural Economics, 00: 1-21, 1996.

Crouch, C. (199). Modernism in art, design & architecture. London, UK: Palgrave.

Jacobs, A. (4 August, 2015).
Arnold Scaasi dies at 85: Dressed stars and socialites, his ‘Scaasi girls’. The New York Times, New York edition. from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/fashion/arnold-scaasi-a-designer-who-dressed- generations-of-scaasi-girls-dies-at-85.html?_r=0

MacEacheron, M. (15 March, 2016). North American Women’s Marital Surname Change:
Practices, law, and patrilineal descent reckoning. Evolutionary Psychological Science. DOI http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-016-0045-9
from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-016-0045-9

Lisle, L. (1990). Louise Nevelson: A passionate life. Lincoln, NE, USA:
Author’s Guild backinprint.com Edition.

MoMa. (2016). website.Louise Nevelson.
from: http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/4278?locale=it

Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., and Murdock, M. C. (Dec 9, 2010).
Creative Leadership: Skills that drive change. Thousand Oaks, California, USA: SAGE Publications.

Scott, A. K. (May, 2007). A Life Made Out of Wood, Metal and Determination.
New York Times.
from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/arts/design/09neve.html?_r=0

The Arts Story Foundation. (2016).website. Louise Nevelson.
from: (http://www.theartstory.org/artist-nevelson-louise.htm)

Louise Nevelson – a refugee inspiring

2 Men in Johannesburg, 2016

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Horst Haase

Around 50 years ago, some young German specialist workers arrived in Southern Africa and not long after they began work in the gold mining industry, mainly in the Gauteng province around Johannesburg, South Africa. This is how tow of these men, Horst Haase, and Jochen Schweitzer, who are well-educated, clever, motivated and extremely hard workers, then stayed, lived and prospered in this region. As time went by, these German men noticed terrible, unjust situations operated in their adopted country. As both were extremely grateful for the success they achieved in South Africa they decided to find ways to contribute to their community. After they spent time, effort and considerable resources they identified a unique and valuable way to improve the existing unfair situation. This is the story of the major decision these two men made, what it was, how they did it, of the results they have achieved to date, and their further aims.

Today, Johannesburg is the “largest and fastest-growing city in South Africa” (Thalle, February 2016). The city is a place which has, for decades, been known as ” iGoli, or the City of Gold” (Maps of the World, 2016, Johannesburg Geography). This is because many Johannesburg fortunes have been made from this metal. Much of Johannesburg’s success is “built on the sweat equity of black migrant workers” (Beall, Crankshaw & Parnell, 14 October, 2014). This was the place Horst and Jochen started to work when Horst, an engineer, was in his mid-30s and Jochen, a geologist, about 25 years old. Now he is in his early 70s, most of Jochen’s time is occupied in running his substantial business (personal communication, Dr. J. Swcheitzer, Februrary, 2016).

Horst is now 83 years old and officially ‘retired’ from the workplace about 14 years ago, around 2002. One of the big local problems these men observed in South Africa was a high level of crime. They saw, and deplored, the way crime exploited and hurt other members of their adopted community. These two men strongly believe in the value of good education, so, in 2004, about 2 years after Horst retired, these men made their major decision: they decided to create an educational programme which they hoped and thought would improve this problem (private communication, H. Haase, March, 2016).
Commencing in 2004, Horst developed their own innovative learning structure, which is basically an 16-lesson educational tool, and Jochen assisted. He also provided the funding. With their stated primary motivation being:

The world is in a bad shape; there is excessive intolerance,
abuse, conflict, injustice, exploitation, and selfishness. This
has been festering for so long that many individuals have
given up hope for fundamental and lasting change and they
have therefore retreated into their private lives which
unwittingly causes the established structures and procedures
with their associated poor value systems to be maintained
(About Us: HALLS, 2015).

This was their first “life-skills program”. Having created their educational product, Horst then found the way to implement this “16 lesson life skills program… which teaches self-understanding and self-empowerment”. Horst was then permitted to “introduce [this initial tool] at the maximum [security section of the] prison of Leeuwkop Correctional Centre, Gauteng, South Africa, in 2004” (Seitlhamo, 3 February, 2016).

Within the prison Horst’s and Jochen’s teaching immediately “proved highly successful” and so they were soon allowed to expand, to deliver their life-skills to inmates in other areas of this prison (HALLS’ NewCo Business Plan, 21 November, 2014), and since 2004 training courses have run continuously at Leeuwkop. Delivering their life-skills education in this prison was the first great step towards their stated objective: “To teach Life Skills to the entire population in particular at schools, since the most promising and lasting change is from the bottom up” (personal communication, Dr. J. Schweitzer, March, 2016).

Since 2009 this teaching system has been known as “HALLS, or Humanity at Last – Life skills”. That year Horst and the other 25 founding members, all Leeuwkop prison inmates, drafted the Constitution and “formalised the teaching of life skills to prisoners”. HALLS was granted non-profit status on 5 March 2010 and tax exempt status on 13 July 2010 (HALLS’ NewCo Business Plan, 21 November, 2014). The training material is presented in English and Xhosa (HALLS Organizational Profile, 2015).

These important steps confirmed Horst and Jochen’s personal “vision”, namely:
Moral regeneration of South Africa is our vision. It is a sad fact
that the attitudes of many South Africans leave something to be
desired, which tends to be difficult to reverse if entrenched. However, the success of our activities makes us believe that if
teaching is spread throughout the country, moral regeneration
can be achieved. We therefore aim to provide teaching to all
prisons, all schools, and at any organization or company
which is willing to participate. We want to make South Africa a
shining example of what can be done.

After their first successful step in 2004, further classes are provided at other prisons. Since 2011, at Krugersdorp Correctional Services, and from 2012, at Vereeniging and Boksburg, and beginning in 2013, the HALLS course was granted permission to the Johannesburg Correctional Services. This included teaching female prisoners for the first time. Soon HALLS’ graduates began to train as (?) and today there are more than 90 life skills facilitators.

In addition, from 2010 and 2011 some local communities and services, such as crisis centres, have partnered with HALLS, as well as the City of Johannesburg’s Social Cohesion Unit, via their Gateway Project. HALLS’ courses began to be taught at four schools in 2011. HALLS also teaches its own teachers, and now has been approved to teach professional SACSSP social workers within the prison service (Seitlhamo, 3 February, 2016).

Today, though HALLS, primarily funded by Jochen, still has no buildings, no land, and no income apart from other small donors, there are now over 8,500 HALLS’ graduates. More than demand for HALLS to teach their life-skills programme exceeds the current capacity to provide.

2 Men in Johannesburg, 2016

Book Review for GSM, ECU Student Guild Mag.

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Book Review for GSM ECU Student Guild Magazine. (2011) by Susanne Lorraine Harford.

Book: Sam, Grace and the Shipwreck
Author: Michelle Gillespie
Illustrated by: Sonia Martinez
Published: 2011
Michelle Gillespie’s Sam, Grace and the Shipwreck is a classic Ripping Yarn children’s book, the true tale of an admirable, unselfish act of public virtue which earned the dashing hero and heroine each a handsome reward. In this era of fragmenting societies and cultures it is a valuable tool for children to learn key cultural ideas fundamental to the Australian way of life; to generously assist anyone in need and treat thy neighbour as thyself.
A real adventure book, the illustrations are exciting and full of movement, and the book demonstrates how powerful and productive a sympathetic relationship between man and beast can be. Two dashing horses that also star in the story are beautifully illustrated.
However, this is a teaching tool and many important, key factors are left unspoken. The true context of the hero is absent; what is the name of his tribe? Where is his traditional land? Even his name – Sam Isaacs – thoroughly European, gives the reader no clue.
There are no images of how his people lived in humpies made of sticks and bark, yet the life of the heroine is richly described and illustrated. Tragically the story does not explain a grant of 100 acres of freehold land to an Aboriginal, by the whites who had colonised his land, was a phenomenal exception to the policies of exclusion implacably hindering his race?
Hopefully this important information will be available at the month-long exhibition at the State Library of Western Australia, beginning 13 October, 2011.

251 words

Book Review for GSM, ECU Student Guild Mag.

Marble Bar, WA. August 2009 (2)

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Press Release September, 2009
On their visit to Marble Bar the judges of the “Tidy Towns – Sustainable Communities” were keen to discuss Marble Bar’s successful National Science Week 2009 events programme. They said it was a pity Marble Bar’s entry into the 2009 competition had not included the town’s Science Week, Adult Learner’s and Celebrate WA events.
The State Program Manager, Mrs Gail Godd was one of the judges and suggested the Marble Bar become more involved in the “Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Communities” programme, as the judges all felt Marble Bar was doing a lot of things right and would be a great member of their programme – application form: http://www.kabc.wa.gov.au/programs/tidy-towns/register-online.html

Last month, East Pilbara Shire officers congratulated Marble Bar on the National Science Week events. The EP Shire included Marble Bar in the educational Arts Media Worshops, and the  “Creating Communities” flyer,  along with a copy of the MB Telecentre’s Tourism WA DDS submission. They will be used in their strategic development document development and will possibly have a very substantial impact on the future planning put in place for Marble Bar during the next few years. For any interested party, the relevant email for further information is: project@eastpilbara.wa.gov.au

Because of the success of the Marble Bar National Science Week 2009 events and the Marble Bar Town & District Heritage Trails Interpretation & Conservation Management Plan Marble Bar will probably be eligible for $1000 grant in 2010. These are small grants.They in turn can lead on to very large grants in the future and all the necessary information can be obtained from Kelly Dawson, Science Events Coordinator, Scitech. For interested parties her email is: kelly.dawson@scitech.org.au, direct phone line 9150739/mobile 0411366381.

END

 

 

Marble Bar, WA. August 2009 (2)

A”Suffragettes”, experience,2015

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Absolutely no disrespect here from one who is involved. Lately ​I’ve thought a lot about the whole ‘domestic’ violence ‘thing’​ and this piece is my drawing together of some ideas –  at a most early stage.

​My thoughts accelerated in Melbourne when I happened to attend a commemorative event for a wonderful friend, Lorraine Elliot. ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), in concert with Lorraine’s family, launched a new​ partnership/foundation, the “Lorraine Elliot AM Education Fund”. ACMI’s promotional flyer state the intent is to provide strong education support for girls/ladies.

At the event the guests previewed “Suffragettes”, the movie. A fitting, engaging event, memorable for various complicated reasons I am still devolving. Firstly, because the movie is extraordinarily powerful in itself.

Secondly, this vital story provided an eloquent demonstration of the huge power inherent in the medium. The story and the communication medium worked to superbly convey a strong cultural message.

Third, in this cultural commodity  is a vital message, yet it is a message currently under concerted attack – and by attacks in extraordinarily diverse forms. Attacks consistently carried out throughout the world.

Forth, this message in the movie and the story properly delivered – to an audience which contained a most powerful, and ‘estranged’ key public.

And, fifthly, post-viewing it was stunningly clear this movie succeeded in converting attitudes held by some number of that important audience. As a result, b​eing in the ACMI​ centre immediately after the movie was electrifying. Why so?

Well, firstly, Lorraine Elliot was widely loved and admired on many levels. So, in addition to many girls and ladies, a great many men, young and old, were in the audience.
​
Electrifying, because of the large number – of men – who could be heard admitting, often with bewilderment, the movie had stunned them, shown them many matters (about life as another sex, in their own environment) they were unaware of – till then.

After the movie one young man said to me:”it’s a movie that should be mandatory viewing for every single male”.

This, and other open and honest male admissions starkly demonstrated, to me, as committed student of our modern communication modes & of many of our puzzling problems today, how many of our ‘cross-gender’ and other difficulties stem from an unknowing-ness of all others.

So this was an extraordinary evening, the movie, the prior and post events. All caused me to think deeply about a second matter, a subject that is always with us.

How  how we (any/all ‘people/s’ – as that’s what we ALL are, even today) communicate. If you will, (as I’m quite sure you can, in your mind’s eye), visualise. That which we engage in every second of every day – communication. Consider for a few minutes each of two examples – of various key parts of ‘discrimination in communication as subject’:

Why – is “Domestic Violence” so appallingly, improperly, and inappropriately titled? What should this monstrous matter be termed?

W​hy – do we ‘​need’ a “Minister for Women”? When, apparently we don’t need, as we don’t have, (do we, in any form?) a “Minister for Men”? Why don’t we properly rid ourselves of this contradiction?

Possibly because we are, all, so very often, still, totally unaware. Yet very possibly, you, as have I, come across these types of ‘divide’ many times in the past. Like me, you have possibly discussed this matter – in terms related to matters other than ‘communication’.

What occurs (it seems to me) is:  unless we ‘ordinary people’ have experienced that “thing” (whatever it may be) – personally, in some manner – we often cannot actually ‘enter’ into visualising the matter properly.

So we cannot understand – as we cannot teach ourselves what is actually occurring to the other person, or persons, what they are experiencing in their space.Each about the other, equally. I propose we begin an identification of processes that will give us these skills.

Peace, love, justice, laughter, happiness, X old Susanne

A”Suffragettes”, experience,2015