Signifying Aboriginal Identity, Culture and Country in Central Queensland Through a Public Art Project

Revealing and Revelling in the Floods on Country: Memory Poles within Toonooba

Alongside Toonooba (the Fitzroy River) in central Queensland, Australia, a series of flood markers are embedded within the earth, commanding attention to the river that flows on one side and the colonial infrastructure of Rockhampton on the other. Honouring Land Connections is an artwork that asserts Indigenous voices, marks Indigenous spaces, and encourages visitors to engage in conversation with Indigenous culture and art. This paper considers Indigenous art as a form of social action. Firstly, it discusses the value of such art projects, and presents an Indigenous perspective of their meaning, addresses their role in creating and embodying culture and identity, how they express and share culture, along with collaborative approaches, and the importance of learning on and from Country. It concludes with a discussion of the political and cultural meaning created through art, suggesting that it is impossible for a public artwork like Honouring Land Connections to not be political. This article explores how art facilitates an interactive social space through which Aboriginal artists affirm, negotiate and share their identities while challenging preconceptions of place and identities reminding us that Aboriginal presence outlasts the moment of its production and imprints itself on the landscape and people’s consciousness.

Western European cultural policies increasingly target marginalized and socially deprived communities. In Denmark, this happens in the political and discursive context of the so-called “ghetto act” (2018), a set of laws and amendments aimed at radically changing low-income public housing neighbourhoods with a high percentage of “non-Western” residents. Consequential, several Danish public housing neighbourhoods undergo drastic renovation and demolition. Simultaneously, cultural governing bodies and institutions approach the neighbourhoods with a variety of publicly funded projects in arts and culture. These are part of a general strategy to reach new audiences / user groups by supporting art manifestations outside the formal art institutions but also of a more specific betterment agenda based on the assumption that the deprived social housing areas can be “elevated” through art and cultural projects. Based on research in four Danish social housing areas in urban margins, the article introduces the social and cultural policies targeting the areas. We identify a triple exposure to social inequality, stigmatization and intervention, and ask how public art projects in the areas interact with and may resist this exposure. From the perspective of Chantal Mouffe’s notions of antagonistic politics and dissensual artistic practices, we explore a range of public art projects in four selected social housing areas, and identify four different types of art projects: 1) permanent physical interventions, 2) temporary (re)makings of the neighbourhood, 3) reinforcement of creative skills and agency, and 4) co-inhabitation. Presenting cases from each of these four types, we outline their challenges and potentials. Finally, we discuss how they fit into and/or negotiate the “betterment” agenda and the seemingly neutral vision of the mixed, balanced, or creative city.

Fresh water is considered to be one of the most important resources for humans and the environment. Due to the increase in population and the currently unsustainable usage of this limited resource, more attention is needed in the management of water resources. Advanced computational methods can help in attaining a better understanding of all aspects of water. Indeed, a better understanding of water resources requires a vast knowledge of a wide variety of fields such as atmospheric science, geology, hydrology, hydraulics and mathematics etc. To assist in this process computing techniques have been widely applied in water resources engineering problems. An artificial neural network (ANN) has been applied to solve many engineering problems since the 1980s. However, there are still many engineering fields that have the potential to benefit from ANN, such as water resource engineering. In the present research two important applications; time-series prediction and function estimation for water resource engineering are investigated. Within water engineering the prediction of river discharge is important. The results can be used for many purposes including flooding management, risk assessment and saving lives. New techniques are always being sought to improve the accuracy of predictions. In the first part of this research a neural network model was developed as a tool for time-series prediction to forecast water flow discharge of Fitzroy River near Rockhampton in central Queensland. A feed-forward back-propagation network was selected to predict the daily time-series of the Fitzroy Rivers’ discharge at The Gap station, Queensland. The data was derived from the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines. The two developed ANN models are investigated and compared after many trials with a number of inputs, outputs, hidden layers, learning rate and transfer functions. The final model uses the flow data for 15 successive days and then predicts the discharge for the next 4 days. The results show that an accurate prediction was obtained during flood events. The advantage of the ANN model, when compared to other numerical models, is that it only uses the historical data of the discharge from this particular river. Thus it is free of the need for other data such as rainfall data, topography of the area and stream sections. In addition, after the ANN was trained, a very fast prediction was obtained. Consequently, this model can be used as a real-time tool for flow forecasting in the Fitzroy River. Similar models could be developed, based on the structure of this ANN model, for any river in Australia and in the world. Another interesting problem in water resource engineering is groundwater dynamics that occur near the coast. Indeed, a knowledge of groundwater dynamics in coastal aquifers is important for understanding sediment transport processes in the swash zone; shoreline stability; the design of coastal structures close to beaches; water quality in closed coastal lakes and lagoons; the operation of dune sewage disposal and domestic water supply. Analytical methods or numerical models have been used to predict this groundwater table fluctuation due to tides, waves and precipitation etc. In the present study ANN is adopted to simulate groundwater table fluctuations. In the study a multilayer feed-forward neural network model has been developed and trained using a back-propagation algorithm. The training data was based on field measurements (KANG et al., 1994a) from five different locations down the east coast of Australia. The data included information on watertable, tide elevation, beach slopes and hydraulic conductivity at each beach. The results from the developed model show that the artificial neural network model is very successful in terms of the prediction of a target that is dependent on a number of variables. Sensitivity analysis was undertaken which confirmed that a variation in tide elevation is the most important parameter to use for simulating groundwater flow in coastal aquifers. In contrast the low number of training data available for hydraulic conductivity and beach slope did not have a significant effect on the prediction of groundwater table fluctuations in this model. Thus, to improve the accuracy of prediction for the developed model, more data should be collected.

Predation of engorged females of the cattle tick Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) in pasture was recorded in central and southern Queensland for different periods during 1969–1973 and again in central Queensland in 1984. Patterns of damage and removal of ticks were consistent with direct observations that indicated that ants and the house mouse (Mus musculus L.) were the only significant predators, so these species were assumed to account for all the observed predation. At Amberley, southern Queensland, ticks sealed in nylon gauze cylinders to protect them from ants suffered less predation than ticks in unsealed cylinders that suffered predation by ants as well as mice. Predation rates were higher in long grass than in medium or short grass, probably because the long grass provided greater protection for predators. Predation rates at Jimboomba in southern Queensland were similar at a hill‐top site and on a flat adjacent to a dam with higher soil moisture and denser cover, but there were major differences between years. In central Queensland, ants were consistent predators while the house mouse was responsible for high levels of predation when in plague numbers for a period of time during the study. Losses of ticks attributed to mice were related to coarse estimates of mouse abundance. In 1984, most affected ticks were attacked within 48 h of placement in the pasture. In central Queensland, mouse predation was higher in winter, while ant predation was more frequent in summer. A simulation model of tick populations indicated that a less than proportional reduction can be expected in numbers of parasitic ticks with increases in the predation rate. Those effects will be more evident in less favourable habitats for the ticks.

Sediment source changes over the last 250 years in a dry-tropical catchment, central Queensland, Australia

Influence of climate fluctuations and changes in catchment land use on Late Holocene and modern beach-ridge sedimentation on a tropical macrotidal coast: Keppel Bay, Queensland, Australia

최근 지자체 및 정부 기관에서 소외지역 생활환경 개선 및 문화 복지를 위한 도시 재생사업의 일환으로 공공미술 프로젝트를 시행하고 있다. 따라서, 공공미술 프로젝트는 공공미술 자체의 담론에만 빠져있을 것이 아니라 도시 재개발 속에서의 그 의미를 생각해야 한다. 즉, 공공미슬 프로젝트를 통해 소외지역에 문화 예술을 입히는 것이 궁극적으로는 지역 주민들의 경제를 활성화할 수 있는 장소마케팅의 목적으로 시행될 필요가 있다. 본 논문은 과연 최근 5년간 진행된 부산의 공공미술 프로젝트들이 그 목적성을 달성했고, 장소마케팅 관점에서 성공적이었는지, 공공미술의 성격과 전체 마을의 설립 양상이 비판적으로 재검토될 필요는 없는지에 대한 의문에서 출발하였다. 먼저, 공공미술의 개념 및 공공미술 프로젝트의 효과와 장소마케팅의 개념 및 전략에 대해 이론적 내용을 문헌을 통해 고찰한다. 이를 바탕으로 분석틀을 도출하고 부산시의 최근 5년간 진행된 대표적인 공공 미술 프로젝트 사례를 공공미술적 차원의 요건과 장소마케팅 차원에서의 실효성에 대해 분석하였다. 분석결과를 토의함으로써 공공미술 프로젝트의 실질적이고 궁극적인 목표이어야 하는 장소마케팅 차원에서 향후 공공미술 프로젝트의 나가야 할 방향에 대해 시사점을 제시하였다. Recently, many regional governments and national organizations have propelled public art projects as a part of city regeneration project for improvement of living environment and cultural welfare of neglected regions. It is necessary to think of meaning of the public art project in a context of city regeneration, not only in public art discourse. This paper starts from the question if recent public art projects performed in city of Busan during last 5 year was successful in terms of place marketing. This paper tried to revoke to consider public art project in terms of place marketing because it should be utilized ultimately to activate regional economy for the habitants. First, we reviewed theoretical background regarding definition of public art and place marketing, intended effects of public art project, and place marketing strategy. we elicited an analytical framework and analyzed representative 6 cases of recent public art projects performed in city of Busan in terms of requirements of public art project and viability of place marketing. Discussion of the analysis result suggested implications for the future public art project to direct.

The First Four Wells: Unconventional Gas in Australia

Regional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the Dutch approach to publicart, through the analysis of the relationships between public art and urban transformation processes. The activities of the SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) and the case of BEYOND - Leidsche Rijn will be examined. This paper starts with some considerations concerning the concepts of public space and public realm, together with a general introduction about public art projects in Italy and The Netherlands. These considerations would allow for a better understanding of the peculiarities of both the approaches. In Italy public art projects are closer to the community art projects; in The Netherlands a strong integration between public art and urban planning/regeneration, among arts, public space and public realm is prevailing.

Nowadays in Japan, public art installations are attracting attention under the umbrella of community renovation projects, as seen in the Faret Tachikawa Art Project (Tokyo 1994), the Art House Project in Naoshima (Kagawa 1997- ), and the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (Niigata 2000-). Projects of this magnitude are achieved through the participation of artists and renowned art directors and producers, with financial assistance from the government or business sector. The host city becomes the center of attraction even for people who previously had no interest in that area. The artists themselves, however, who are involved in such large projects, may have ideas and aspirations that do not always correspond to those of the planners. Indeed, some activities are more like the artists' own projects. In this paper, I discuss the approaches of the artist Sotaro Ide (1966-) who places priority on the ”house” and its ”memories” in creating his artwork. First, his sense of aesthetics focuses on the dwelling places of memories rather than the artwork itself. An analogy is the cycle of life between the systems of memory which appears and disappears, and his process of creation. He uses fascinating techniques of etching. His unique aesthetic sense perhaps lies in the process of change instead of the permanence of a finished artwork. Next, citing several examples of the public art project, Hatago-cho Machiya Project (Tokyo 2000), Piacer d'amor bush: Asai's house (Tokyo 2000), AINOKURA: Its light and Fusuma Exhibition (Toyama 2001), Vacant House Project in Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (Niigata 2006), Watanabe House: the shine and memories (Ehime 2006-2009), I suggest that his idea of regionality and the passion of his works not only characterize his own activities, but are also interconnected with, leading eventually to regional development.

A two-part study was made of fish movement past the Fitzroy River barrage at Rockhampton. Queensland. to assess the feasibilities of routes other than that through the simple pool and weir fishway situated at the barrage, and to monitor fish passage upstream through the fishway by placing a V-trap cage immediately above the fishway exit. Neither of the alternative routes to the fishway, namely via the inundated floodplain or under open barrage gates, appeared to be feasible pathways for fish to move to areas above the barrage. Sixteen species of fish over a relatively wide size range were found to pass through the fishway. Greatest species diversity. and rates of passage of particular species, occurred in the summer months. Variation in levels of the tidal tailwater and the headwater, which could be controlled to some extent by raising or lowering the barrage gates, influenced the numbers, sizes and species of fish passing through the fishway. It is concluded that while there is a need for facilitating fish movement upstream past the barrage. the present fishway does not seem to be particularly effective in this regard. Structural and management changes to the fishway which may improve its efficiency are proposed.

The Fitzroy River (Central Queensland) has the second largest ocean-flowing catchment in Australia and retains relatively extensive remnant woodlands. However, clearing of the more fertile alluvial plains is proportionally much greater. Typically, forested habitat on the alluvial plain is restricted to narrow riparian corridors and small remnants on the adjacent terraces. Riparian forests are known to be important repositories of biodiversity in cleared and uncleared landscapes. However, little is known about the invertebrates of these habitats. Termites are ecosystem engineers promoting soil health and organic decomposition, and keystone taxa by virtue of mound and nest construction, and the hollowing of living trees. A comparison of the termite fauna of riparian forests and vegetation of the adjacent terraces (either remnant woodlands or cleared for grass-dominated pastures) was made at five locations in the Fitzroy River basin. Terrace pastures had fewer species than terrace woodlands while termite encounters within the riparian forests were lowest. Termite assemblages also differed between the three vegetation types. Some species showed zonation patterns. These patterns may relate to ecosystem drivers such as frequency of flooding in relation to life history parameters (e.g. arboreal or ground nesting). Termite species distribution also appeared to be coupled to resource availability such as presence of live and dead wood and percentage cover of litter, grass and dung. To retain natural levels of termite diversity and functionality, it is recommended that land managers retain both riparian forests and adjacent woodlands in a matrix with cleared pastures.

Delivery, deposition and redistribution of fine sediments within macrotidal Fitzroy Estuary/Keppel Bay: Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia