Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Creative and professional writing not elsewhere classified'

The thesis investigates the methods used in the contemporary crowdsourcing of creative crowdwork and in particular the succession of conflicting ideas and concepts that led to the development of dedi- cated, profit-oriented, online platforms after 2005 for the outsourcing of cognitive tasks and creative labour to a large and unspecified group of people via open calls on the internet. It traces the historic trajectory of the notion of the crowd as well as the development of tech- nologies for online collaboration, with a focus on the accompanying narratives in the form of a dis- course analysis. One focus of the thesis is the clash between the narrative of the empowerment of the individual user through digital tools and the reinvention of the concept of the crowd as a way to refer to users of online platforms in their aggregate form. The thesis argues that the revivification of the notion of the crowd is indicative of a power shift that has diminished the agency of the individual user and empowered the commercial platform providers who, in turn, take unfair advantage of the crowdworker. The thesis examines the workings and the rhetoric of these platforms by comparing the way they address the masses today with historic notions of the crowd, formed by authors like Gustave Le Bon, Sigmund Freud and Elias Canetti. Today’s practice of crowdwork is also juxtaposed with older, arguably more humanist, visions of distributed online collaboration, collective intelligence, free soft- ware and commons-based peer production. The study is a history of ideas, taking some of the utopian concepts of early online history as a vantage point from which to view current and, at times, dystopian applications of crowdsourced creative labour online. The goal is to better understand the social mech- anisms employed by the platforms to motivate and control the crowds they gather, and to uncover the parameters that define their structure as well as the scope for their potential redesign. At its core, the thesis offers a comparison of Amazon Mechanical Turk (2005), the most prominent and infamous example for so-called microtasking or cognitive piecework, with the design of platforms for contest-based creative crowdwork, in particular with Jovoto (2007) and 99designs (2008). The crowdsourcing of design work is organised in decidedly differently ways to other forms of digital labour and the question is why should that be so? What does this tell us about changes in the practice and commissioning of design and what are its effects on design as a profession? However, the thesis is not just about the crowdsourcing of design work: it is also about the design of crowdsourcing as a system. It is about the ethics of these human-made, contingent social systems that are promoted as the future of work. The question underlying the entire thesis is: can crowdsourcing be designed in a way that is fair and sustainable to all stakeholders? The analysis is based on an extensive study of literature from Design Studies, Media and Cul- ture Studies, Business Studies and Human-Computer Interaction, combined with participant observa- tion within several crowdsourcing platforms for design and a series of interviews with different stake- holders.

Nicosia, a medieval walled city in Cyprus, was divided by a ‘green line’ in 1964 and remains the last divided capital city in Europe. This thesis deploys poesis and performance to interrogate the border as a site of reminiscence at the intersection of multiple and contested collective memory-narratives. In order to explore the nature of individual and collective memory the thesis challenges a series of physical and conceptual border zones: the disciplinary and discursive boundaries between poetry and philosophy; the border between memory and identity; the border between collective and individual memory and the physical terrain of the border that divides Nicosia. The dérive, translocated from Paris to Nicosia, is used to explore these borders through an autoethnographic poetics that crosses the fields of poetry, anthropology and art practice. Walking and the practice arising from it speak back to the border. The connections between poetry, performance, collective memories and mediated subjectivities are investigated through a multimedia totality of poetics that deploys film, photography and live performance as well as writing. The thesis consists of this written exegesis and documentation of the performance Memory in the Dead Zone, the website MemoryMap, the film-poem DVD An Architecture of Forgetting and The Archive of Lost Objects, a book of poetry and photography. This multimedia collection seeks to capture the complexity, diversity and fluidity of the phenomenological experience of memory and subjectivity. This thesis proposes and identifies a field of expanded life writing that is distinct from but related in ethos to the category of expanded cinema, to define such practice. The knowledge that arises out of the dérives is represented in a thesis that attempts to capture the multiplicity (though not the totality) and interrelationships of the discourses and practices that inform my border memories.

From the Cradle to the Grave: A Novel and Exegesis is concerned with maternal infanticide. This is, however, a somewhat inflammatory and perhaps misleading statement. While it is concerned with the infanticidal mother, she is in this instance largely an icon, a way into an exploration of diverse aspects of motherhood, especially negative ideas about mothers and mothering. It would be more precise to say that this thesis is concerned with the paradoxical Childless Mother. Both the novel and exegesis circle around ideas about parenting that seek to confront traditional assumptions about the connections and differences between good and bad mothering. The exegesis - From the Cradle to the Grave - does this through a discussion of various aspects of culture, which produce and are produced by mothering practices. In particular it engages with childcare literature, medical and legal engagements with women and children, and myth and fairy tales. The novel - The Bone Flute - is another exploration of the paradoxical nature of motherhood. While the exegesis seeks to draw together some of the material and historical truths of mothering, the novel addresses another kind of truth; through various narrative devices it seeks a different type of engagement with the lived realities of women. Both texts ask questions about the nature of maternity and its relationship to femininity. Both attempt to come to terms with the paradoxical status of mothers without children. The exegesis is an explication of the research processes, the reflections and considerations that preceded and accompanied the writing of The Bone Flute. It seeks to make explicit the tangled web of reading and thinking that informed the writing of a novel - from initial impulse to final draft. The exegesis is not, however, an explicit explanation of how the novel was written. Rather the two texts existed (and exist) symbiotically - each inciting and reflecting upon the other. While the exegesis explores the material

This study is an investigation in and through media arts practice. It set out to develop a novel type of new media artistic praxis built upon concepts drawn from the disciplines of scientific and cultural ecology. The rationale for this research was based upon my observation as a practising new media artist that existing praxis in the new media domain appeared to operate largely without awareness of the ecological implications of those practices. The thesis begins by explaining key concepts of ecology, spanning the arts and the sciences. It then outlines the thinking of contemporary theorists who propose that the problem of ecology is a critical issue for the 21st century, suggesting that our well-documented ecological crisis is indicative of a more general crisis of human subjectivity. It then records an investigation into particular strategies for artistic praxis which might instigate an active engagement with this problem of ecology. The study employed a methodology based in action research to focus upon the development and analysis of three new artistic works, '#14', 'Public Relations' and 'transit_lounge'. These were used to explore diverse theories of ecology and to hone a series of pointers towards Ecosophical arts/new media praxis. This journey constitutes an emergent theory for new media space design. The thesis concludes with a toolkit of tactics and approaches that other arts/new media practitioners might employ to begin working on the problem of ecology.

This thesis argues, based upon a comparison of the 2000 Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, that there is a very close relationship between nationalism, media and Olympics. For the purposes of cross-cultural analysis, the thesis undertakes a comparison of relevant media models ... will be argued that elements of propaganda infuse the Olympic coverage of both papers and events, albeit from within distinctly different social and ideological contexts. In the lead-up to the Sydney and Beijing events of 2000 and 2008, both the Australian and the People's Daily emphasised national unity over difference, even if the People's Daily appears to do so more systematically than the Australian"--Abstract.

This Masters by research consists of a rural romance novel called Mungabah, and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is set in remote south western Queensland in the contemporary period and evolves through the life of Kylie, effectively a lost city girl from Brisbane who unsuspectingly inherits a large run-down farm and homestead in the country and who is also betrayed by her boyfriend boss in the city. Love develops between Kylie and a good looking farm hand called Jack, though this is not straight forward because they could be related. In the country Kylie flounders as she finds herself completely out of her depth in rural life, but gradually finds her feet and makes herself an integral part of the community, gaining a better understanding of herself and finding love along the way. The rural romance sub-genre has become very popular amongst both writers and readers in Australia yet the sub-genre and reasons for its popularity remain underrepresented in the scholarly literature (Flesch 2004; Fletcher 2013). Situating my study within this gap in the literature, my aim in the exegesis is to explain how I have created a novel that applies inventive ways to incorporate pair-bonding and social issues into the narrative and plot, while concurrently respecting the integrity of romance as a genre with its core set of conventions around the protagonists’ quest for ‘true love’. Mirmohamadi (2015) argues that ‘the burgeoning genre of Australian rural romance novels...shares significant and defining generic features with romance fiction...it also reworks conventional forms to address current socio-historical conditions in rural Australia’. Advancing the innovation of the romance genre means challenging the established tacit ‘rules’ of the form as well as challenging the normative tendencies traditionally reinforced in the genre. Using the practice-led research methodology and drawing on literary theory and the essential elements of published Australian rural romance novels, the exegesis explains how my artefact innovates on the form and content of the Australian rural romance by subverting some of the tropes used in rural romances. This Masters makes an original contribution to the existing scholarly knowledge of rural romance novels and the application of its generic attributes to a creative artefact.

"This PhD project involved the writing of an illustrated contemporary Gothic novel entitled The Silting. Concurrent with the writing of the novel, a substantial, theoretically informed exegetical critique of the novel was also produced. The Novel: The Silting is a contemporary Gothic novel set in a fictitious English seaside village called Cove. The Siltings narrative is predominantly driven by the psychotic interior monologue of the narrator Johnathan Wolms. Despite Johnathans cynical and nihilistic demeanour, he becomes obsessed with the apparent divine presence of an ancient stone cube the Cube - that speaks to him from its housing in an old windmill. The Cubes influence seems intrinsically connected to a number of other characters, such as the mill owners daughter Abby. The Exegesis, produced concurrently with the writing of The Silting, explores the process of creating The Silting particularly with regard to its location within the contemporary Gothic genre, as well as its role in terms of metafictionality. Significantly, the latter concept became more pronounced as both the novel and exegesis drafts proceeded, in that the self-reflexive, metafictional interplay of the novel seemed to spill across both fictional and exegetic frames. In this way, the writing of the novel influenced the nature of the exegesis; and vice versa, exegetic research came to influence the content and narrative direction of the novel." -- abstract

The story behind this research project begins in 1962 when, at age 11, I developed an eating disorder and began to keep a diary. The themes and threads that bind the story together, however, began to weave a pattern almost as soon as I was born. In early childhood, the world through my eyes comprised a small, beautiful valley adjoining the Mitchell River National Park in Victoria, Australia. I lived on a dairy farm with my parents and sister. For my first 11 years, my home had no electricity, television or Internet, but my days were full. The farm, river and adjacent bushland provided a natural outdoors playground, seeding my imagination. Indoors, on rainy days and at night by lantern-light, at the solid oak kitchen table, I would ask my mother for pen and paper and write a note or two about my day. A friendship with words was already taking hold.

Rugby league in cinema is an overlooked research area. The sport enjoys tremendous cultural and financial prominence in some parts of the world, particularly Australia and the UK, and is depicted in several feature films from these countries. Cinematic representations of rugby league are largely unexamined by screen scholars, however, despite the existence of a large “sports” film genre. This leaves an important question: Can films in which rugby league is a central narrative component constitute their own subgenre? From a screenwriting perspective, categorising films into genres based on common narrative elements is an appealing exercise because it tests known forms and craft. If film genre theory and practice help to inform film analysis and industry norms, respectively, how does the screenwriter feature in this? In this research, I combine my passions of screenwriting and rugby league to test the legitimacy of the “rugby league film” as a narrative type in its own right. Using a creative (screenwriting) practice approach, the study fills the knowledge gap in two ways. First, with original textual analysis of rugby league films within a genre framework (exegesis), and second, with an original feature film screenplay (creative artefact) titled “The Goalkicker” that responds to and embodies the research findings. By showcasing cinematic depictions of rugby league through a screenwriting lens, this research offers an original creative-critical exploration of rugby league in cinema.

This PhD project involved the writing of an illustrated contemporary Gothic novel entitled The Silting. Concurrent with the writing of the novel, a substantial, theoretically informed exegetical critique of the novel was also produced.

The Novel: The Silting

The Silting is a contemporary Gothic novel set in a fictitious English seaside village called Cove. The Silting's narrative is predominantly driven by the psychotic interior monologue of the narrator Johnathan Wolms. Despite Johnathan's cynical and nihilistic demeanour, he becomes obsessed with the apparent divine presence of an ancient stone cube - the Cube - that 'speaks' to him from its housing in an old windmill. The Cube's influence seems intrinsically connected to a number of other characters, such as the mill owner's daughter Abby.

The Exegesis of The Silting

The Exegesis, produced concurrently with the writing of The Silting, explores the process of creating The Silting particularly with regard to its location within the contemporary Gothic genre, as well as its role in terms of metafictionality. Significantly, the latter concept became more pronounced as both the novel and exegesis drafts proceeded, in that the self-reflexive, metafictional interplay of the novel seemed to 'spill' across both fictional and exegetic frames. In this way, the writing of the novel influenced the nature of the exegesis; and vice versa, exegetic research came to influence the content and narrative direction of the novel.

Please Note: The novel The Silting is an unpublished novel, which for MLA referencing purposes normally requires the use of quotation marks (i.e. "The Silting") rather than be underlined. However, as the title is used frequently in the Exegesis, I have chosen to underline The Silting (as with other titles) in order to maintain the "flow" of reading. This action also serves to avoid the awkward situation of the use of the title in a possessive form ("The Silting's") in which the possessive apostrophe tends to clash with quotation marks.

The international working travel experiences of Australian DIY musicians This research explores the travel experiences of Australian DIY (Do-It-Yourself) working musicians. It was undertaken because there was a lack of existing academic literature on this topic. The research question is: For the benefit of Australian DIY musicians who aspire to travel and work internationally, what can be learned from interviewing those who have gone before? Fifteen working musicians who have travelled internationally were interviewed to find out what kind of obstacles and advantages they encountered while touring. There were eight males and seven females with experience as performers, ranging in age between 24 and 54 years. Several of the respondents have been awarded or nominated by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Several had ARIA chart success. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by the researcher, himself an entertainer. The data was then analysed using Grounded Theory methodology. Most of the performers interviewed claim to have received little or no sustainable financial viability from international touring experiences. A predominant emergent theme regarding the motivation for touring is “passion” for performing. Positive factors noted included life experience, exploring different markets, meeting new industry contacts, bonding experiences for touring party members, and being a worthwhile working vacation for reasons other than making money. Major drawbacks included expenses borne by the individual that were unclaimable as business expenses for income tax purposes in Australia; being unable to maintain full-time, paying employment while touring; and the stresses of long-distance travel, constant performing and separation from family, leading to mental health issues. Key conclusions drawn were that changes could be made to improve experiences for Australian musicians travelling abroad. Suggestions included provision of increased assistance from government agencies; establishment of better networking opportunities for musicians to exchange ideas; and negotiation of excess baggage concessions for internationally travelling musicians. This thesis revealed themes that deserved further specific and in-depth research, including how the mental health risks for travelling musicians and their support crews could be better managed; what were the exotic qualities that Australian musicians appreciated in particular overseas regions; and what cultural attitudes towards musicians in various countries influenced those regulatory environments? An appendix to the thesis reviews the visa regulations pertaining to travelling working musicians in many international jurisdictions.

This PhD research thesis, titled Broken hearts: writing the representation of trauma and trauma recovery in a post-trauma romance novel, comprises a creative artefact and accompanying reflective exegesis. The primary aim of the thesis is to make an original contribution to the fields of literary theory, trauma theory, and literary trauma theory by formally identifying, defining, and providing an example of a new subgenre of romance coined ‘post-trauma romance’ (PTR). 

The creative artefact, a novel titled The love healer, serves as an example of PTR, by combining the subgenre’s three proposed elements: trauma representation, trauma recovery representation, and a romance narrative. Narrated from a multiple first-person point of view, The love healer opens with a journal entry by trauma survivor, Neoma Alban, detailing the progress she has made on her recovery journey. The journal entry also shows her awaiting a year-long reunion with her love interest, and former trauma recovery facilitator, Emerson Novak … a man with his own traumatic past. The novel details their individual trauma experiences, post-trauma effects, and subsequent recovery journeys alongside their unfolding romance. By the end of the novel, readers will wonder who the titular ‘love healer’ is, hinting at the underlying message that there are no definitive answers on the road to trauma recovery. 

The accompanying reflective exegesis investigates the writing techniques––drawn from literary theory, trauma theory, and literary trauma theory, alongside a ‘lived experience lens’ and feminist framework––employed in crafting The love healer. It also provides evidence to support the formal identification and definition of post-trauma romance as a unique and new subgenre of romance. 

Several other important findings pinpointed throughout the PhD journey are also discussed, including the Vital Signs Scan, 8F/9F Trauma Response Model, and ‘Fade’ trauma response.

This paper presents Theopoetics, a theo-philosophical aesthetic movement that arose from the 1960’s Death of God theology, as a hermeneutical framework that accounts for both embodiment and the numinous in poetry. Through an examination of the life and poetic works of the disenfranchised religious poet, Thomas Merton, and a more religiously nebulous poet, Denise Levertov. This paper will present two different perspectives from these poets who encountered the need to qualify the numinous in their poetry and subverted that qualification through a theopoetic process.