The University of Queensland Abstract Questions to Answers by Yaron Lifschitz The thesis, Questions to Answers, comprises two parts: a book-length collection of poems by the same title and a critical essay entitled “Behind the Verse: the Critical Prose of Poets” which examines critical prose written by three contemporary poets – Louise Glück, Anne Carson and Derek Walcott. The collection of poems is a series of lyrical digressions – oscillating between intimate reflections and intellectual musings. It aims to interrogate and undermine the known with pertinent (and sometimes impertinent) questions. The title suggests that rather than beginning with questions and moving to answers; the opposite journey is undertaken – the poems begin with the answers – received wisdoms, commonplace observations – and move towards uncertainty and curiosity. The poems range from short, lyrics to extended sequences. Being highly personal and eclectic statements of my sensibility, I aimed to create a free-flowing structure that reflects the curious digressions of this sensibility. There are several categories of poems that run through the work. These include poems of love and loss; short, lyrical odes to heroes of mine (mainly composers and poets); poems about reading the classics; poems about abstract philosophical musings; and poems about family – including my young son and my recently deceased sister. The placement of these poems aims to give a sense that these subjects are not distinct; reflecting my belief that one no more leaves the world of the heart to read the Odyssey than one forgoes one’s fascination with Kant to fall in love. The critical essay explores the relationship between the poetry and critical prose of three poets I admire – Derek Walcott, Louise Glück and Anne Carson. It proposes that the critical prose of poets is a neglected genre – full of delight and insight into the minds of the poets in question. The first chapter focuses on how a small observation in an essay by Walcott reveals a key feature of his poetics. The second explores the functioning of Glück’s stylistic reticence as she admires the sparse works of George Oppen. The third chapter looks at Carson’s radical troubling of the line between poetry and prose and seeks to explore it using digressive techniques borrowed from Carson herself. I begin the essay by exploring how the imperative to write a prose component to complement my poetry gave rise to this subject and finish the essay by analyzing what I learnt from its writing.

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There have been only sporadic attempts to highlight Chinese women’s role and influence in art, even though their contribution has been major. This thesis seeks to understand the significance of women’s participation in modern Chinese art history through the narratives and works of Pan Yuliang, Nie Ou and Yin Xiuzhen, who were professionally active at different political stages of twentieth-century China. Using an interdisciplinary framework, drawing on concepts from theories such as modernism, feminism and postcolonialism, this thesis analyzes a culturally specific field in art history and the interrelationship between various factors that have contributed to it. As artists of a peripheral culture, various factors in the artistic production of Chinese women have been overlooked and often misinterpreted. This thesis argues that the three artists in this study have produced different, individualized responses to the Euro-American model of modernism. To highlight the cultural specificity of China, the introductory chapter will include a short comparative analysis between Chinese modernism and the modernisms of other Asian countries. The adoption of Western art forms by early overseas-trained Chinese artists such as Pan indicates as many intricacies and ambivalences as in the complex relationship of China with Western imperialism. Chapter Two situates the Westernized works of Pan in the context of Chinese modernism, pre-feminism and the semi-colonized state of early twentieth-century China. In relation to the theories of orientalism and provincialism, implications of the ambiguities of Pan’s representations are extended to debates that explore the subjectivity and identity of non-European artists in their quest for modernism. Nie Ou was born into the era when the Chinese Communists had just taken over in 1949. Under the autocratic rule of the Communists, Nie was exiled to the northern countryside during her early adulthood as part of the “re-educating the elite” program. Chapter Three demonstrates how Nie successfully emerged from the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution. During this period of intensified Chinese nationalism, Nie found ways to merge the influences of the restrictive style of Socialist Realism and the poetic Chinese literati painting tradition to create an individualized style of representation. China underwent rapid modernization in the 1980s and 1990s. Chapter Four examines the works of contemporary artist Yin Xiuzhen who, with her avant-garde installations, has pushed the boundaries of what constitutes conventional Chinese art. This chapter analyzes Yin’s works in the context of late twentieth-century China, where the nation was no longer a Socialist monolith but a complex amalgam in which old and new, Socialist and capitalist, modern and postmodern co-existed. Yin’s works will be studied in relation to theories of postmodernism, postfeminism and globalism. Chapter Five consolidates the earlier chapters by reflecting on how various conditions throughout the twentieth century have changed and shaped the role of women in Chinese art history. The concluding chapter will consider the influence Chinese women artists may have on the art discourse in China today, and perhaps across other cultures. This chapter will explore the constraints upon them and the potential of their future role, not only in China but also in the broader sense of what it means to be an artist internationally.

The folio of compositions and critical commentary documents a major practice-led research project that was carried out from 2003-09 on the topic of ‘electroacoustic music with moving images’. The written report analyses and expands on the creative works by supplying detailed information concerning the ‘process’ of composing for the genre, and the ‘language’ of audiovisual media pairing. Sixteen extracts of creative work featuring specific qualities of language are also provided as a means of focussing discussion points. The folio of compositions is comprised of four creative works: Shifting Ground (2005), Mouth Piece (2008), Abide With Me (2009), and Eyepiece (2009), which present a one-hour audiovisual programme. The series was premiered in a special concert Seeing With Ears: Video Works By John Coulter as part of the proceedings of the New Zealand Electroacoustic Music Symposium (NZEMS) 2-4 September 2009, School of Music, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Part 1 of the thesis seeks to illuminate a general process of creative practice that is relevant to all forms of studio-based composition. Three frameworks are examined: those that contain singular creative tasks, those that contain multiple tasks, and those that contain multiple creative projects. A 3-tiered model of reflective practice is then offered, and procedures common to all electroacoustic composers are discussed. The action research paradigm is then presented, followed by domain-specific guidelines for undertaking research. Key differences between ‘composing’ and ‘researching’ are examined, and principles of conducting practice and research simultaneously are submitted. For those working in studio-based settings, the study provides a model, and a vocabulary for discussing his/her creative process, as well as procedural guidelines for contributing to expert domain knowledge through practice-led research. Part 2 of the thesis directly addresses a common paradox faced by composers working with sounds and moving images. On one hand, audiovisual materials appear to offer the possibility of complementing one another - of forming a highly effective means of communicating artistic ideas, and on the other, they appear to carry the risk of detracting from one another – of deforming the musical language that he/she has worked so hard to create. The study seeks to transcend this paradox through the identification of audiovisual materials that function in different ways. Examples of creative work are offered to illustrate more general points of language, a model for classifying media pairs is put forward, and practical methods of audiovisual composition are proposed. The narrow findings of the study offer a vocabulary for discussing the functionality of audiovisual materials, detailed methods of media pairing and techniques of parametric alignment, while the wider findings extend to associated domains such as live electronic music, and hyper-instrument design. In summary, the study recognises both creative works and written works as knowledge-bearing documents. Succinctly stated, the essential research findings are presented and supported by both phenomenological and nominal means - through aspects of creative works that make themselves apparent during the listening process, and through retrospective logical enquiry.

There have been only sporadic attempts to highlight Chinese women’s role and influence in art, even though their contribution has been major. This thesis seeks to understand the significance of women’s participation in modern Chinese art history through the narratives and works of Pan Yuliang, Nie Ou and Yin Xiuzhen, who were professionally active at different political stages of twentieth-century China. Using an interdisciplinary framework, drawing on concepts from theories such as modernism, feminism and postcolonialism, this thesis analyzes a culturally specific field in art history and the interrelationship between various factors that have contributed to it. As artists of a peripheral culture, various factors in the artistic production of Chinese women have been overlooked and often misinterpreted. This thesis argues that the three artists in this study have produced different, individualized responses to the Euro-American model of modernism. To highlight the cultural specificity of China, the introductory chapter will include a short comparative analysis between Chinese modernism and the modernisms of other Asian countries. The adoption of Western art forms by early overseas-trained Chinese artists such as Pan indicates as many intricacies and ambivalences as in the complex relationship of China with Western imperialism. Chapter Two situates the Westernized works of Pan in the context of Chinese modernism, pre-feminism and the semi-colonized state of early twentieth-century China. In relation to the theories of orientalism and provincialism, implications of the ambiguities of Pan’s representations are extended to debates that explore the subjectivity and identity of non-European artists in their quest for modernism. Nie Ou was born into the era when the Chinese Communists had just taken over in 1949. Under the autocratic rule of the Communists, Nie was exiled to the northern countryside during her early adulthood as part of the “re-educating the elite” program. Chapter Three demonstrates how Nie successfully emerged from the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution. During this period of intensified Chinese nationalism, Nie found ways to merge the influences of the restrictive style of Socialist Realism and the poetic Chinese literati painting tradition to create an individualized style of representation. China underwent rapid modernization in the 1980s and 1990s. Chapter Four examines the works of contemporary artist Yin Xiuzhen who, with her avant-garde installations, has pushed the boundaries of what constitutes conventional Chinese art. This chapter analyzes Yin’s works in the context of late twentieth-century China, where the nation was no longer a Socialist monolith but a complex amalgam in which old and new, Socialist and capitalist, modern and postmodern co-existed. Yin’s works will be studied in relation to theories of postmodernism, postfeminism and globalism. Chapter Five consolidates the earlier chapters by reflecting on how various conditions throughout the twentieth century have changed and shaped the role of women in Chinese art history. The concluding chapter will consider the influence Chinese women artists may have on the art discourse in China today, and perhaps across other cultures. This chapter will explore the constraints upon them and the potential of their future role, not only in China but also in the broader sense of what it means to be an artist internationally.