This thesis identifies and characterises a minimal aesthetic evident in a strand of fashion emerging in New York and Paris from 1964 onwards. It examines the way in which a minimal aesthetic has been applied to the practice of fashion design and retail architecture, specifically in a high-fashion context. The research establishes that the earliest manifestation of a minimal aesthetic in fashion design, took place in 1964, in the work of the French fashion designer André Courrèges. Designers who later adopted similar principles include Jil Sander (1968), Calvin Klein (1968), Zoran Ladricorbic (1976), Donna Karan (1984), Helmut Lang (1986) and Narciso Rodriguez (1997), among others. The study identifies the origins of the principles of a minimal aesthetic and examines them through two distinct case studies that consider the practice of designers Donna Karan and Helmut Lang, both of whose work emerged during the 1980s. The investigation re-evaluates the significance of Minimalism in fashion history. It challenges accepted views of Minimalism in fashion as merely a trend of the mid-1990s, or as a local phenomenon. The thesis maintains that these principles find expression in the designers’ work, in the architecture of the flagship stores and in the inter-relationship between the two. Additionally, it investigates the meanings that these products convey to the consumer. Through an evaluation of the retail architecture, it establishes parallels between the principles of this aesthetic and earlier elements of a post-war Modernist architecture. The study of the dynamic inter-relationship between elements of fashion design and those of architecture focuses on the definition of a minimal aesthetic. Furthermore, these claims are contextualized within other fields such as material culture, cultural and historical studies and sociology. The thesis employs a qualitative methodology comprising empirical research based on case studies and object-based analysis, all of which draw upon theory that addresses the means of interpretation. The study has developed through an analysis of dress and the retail architecture associated with the case study designers’ work. Through empirical research, the research shows how contemporary attitudes, practices and theories have emerged which are essential for the analysis of dress and the spaces it inhabits. The primary sources, garments from the collections of André Courrèges, Donna Karan and Helmut Lang held at key international costume archives at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, are discussed in relation to other archival and published sources.

The thesis examines the role of instructions in art by developing a theory of a text machine. This machine is explored through a discussion of its rules and instructions and its codes and inscriptions. The text machine is defined independently of particular instances of its making, of specific technologies, but for the practice part of this submission text machines are simulated by computer. This occasions a discussion of the impact of one machine (the computer) upon another machine, the text machine. This became my research question. This question is posed in this form: "What is the impact of the computer on the text machine?" A complex response to this question is developed by a discussion of rules and instructions, codes and inscriptions and their interrelationships. Larger questions are also raised, such as the use of text machines in day-to-day situations.

Abstract Drawing on the serious leisure perspective, social world theory, and social network analysis this thesis utilizes an exploratory methodology to develop a structural view of a social world network of 49 social actors comprised of the grassroots associations and the allied organisations expressly concerned with amateur artists in a regional Australian city. Semistructured interviews were conducted with spokespeople in leadership and management roles with the associations and organisations. The purpose of the interviews was to develop an understanding of the key attributes of the grassroots associations and the function of the allied commercial, cultural, and educational organisations, and to discover the patterns of links between these two types of social actors. In addition, the interviews explored the types of social world participation among the associational memberships; and the role, rewards, and costs experienced by the spokespeople who were fulfilling coordinating duties in the grassroots associations. The research found that associations of amateur artists were active in the local community coordinating their memberships, activities, and assets to provide calendars of events for the participants in a regional social world of the creative arts and that, the allied organisations provided complementary goods and services. Further, it emerged that links of varying intensity connecting the associations and organisations coalesced into a network. This comprised a cluster of social actors connected by their concern with actors, dancers, and musicians; a cluster of social actors connected by their concern with craft practitioners, community cultural development workers, visual artists, and writers; and of social actors with bilateral links connecting the two clusters. Also mixed serious leisure emerged as a significant mode of participation among the sample of grassroots association spokespeople who were interviewed and this was important to the sustainability of their associations over time. There are three major outcomes from the research. First, structural concepts from social network analysis in combination with social world theory developed into definition of a community level serious leisure network; second, this definition proved empirically viable in the research context, and third, a model to depict the phenomenon of a community level serious leisure network has emerged from the exploratory process. The findings have both theoretical and empirical implications. Theoretically, they assist research into the structure of community level leisure provision. The findings also encourage investigation of mixed serious leisure. Empirically, the application of network knowledge to improve community leisure resources can improve the outcomes for the social actors involved and the community in which they are embedded.

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.

Abstract Drawing on the serious leisure perspective, social world theory, and social network analysis this thesis utilizes an exploratory methodology to develop a structural view of a social world network of 49 social actors comprised of the grassroots associations and the allied organisations expressly concerned with amateur artists in a regional Australian city. Semistructured interviews were conducted with spokespeople in leadership and management roles with the associations and organisations. The purpose of the interviews was to develop an understanding of the key attributes of the grassroots associations and the function of the allied commercial, cultural, and educational organisations, and to discover the patterns of links between these two types of social actors. In addition, the interviews explored the types of social world participation among the associational memberships; and the role, rewards, and costs experienced by the spokespeople who were fulfilling coordinating duties in the grassroots associations. The research found that associations of amateur artists were active in the local community coordinating their memberships, activities, and assets to provide calendars of events for the participants in a regional social world of the creative arts and that, the allied organisations provided complementary goods and services. Further, it emerged that links of varying intensity connecting the associations and organisations coalesced into a network. This comprised a cluster of social actors connected by their concern with actors, dancers, and musicians; a cluster of social actors connected by their concern with craft practitioners, community cultural development workers, visual artists, and writers; and of social actors with bilateral links connecting the two clusters. Also mixed serious leisure emerged as a significant mode of participation among the sample of grassroots association spokespeople who were interviewed and this was important to the sustainability of their associations over time. There are three major outcomes from the research. First, structural concepts from social network analysis in combination with social world theory developed into definition of a community level serious leisure network; second, this definition proved empirically viable in the research context, and third, a model to depict the phenomenon of a community level serious leisure network has emerged from the exploratory process. The findings have both theoretical and empirical implications. Theoretically, they assist research into the structure of community level leisure provision. The findings also encourage investigation of mixed serious leisure. Empirically, the application of network knowledge to improve community leisure resources can improve the outcomes for the social actors involved and the community in which they are embedded.

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.

Abstract In 1934, the French flute pedagogue Marcel Moyse (1889–1984) published his celebrated De la sonorité, a method book that aimed to provide a technical groundwork through which flute players could emulate the expressive powers and control of tone displayed by exponents of the operatic singing technique bel canto. This critical commentary sets De la sonorité in both aesthetic and historical contexts, examining the ways in which Moyse made use of the human voice, and more specifically bel canto, as a model for flute players and instrumentalists in general. It is clear that Moyse’s own experience in opera orchestras and exposure to opera repertoire and singers influenced his teaching style and publications. In addition to De la sonorité, he published two volumes of opera arias transcribed for the flute (in 1962 and 1973) which suggest that bel canto, the opera and the flute were all related in his mind. Indeed, it is possible to significantly enhance our understanding of De la sonorité if it is viewed from the perspective of its vocal influences. Historical references advocate the use of the voice as a model for expression because it is the vehicle through which emotions are expressed. As a result Moyse extolled this “natural way” in his teachings. Exploring bel canto establishes similarities to flute playing both aesthetically and technically. The exercises contained in De la sonorité enable the player to work towards producing a homogeneous and focused sound with ease through the entire register of the instrument at any dynamic level. Alongside a discussion of the five sections that make up De la sonorité (“Timbre and Homogeneity of Tone in the Three Registers,” “Suppleness in the Low Register,” “Attack and Slurring of Notes,” “Fullness of Tone” and “The Management of Tone in Interpretation”) the present study includes a practical performance-based perspective with commentary on Moyse’s approach from three leading flute players and pedagogues currently working in Australia: James Kortum, Lecturer in Flute at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music; Alan Hardy, Lecturer in Flute at The University of Melbourne; and Prudence Davis, Principal Flute with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

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.

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.

Abstract In 1934, the French flute pedagogue Marcel Moyse (1889–1984) published his celebrated De la sonorité, a method book that aimed to provide a technical groundwork through which flute players could emulate the expressive powers and control of tone displayed by exponents of the operatic singing technique bel canto. This critical commentary sets De la sonorité in both aesthetic and historical contexts, examining the ways in which Moyse made use of the human voice, and more specifically bel canto, as a model for flute players and instrumentalists in general. It is clear that Moyse’s own experience in opera orchestras and exposure to opera repertoire and singers influenced his teaching style and publications. In addition to De la sonorité, he published two volumes of opera arias transcribed for the flute (in 1962 and 1973) which suggest that bel canto, the opera and the flute were all related in his mind. Indeed, it is possible to significantly enhance our understanding of De la sonorité if it is viewed from the perspective of its vocal influences. Historical references advocate the use of the voice as a model for expression because it is the vehicle through which emotions are expressed. As a result Moyse extolled this “natural way” in his teachings. Exploring bel canto establishes similarities to flute playing both aesthetically and technically. The exercises contained in De la sonorité enable the player to work towards producing a homogeneous and focused sound with ease through the entire register of the instrument at any dynamic level. Alongside a discussion of the five sections that make up De la sonorité (“Timbre and Homogeneity of Tone in the Three Registers,” “Suppleness in the Low Register,” “Attack and Slurring of Notes,” “Fullness of Tone” and “The Management of Tone in Interpretation”) the present study includes a practical performance-based perspective with commentary on Moyse’s approach from three leading flute players and pedagogues currently working in Australia: James Kortum, Lecturer in Flute at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music; Alan Hardy, Lecturer in Flute at The University of Melbourne; and Prudence Davis, Principal Flute with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.