This thesis tells two intertwined stories about stories about nature. One, theoretical, asks what stories and histories do and why storytelling matters in place-making and policy-making. The second questions the effect of narratives of pristine nature on place-meanings in southwest New Zealand, serving as a case study to illustrate the abstract relationships of the first. Throughout reflexive consideration of my research journey as academic storytelling contributes to my theoretical arguments. Narratives help humans make sense of time and their place in the world. Stories and histories both shape new and reflect current understandings of the world. Thus narratives of nature and place are historically, geographically, and culturally specific. Place-meanings result from the geography of stories layered over time on a physical location. In the iterative process of continually re-presenting landscapes in specific places, negotiation between storytellers with variable power shapes physical environments and future place-meanings. This thesis uses the pristine story to explore these links between stories and histories, place-meanings, and policy decisions. From the arrival of New Zealand's first colonists to today's perceived "clean green" landscape, narratives distinguishing timeless nature from human culture have influenced policy-making in multiple ways. Focusing specifically on understandings of the conservation lands now listed by UNESCO as Te Wāhipounamu South-West World Heritage Area, I trace the origins and evolution of three dominant narrative strands - world heritage, national parks, and Ngāi Tahu cultural significance. Using post-colonial understandings of conservation as cultural colonization, I consider how the pristine narrative obscured Ngāi Tahu understandings of the area. I explore how the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 has begun to shift place-meanings by altering power-geometries between storytellers. Participant-observation in Department of Conservation visitor centres, however, illustrates that legislated stories and storytelling processes are expressed differently in representations of land in specific locations

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This thesis investigates the representation of operational decision makers within simulation modelling. Artificial Intelligence concepts, such as expert systems focus on the problem of representing, in high-level code, complex real-world decision making problems. The author therefore proposes that the use of expert system technology may provide an improved means of representing operational decision tasks and that as a consequence, apriori possibilities may exist in the context of model experimentation based on alternative operational policies. The thesis further investigates the nature of operational decision making and the potential need to represent within a model, inter-dependencies between decision makers. A prototype system called ESSIM is developed which comprises of two interlinked components, a discrete event simulation module and expert system module. The benefits of the proposed approach are then assessed by comparing the functionally of ESSIM with conventional modelling techniques. The comparison is carried out by developing three alternative models of an automated container port, one of these using ESSIM. Experiments were then devised and executed which seek to draw conclusions on the thesis proposal.

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The primary objective of this creative project was the exploration of the traditional metalsmithing technique referred to as forging in relation to the primary goal of jewelry, which is body ornamentation. Forging is the hammering of metal with a highly polished hammer upon an anvil with varying blows to create thick and thin sections in the metal. The secondary objective was to implement these forging techniques within nine pieces of jewelry designed to accent various parts of the female body. These jewelry pieces include a wrist cuff, foot and hand pieces, a hip piece, a back piece, a neckpiece, and a pair of earrings. In addition to the production of these forged jewelry pieces, this creative project also included the creation of a number of large human figure fragments based on the female body in which to display the jewelry. This body of work also required the use of lost-wax casting, soldering, patination, and complex construction. / Department of Art

This creative project dealt with the development of a line of transitional furniture. Four models were constructed which included a chair, a bed-stroage unit, a table, and a lighting-filing unit. A fullscale bed-storage unit was also constructed.A booklet was formulated and printed utilizing off-set lithography. This booklet contained background information pertaining to the following areas: (1) human measurement, (2) furniture design standards, (3) material standards, and (4) transitional furniture. The booklet also presented the models and full-scale furniture development. Sixty copies were printed. Details of the printing were included in the booklet. / Thesis--Collection of data.