Buster Simpson is a Seattle-based artist who creates work that revolves around environmental issues in public settings. His ecological messages reach local communities through works that are often funded by percent-for-art programs, non-profit organizations such as schools and museums, and other public institutions. By using recycled materials or by purifying water, Simpson's public art draws attention to the local environment, and his works provide examples of ways that people can care for their local surroundings. My thesis sheds light on Simpson's public and environmental work, detailing the creative manner in which he incorporates history, education, and artistic complexity into his sculptures. Through their aesthetics and their real-world utility, Simpson's works nurture neighborhoods.

This thesis explores the eleven solo piano nocturnes by living American composer Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961), to serve as a performer's guide. Characteristics of previous nocturnes provide historical context for Liebermann's pieces, illustrating similarities to the style developed by John Field, Frédéric Chopin, and Gabriel Fauré. Other musical influences on Liebermann, such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Ferruccio Busoni, demonstrate his relationship to the Western art music tradition and placement within the canon. Four distinct facets of Liebermann's musical style are presented: his reliance on traditional formal practices, motivic coherence, his particular harmonic vocabulary, and his use of texture. Liebermann's works use consonant triads, third relations, and smooth voice leading; because of these features, Neo-Riemannian models are suggested as a potential lens through which to view and analyze these pieces. In particular, hexatonic systems and their depiction of the musically "uncanny" relate to how Liebermann's music can have a sort of "defamiliarizing" and destabilizing effect on the listener. The salient musical features of motivic coherence, harmonic relationships, and formal innovations within tradition are presented for each nocturne alongside descriptions of musical character, to capture the essence and spirit contained within the works. The pieces verge on the fantastic and the rhapsodic, demonstrating Liebermann's imaginative approach to tradition. By utilizing a harmonic language that both synthesizes gestures of the past with a rich history of suggestive emotional content, and that innovates with a more modern and dissonant sensibility, Lowell Liebermann has achieved a distinctive musical vocabulary that captures the poetic and dark essence of nocturnes.

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Nam June Paik (1932-2006) is well known as the father of video art. However, this study demonstrates the importance of his earlier interactive art (1961-63), which historically has been overshadowed by his video art. At the climax of his career in interactive art, Paik introduced his two-way art to the public at his first solo exhibition in Wuppertal, West Germany, in 1963. Interactive art itself has been a peripheral area in the history of art, and it has plural pioneers across disciplinary boundaries. Among the several origins of interactive art, Nam June Paik utilized music as a fundamental approach to design the emerging art. Concentrating on Paik’s music theory and practice in West Germany, my research traces the unexplored academic area of his articles about new music in the Korean newspaper Chayushinmun(1958-59). The perspective in his articles toward new music became a significant foundation for his progressive interactive art. Based on his music background, Paik knew how to incorporate musical instruments and devices into his interactive art. Finally, this study will articulate a concrete relationship between Paik’s musical experiences and his interactive art. It argues that his interactive pieces, based on his musical experiences, make him one of the most creative pioneers of interactive art.

The purpose of this dissertation is to create a catalog of the published, solo vocal songs of 25 living American composers. Through this project, visibility will be given to a significant amount of contemporary literature that is currently unknown and / or underused by many singers and voice teachers today. Exposure to the literature in this project will encourage singers and teachers to give deserving attention to a wealth of contemporary American song literature, and will help to stimulate the study, practice and performance of other contemporary songs and composers. I have selected 25 living American composers. The composers represent a variety of compositional styles, and the songs vary in level of difficulty. The songs chosen are examined based upon criterion for vocal study at the collegiate level, and the entire repertoire is appropriate for traditional classical vocal training. Many of these composers' songs are readily available in public and collegiate libraries across the country. There are some composers, however, whose songs are currently not available in libraries, but are deserving of attention. The unpublished songs of the selected composers are not included because the purpose of this project is to increase accessibility. The composers for this dissertation include: Dominick Argento, Daniel Asia, Robert Baksa, Seymour Barab, Jack Beeson, William Bolcom, John Bucchino, Tom Cipullo, John Corigliano, John Frantzen, Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler, Ricky Ian Gordon, Daron Hagen, John Harbison, Jack Heggie, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Anne Kilstofte, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, John Musto, Thomas Pasatieri, Andre Previn, Gene Scheer, and Richard Pearson Thomas. The body of the dissertation consists of a brief biography of the individual composers followed by analyses of the composers' music. Each published song is analyzed according to a set of criterion for vocal study at the collegiate level. The annotations include: title, poet, publisher and date, dedication, vocal range, tessitura, recommended voice type, level of difficulty of the vocal and piano accompaniment, possible uses, brief musical and textual description, and other pertinent information for the study and performance of the music. This dissertation will encourage the study, practice and performance of contemporary American music. The annotated catalog will include vital information for the quick selection of songs, and the information I compile will be invaluable to singers and voice teachers searching for contemporary American literature. The composers included in this project will also benefit from the exposure of their work. There are, of course, many more composers whose songs are deserving of inclusion in this project. Annotated catalogs of larger scope or of differing perspectives should be created as further study.

This is a practice-based research project that explores a new aesthetic perspective and approach in the Western medium of photography, through the application and interpretation of contemporary Chinese master artist Qi Baishi’s philosophical notion of between likeness and unlikeness. Rooted in Chinese ink painting tradition, Qi Baishi [齊白石] (1864-1957) developed and created his theory of achieving likeness in spirit and unlikeness in form as the ultimate goal of painting aesthetics. Adapting Qi’s aesthetics and design approaches to inform the research, and through theoretical explorations and photographic practices, a series of works will be developed that manifests the fusion of Chinese aesthetics with Western photography, to propose a confluent cross-cultural aesthetic thought. The aspiration of drawing upon Qi’s aesthetics at a philosophical level, which is unfamiliar in the context of Western photography, has posed a challenge to the creative exploration. The final outcome is intended to trigger aesthetic resonance in the viewers to further dialectic discussion. The outcome of this research project is presented through a series of photographic works and displayed in a gallery environment.

Fur, Pixels, Loved Ones and Other Transients is a paper discussing my practice from 2000 to 2003. It is a personal and theoretical exploration of common concepts and theories in reference to my works Fluff Snuffs (2000), Relentless (2001), Trigger Displacement (2002), Bathing in a Warm Glow of Nothing (2003) and Memory Play Back (2003). The effects of Tele-visual and computer mediated images of death and violence within these works are investigated, which lead to an exploration of fear and trauma. This mechanism of mediation is used within the works as a means of exploring the subtleties within the screen-based image that may go unnoticed or seem disconcerting. The role of the soft toy is an important element in these works and this is further explored by referencing the use of the soft toy in works of several other contemporary artists. These works are discussed to further explore the complexity of ideas on death, violence, trauma, memory and fear / Master of Arts (Hons) (Contemporary Arts)

The decolonisation of Macau on 20 December 1999 marked a powerful transition for the small Macanese community. Prior to transfer of sovereignty, there have been grave concerns for the survival of these miscegenic descendants of the Portuguese settlers who came to China some five hundred years ago. Many feared that there would be a mass exodus similar to that which overtook the former Portuguese colonies in Africa and East Timor, and that the Macanese future would be threatened by the process of Sinicisation – in short, that they are a dying race. This thesis examines such fears using a combination of newspaper survey, extensive fieldwork and repeat interviews. The outcome of the research shows that despite the dire prognostication, the community has survived the first five years of Chinese rule in robust form; the feared exodus did not eventuate and there has been no death to speak of. In the post-colonial environment, the Constitutions (Macau Basic Law) obliges the government to respect Macanese customs and cultural traditions and to protect their rights – at least for fifty years. The Macanese community in Macau is likely to continue to transform itself and adapt to a changing environment. It is likely that the transformation will occur over a long period of time, representing generations, perhaps centuries not decades. It is then more appropriate to view the Macanese community in Macau as an endangered – not dying – species / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Despite significant change in women’s lives in recent decades, the prevailing ideology of motherhood is predominantly based on nineteenth-century ideals. Underpinned by a socially-constructed, idealised version of womanhood, the dominant paradigm promotes an essentialist model of maternal excellence largely grounded in the early childhood context; that of the ‘good mother’. Amidst deviancy discourse that has historically beleaguered women who failed to fulfil prescribed standards of good mothering, this thesis contends that the ideology of motherhood that remains dominant requires substantial revision. Central to this is the need to understand the range of historical factors that shape and influence cultural, and thus, personal understandings of the role of a good mother. Accordingly, the literature reviewed is subjected to critical analysis, examining stereotypical depictions of women that have historically typified the archetypal ideal. Particular consideration is given to sociological, psychoanalytic and feminist accounts of motherhood, mothering and the mother-daughter relationship. Therein, the focus of this study involves assessment of the degree to which the cultural meaning attributed to being a good mother influences personal perceptions and the lived experience of mothering. While the literature reviewed provides a useful foundation for considering the likely impact the ideology of motherhood has upon the lives of contemporary women, it also highlights that the maternal perspective has been noticeably absent from much of the literature. Given the centrality of the maternal role in reproducing existing conditions of mothering, and indeed, the mother-daughter relationship (Chodorow, 1978), this study is perhaps long overdue. Based on a case study involving twelve Melbourne mothers, this thesis highlights both the commonalities and considerably divergent experiences of motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship in the postmodern context.

Master of Philosophy / This thesis 'maps' aspects of contemporary Indonesian language poetry and associational life related to that poetry from the Indonesian province of West Java, particularly, but not exclusively, in the period after 1998.