The book of 1-2 Samuel, originally one scroll, is an episodic narrative recounting how the ancient Israelite monarchy was established around 1000 BC by the prophet Samuel and the kings Saul and David. For well over a century historical critics have sought to discern the process of its composition, proposing various conclusions with little consensus. Presently it is generally believed that several blocks of traditional material on common themes (e.g. the History of David's Rise) were brought together in the later pre-exilic period as part of the so-called Deuteronomistic History. This thesis chooses to begin with the present limits of 1-2 Samuel (without including, for example, 1Kgs 1-2), and undertakes to apply rhetorical analysis to all fifty-five chapters, episode by episode, each in its final-form position. The particular structural technique that has been discerned throughout this book is inverted parallelism with an unparalleled centre, here termed 'concentrism'. The unique contributions of this thesis are firstly a careful methodology for concentrism in Hebrew narrative, based on Hebrew poetic and oral composition and proposing specific criteria for identifying and verifying such structures. Secondly, the thesis attempts to account for the current position of every episode in the book, discerning how each contributes to the larger work as regards literary structure and rhetorical message. The resulting arrangement demonstrates an overall unity of technique and authorial perspective, focused on the themes of prophecy (hence the thesis title), deliverance from military attack, religious devotion and dynastic succession. The centre of this thesis therefore provides a detailed description of the discovered structure, one chapter for each of the book's two primary segments (1Sam 1 - 2Sam 6; 2Sam 7-24). A lengthy preceding chapter addresses various theoretical issues often raised relating to such concentric patterns (often inadequately labelled 'chiasmus'/'chiastic'). A summary chapter likewise follows the central chapters, revisiting themes of the methodology and drawing conclusions together. An initial chapter outlines past and present compositional theories, and a concluding chapter suggests further avenues of future research.

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Having a well-developed Graphical User Interface (GUI) is often necessary for a human-robot team, especially when the human and the robot are not in close proximity to each other or when the human does not interact with the robot in real time. Most current GUIs process and display information in real time, but the time to interact with these systems does not scale well when the complexity of the displayed information increases or when information must be fused to support decision-making. We propose a new interface concept, a Graphical Narrative Interface (GNI), which presents story-based summaries driven by accumulated data. This thesis (a) uses literature and preliminary GNI designs to identify a set of design requirements for easily managing spatiotemporal information, (b) presents a set of algorithms designed to satisfy these requirements, (c) evaluates the utility and limitations of these algorithms, (d) describes a prototype GNI that combines these algorithms with a graphical interface, and (e) compares the GNI and a GUI through a user study and evaluates the efficiency of the GNI.

This is a comparative analysis of two German-speaking Mennonite colonies. One group of 1,800 migrants voluntarily left Russia for Canada in the 1870s and departed Canada for Paraguay’s Gran Chaco in 1927 to preserve their communal autonomy. Another group of 2,000 Mennonites remained in Russia until 1929, when Stalinist persecution forced them to flee as individual refugees through Germany to the Gran Chaco. Here, the colonies negotiated their relationships with each other and crafted different responses to German Nazis and American Mennonites who desired global German or Mennonite unity. Comparing the groups’ collective narratives—as voluntary migrants and refugees—reveals problems faced by individuals who do not fit into prescribed national or religious molds. This work engages global forces—such as nationalism and displacement—and universal conditions affecting mobile groups—including how they negotiate group identifications and perpetuate local cultures. It begins from the premise that group identifications are not immutable and objective but are tied to fluid, subjective narratives. This framework shapes three arguments: 1) Faith-based diasporas are some of the most tenacious carriers of national cultural features—such as languages and folkways—but they often maintain these features for their own ethnoreligious purposes. 2) Governments and aid agencies benefit from the existence of migrants and refugees by advancing mythologies that are inclusive or exclusive of these populations. 3) Mobile faith-based communities use national and religious concepts to interpret new environments but they formulate their collective narratives differently—on a spectrum from faithful disciples to exiled victims.

This project involves the retelling of a historic New Zealand story using a system of multiple narrations. The research is presented in three parts:1. The practical component, Last Man Hanging: a book of pictures.2. A contextualising exegesis.3. 31 months (a documentation of my visual journey). The major component of this research is the creative text, Last Man Hanging. This is a book of pictures and type that retells the story of the trial and death of Walter James Bolton; the last man hanged in New Zealand. Its narrative discourse involves the orchestration of relationships through a compendium of characters, architecture, artifacts, environments and typography. The book integrates narrative voices that may be grouped into two often-conflicting positions; the story as it appeared in newspapers at the time, and the writer's personal consideration of an alternative series of events and emphases. Though an argument of tellings the book suggests a different verdict to that established by the courts in 1956.Finally, the exegesis contextualises both works. It considers specific theoretical issues pertaining to Last Man Hanging's narrative voice and imagery.

This thesis explores the potential of typography as a significant visual element in the narration of a short film. The project specifically considers the visual and paralinguistic nature of typography and its discourse with moving image. A creative consideration of these issues is then synthesized into the short film, the window.

Narrative Possibility: an introduction to, and a move towards, Integral Creativity is an exploration of creativity and a creative exploration, and it is a search for meaning and making which carries as backpressure an individual, societal, cultural, and global need for change. Change, as I have interpreted it, is a change of consciousness. While the exploration is multidimensional and multidirectional it has as its foundation a process of communication that is essential in and to all aspects of our present and past, showing and telling. Implicitly and explicitly we define ourselves and all that we encounter by stories. I am using the term ‘story’ to mean showing and telling in all its forms but my approach, although it is predominantly aligned to Western interpretation, is a perspectival inquiry into and through word and image. It comprises and integrates stories by a layered methodology that includes diverse perspectives from theorists and artists. Among these: David Bohm, Andrew Wyeth, and Leonard Shlain are important, but, in the aspects of their work which focus on Integral Consciousness, Jean Gebser, Ken Wilber, and Terry Sands are most prominent. My exploration also incorporates stories of my lived experience as student, mother, visual artist, teacher and researcher, as well as fictional stories and poems. In both methodological structure and the writing and content of this work (in documenting its progress and in recording the unfolding visual work of several of my students,) I bring to this thesis my philosophical approach: Narrative Possibility -stories that do not have preconceived outcomes. Narrative Possibilities originate and manifest in and through (and require, therefore, a methodology that encompasses) Creative Events, States, Processes, and Products. It is a disciplined method that unfolds a story to a point in which all aspects appear to cohere, and yet this aspect of the story is untold: there are no definitive words or marks which obviously or even abstractly point to completion. Creativity, according to David Bohm, is a natural potential largely blocked by the way civilization has developed. I accept this premise and suggest that Narrative Possibility is a creative approach to integration and that it is a personal, social, and spiritual move towards our possible evolution. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines the relationships between fictional narratives and material objects through writing and sculptural practice. Its purpose is to explore how fiction assists in an understanding of the world we inhabit and, conversely, how our experiences of the world and its real and physically accessible contents (or objects) prevent fiction from transgressing into nonsense. It is anticipated that the combination of material practice and textual fiction will not be an easy marriage: it may be the objects which ultimately give presence to our voices, voices which historically have often attempted to claim and own of things through utterance. The sculptural component of the project addresses the tactility of objects and examines the space where so many tales are told – the home. In so doing, the project explores issues of isolation and connection through objects and materials which harbour a narrative of ostensible comfort. Objects may simultaneously project conflicting accounts of comfort and unease, connection and isolation, contributing to an articulated consciousness of the home.

The presentation of the thesis comprises the Dissertation component (66%) along with the Practice Component and the Practice Report (33%). In this Video Chaos dissertation, through an examination of current video practices, I note an emerging trend towards disseminating audio-visual content simultaneously in the form of poly-sequential narrative structures. I argue that this is a significant development within the video medium, and that this is an effect of video new media artist-practitioners' engagement with the relationships between art and technology. Two extensive case studies are investigated and, whilst a number of issues come to the fore in this research, exploring the issue of narrative structuration is the primary focus and exploration of this dissertation. The presentation of the thesis comprises the Dissertation component (66%) along with the Practice Component and the Practice Report (33%). The Practice Report documents the nature and development of the research undertaken during the course of the study. The culmination of the Practice Component takes the form of an exhibition and archiving of video works from June 2003 to the date of submission, January 2005. The Practice Component has been based in the following locations and used resources from Central Queensland University (Bundaberg campus), and The Australian National University, Centre for New Media Arts in Canberra. The practice has examined the topic through the production of the audio-video installation Sugartown and three video works The Hazzards, Nodal Dialectics 1 and boomsplatbangwhack. While these video works exist as discrete media artworks, they also operate as a type of practice process diary for working through the ideas explored in the written dissertation. Even though the video works are not meant to literally 'illustrate' those ideas, they nevertheless explore ways of integrating the theoretical concepts into my own research practice. In this Video Chaos dissertation, through an examination of current video practices, I note an emerging trend towards disseminating audio-visual content simultaneously in the form of poly-sequential narrative structures. I argue that this is a significant development within the video medium, and that this is an effect of video new media artist-practitioners' engagement with the relationships between art and technology. Two extensive case studies are investigated and, whilst a number of issues come to the fore in this research, exploring the issue of narrative structuration is the primary focus and exploration of this dissertation.

This thesis investigates ideas of interiority and thought in relation to the building of self identity. I express them through the visual means of text and photography, resulting in a conceptual self-portrait by way of installation. Concerned with what thought terrain might look like and the way information perceived though the senses is stored, I explore the overdetermined evidence provoked by the unconscious. By the study of my own inner monologue in response to everyday rituals, I bring attention to the fragmented and overwhelming anxieties, fears, associations and fabrications of the mind - moments that often go unnoticed, but help concretize my experience of being in the world. The thesis is made up of 80% practice and 20% written exegesis.