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Plenary Addresses – Session I
The Sharing Economy, Digital Disruption and Innovation in China
Prof. Michael KEANE (Curtin University)
The Pursuit of Happiness: The Politics of Consumption Meets the Digital Age
Prof. Jean GROW (Marquette University)
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Date: 1 June 2017 (Thursday)
Time: 9:40am – 11:00am
Venue: Chan Ma Ching Heung Lecture Theatre (E0313), 3/F, OUHK Jockey Club Campus
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Plenary Addresses – Session II
Using Digital Humanities Techniques to Investigate Racist Rhetoric – The Case of Norwegian Anti-Semitism
Prof. Frode HELLAND (University of Oslo)
Dance Transmission in the Digital Environment: A New Poetics of Dance
Prof. Sarah WHATLEY (Coventry University)
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Date: 2 June 2017 (Friday)
Time: 9:30am – 10:50am
Venue: Chan Ma Ching Heung Lecture Theatre (E0313), 3/F, OUHK Jockey Club Campus
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Plenary Addresses – Session III
Applying Digital Humanities Techniques to Research Training in the Performing Arts
Dr. Jonathan BOLLEN (University of New South Wales),
Prof. Julie HOLLEDGE (Flinders University South Australia)
Prof. Joanne TOMPKINS (University of Queensland)
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Date: 3 June 2017 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30am – 11:30am
Venue: Chan Ma Ching Heung Lecture Theatre (E0313), 3/F, OUHK Jockey Club Campus
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Professor Michael Keane
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The Sharing Economy, Digital Disruption and Innovation in China
by Prof. Michael KEANE (Curtin University)
Abstract
In this presentation I examine the evolution of the digital economy in China from the early 2000s to now. The key idea behind this is the integration of technological innovation (science & technology) and cultural creativity (arts and culture). The emphasis within the 13th Five Year Plan is for a digitally connected China in which young entrepreneurs now provide the driving force for the economy. Associated with this is the concept of the sharing economy, an economic model that is now taken up globally. I question if the sharing economy and grassroots innovation will deliver the scale of benefits that the industrial economy has achieved. The government's slogan to incentivize such young entrepreneurs is 'mass entrepreneurship, mass innovation.' To illustrate I look at developments in Beijing (Inno Alley), Hangzhou (Dream Town, Cloud Town) and Shenzhen (Huaqiangbei Market). Noting the influence of China's commercial digital companies such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) in these cities I examine the potential of these spaces to generate digital disruption, and ultimately innovation.
Biography
Michael Keane is Professor of Chinese Media and Cultural Studies at Curtin University, Perth where he is Program Leader of the Digital China Lab. He is author or editor of fifteen books on China’s media. His most recent book is The Chinese Television Industry (BFI Palgrave June 2015). He is working on a new edited book project called The Handbook of China’s Cultural and Creative Industries (30 chapters: Edward Elgar Publishing 2016). Prof Keane previously worked as an ARC Fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, whereupon he was a very experienced PhD supervisor of postgraduate research projects in the worldly first Faculty of Creative Industries.
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Professor Jean Grow
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The Pursuit of Happiness: The Politics of Consumption Meets the Digital Age
by Prof. Jean GROW (Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA)
Abstract
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,”
(American Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776)
American aspirational values drive consumption at home and abroad, spreading across international borders as naturally as light moves across the sky. From its birth, American advertising has defined the nation's political ideals: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Advertising. Even at the birth of the American nation, advertising was a formative economic driver and a swiftly institutionalized force that offered life and liberty through consumption. As the 20th century unfolded, American advertising shaped an industrialized nation, helping to build a robust economy by equating happiness with consumption. At the same time nations across the world looked to America as a beacon of economic hope and stability, often emulating its devotion to consumption. As the 21st century dawned, American political ideals had become global aspirations, so too had consumption. The global marketplace is now suffused with America's aspirational values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Sivulka (1998) suggests that advertisers propagated desire. Marchand (1985) claims that American advertising is the magic that shaped modernity. Twitchell (2000) posits that advertising is a practice akin to religion. Solis (2014) argues that digital and social platforms “sparked a revelation that we, the people, have a voice.” In part, each of these theoretical frames are true. The propagation of desire, through advertising, did play a large role in shaping modernity. American culture, with its oversized voice, does inspire a form of cultural devotion akin to religion. Digital platforms have sparked a revelation, creating a borderless world shaped by a new reality in America and across the globe. In this borderless, digitized world shaped by new forms of creative expression, citizens have been left behind, replaced by consumers. At the very same time consumers have been reduced to commodities, which brands monetize and exploit. Finally, and perhaps not surprisingly, at the close of 2016 and in pursuit of these uniquely American ideals, branded messaging across digital platforms helped elect an American celebrity president. America, and the world, are forever changed.
Biography
Jean Grow is Professor and Chair of Strategic Communication in Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University. She is also a Faculty Fellow in Diversity and Inclusion. Jean has professional experience in the advertising industry and she has been running her consulting firm, Grow Cultural Geography, since 1994. Her research interests are gender issues in advertising, and semiotics and ethnography and she has written numerous research articles and book chapters. She has also authored the book Advertising Creative: Strategy, Copy & Design.
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Professor Frode Helland
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Using Digital Humanities Techniques to Investigate Racist Rhetoric – The Case of Norwegian Anti-Semitism”
Prof. Frode HELLAND (University of Oslo)
Abstract
The work presented in this paper is part of a book-project on racist rhetoric in the Norwegian public sphere. The book will start with a discussion of Anti-Semitism in Norway in the period from 1910-1940. The point of departure will be the common assumption that there is really not a problem concerning racism in Norway. When it comes to the period before WW2, a common view has been that there never was a strong Anti-Semitic movement in Norway, and that Anti-Semitism therefore was more of a German and East-European problem. While it is true that Anti-Semitism never became a mass movement in Norway, it is not difficult to find examples of books and articles propagating a strong Anti-Semitic message in the Norwegian public sphere in the inter-war era.
In the paper, I will (1) start by giving a brief description of Anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric in general, (2) give some examples of from publications from the period and try to trace some of the basic tropes and figures of this rhetoric and then (3) use quantitative, digital humanities-methods to try to answer the question of how common and central these Anti-Semitic tropes and figures were in the public sphere during this period.
Biography
Frode Helland is the Director of Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo, Norway. His research interests are mainly Scandinavian Literature and Ibsen. He is also the Professor of Scandinavian Literature, University of Oslo. He is in charge of the research projects “Ibsen in Translation” and “IbsenStage”. He has published widely on Ibsen studies, performance of Ibsen works and Scandinavian literature.
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Professor Sarah Whatley
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Dance Transmission in the Digital Environment: A New Poetics of Dance
Prof. Sarah WHATLEY (Coventry University)
Abstract
Contemporary dance practice is evolving in interesting ways in the 21st century due to the developments in digital and networked media. Digital technologies have offered dance artists and researchers numerous ways to record, document and transmit their work, building new audiences and new interpretations of their work. The opportunity that digital technologies have offered to dance for archiving dance works, as well as the otherwise 'hidden' processes of dance production, have had an important impact on dance makers as well as on dance education by revealing the complexities of choreography and the generation of movement ideas. Many significant projects have emerged, and most are characterised by drawing together choreographers, researchers as well as other discipline experts, including computer scientists, designers and social scientists. Acknowledging that the relationship between bodies and machines is continually shifting as technology advances, dance is providing a rich site for examining how computers are transforming how we think about and conceive of motion. This presentation will discuss some of the major developments in this field, referencing the creation of one of the world's first comprehensive digital dance archives, Siobhan Davies RePlay, and related archival projects, to discuss the implications for how we now encounter and appreciate dance, and their impact on the teaching and learning of dance.
Biography
Sarah Whatley’s research focuses on the interface between dance and new technologies, dance analysis, somatic dance practice and pedagogy, and inclusive dance. The AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust, Wellcome Trust, and the European Union fund her current research, which is broadly focused on the impact of digital technologies on tangible and intangible cultural heritage. She led the AHRC-funded Siobhan Davies digital archive project, RePlay, and has worked with Davies on other artist-led research projects. She is founding Editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the Editorial Boards of several other Journals. Sarah supported the development of the Routledge Performance Archive in her role as Academic Consultant: Digital Environment. She was an assessor for the 2014 REF exercise (Panel D35) and is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.
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Applying Digital Humanities Techniques to Research Training in the Performing Arts (Panel Presentation)
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The three speakers in this panel have been at the forefront of applying digital humanities resources and techniques to scholarly research in the performing arts; they have collaborated on the creation of two major international databases (AusStage and IbsenStage) and are currently working on the virtual reconstruction of lost performance venues.
Their presentations will consider how performing arts databases, artefacts in digital archives, and virtual models of performance venues can enrich undergraduate and post-graduate teaching. They will focus on the use of digital archives as research sites; the integration of quantitative analyses within qualitative interpretations; and ways in which performance research can be conducted within 3D virtual reconstructions of lost theatres.
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Dr. Jonathan Bollen
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Dr. Jonathan BOLLEN (University of New South Wales)
Dr. Bollen will contrast data-driven approaches to theatre research with the legacy of archival methods in graduate research. Drawing on the experience of running workshops on digital mapping and network analysis in the performing arts, he will discuss approaches to interface design, skills development and publication modes. The convergence of data models for theatre research builds the prospects for scholarship that is global in scope. Yet there are ongoing challenges in drawing on data from different sources, navigating the geo-politics of uneven digitisation, managing the visual perception of incomplete data, and speculating imaginatively to reconnect scattered fragments, broken itineraries and missed connections.
Biography
Jonathan Bollen is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of New South Wales. He teaches courses in Australian drama, popular entertainment, and theatre history. His research interests include the repertoire of Australian plays in theatre production, and the history of entertainers touring between Australia and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. He also has experience in the digital humanities, developing collaborative methodologies for theatre research and analytical techniques for visualising tours and networks. He was coordinator of research for AusStage, the online resource for researching Australian (2006–13), and contributed to the development of IbsenStage. He is the co-author of two books: Men at Play: Masculinities in Australian Theatre since the 1950s (Rodopi, 2008) and A Global Doll's House: Ibsen and Distant Visions (Palgrave, 2016).
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Professor Julie Holledge
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Prof. Julie HOLLEDGE (Flinders University South Australia)
Professor Holledge will present a case study on the application of digital humanities to research training at the Centre for Ibsen Studies and the University of Oslo. The digitizing of over 20,000 records of Ibsen productions in IbsenStage has facilitated the introduction of quantitative research techniques to Ibsen scholarship. This shift has integrated distant readings into the pedagogic approaches employed at the Centre. The first doctoral candidates to employ quantitative analyses in their qualitative interpretations of the Ibsen canon will submit their theses in 2017.
Biography
Professor Emeritus Julie Holledge, Flinders University, is an internationally recognised award-winning academic and theatre director. Author of 3 scholarly books, 4 edited books, and numerous other publications, she has directed 22 professional theatre productions in the UK and Australia. She pioneered research in feminist theatre historiography and in digital technologies in global theatre research. She has received grants from the ARC and Australian and British Councils for the Arts, and research funding from Norway, Korea, and Japan. She made a major contribution to the discipline as the lead CI of AusStage and won a Carrick award for her teaching.
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Professor Joanne Tompkins
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Prof. Joanne TOMPKINS (University of Queensland)
Professor Tompkins will examine what can be done with existing visualisations in the classroom to help students develop the ability to be strategic in their use of internet resources, cultivate a perceptual awareness of internet resources, and acquire a research-rich understanding of a chosen topic. The presentation is based in her own process of developing visualisations of two 'lost theatres,' the Rose Theatre in 1590s London and the Queen's Theatre in 1840s Adelaide, a project which has generated virtual reality models that have integrity as research tools. It addresses the need to interrogate 'authority,' or what information we can trust over what is less helpful.
Biography
Joanne Tompkins is is Professor of Drama in the University of Queensland, Australia. She is currently on a three-year secondment as the Executive Director of the Humanities and Creative Arts Panel of the Australian Research Council. Her research interests include spatial theories and virtual reality; and post-colonial, intercultural, and multicultural theatres and theories. She helped found AusStage, the digital resource for Australian performance. She is Editor of Theatre Journal and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Queen Mary University of London. In addition to conventional research, she has also produced Ortelia, an innovative research tool to enable the analysis of theatre and gallery spaces through virtual reality.
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