What is the Australian National Maritime Museum Ilma collection?

ABSTRACT

The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) in their Darling Harbour warehouse store just over one thousand Ilma. The Ilma are performance symbols of Bardi law and custom, which tell stories of the lands and seas of the Dampier Peninsula, King Sound and surrounding islands of Western Australia. Ilma performances are public and meant for all to see. The ANMM in 2007 resourced detailed documentation of the collection. In 2018 the collection still does not appear on the online catalogue and remains unavailable for public view. While recent efforts have been put into the collection there are important questions to be raised about the responsibility of museums to collections that have contested meanings and serve multiple purposes.     

舆论引导：《云南日报》滇缅抗战新闻报道的议程设置策略

一直以来,学术界对于滇缅抗战研究的重视度远低于国内抗日战场,且角度较为单一。从民国时期《云南日报》的相关新闻报道出发,用新闻传播学的视野来观察新闻报道历史文本,探讨该报关于滇缅抗战新闻报道的议程设置策略对当今多元化思潮背景下主流意识形态如何引导舆论、掌握话语主导权的启示。     

Measuring the value of theatre for Tyneside audiences

What values do theatre and dance hold for audience members? And how do these values differ between subsidised, amateur, and commercial performance? This paper addresses these questions through a survey of over 1800 spectators for theatre and dance in Tyneside in northeastern England, as well as a parallel set of focus groups, in the spring of 2014. These methods, which are designed for comprehensiveness and comparability, are being used across Europe by the Project on European Theatre Systems, a working group of theatre sociologists. Our research showed two sets of values which performances achieved; one was a common measure of performance quality, while the other described the values particular to subsidised work. This allows us to articulate both the general value of the arts and the particular values which subsidy (attempts to) facilitate. This has implications for both understandings of cultural value and for cultural policy, as the distinction between the two groups was not clean. We also found that amateur theatre participated in the same value system, but with an increased emphasis on loyalty and community cohesion. The paper concludes a methodological reflection on the use of quantitative methods in theatre studies.     

Planting virtual lemons: performing forest protection in the context of political performativity

The socialist People’s Democratic Republic of Laos (Lao PDR) has some of the largest intact forests in Southeast Asia, yet these are being quickly depleted by illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming, increasing population pressures, monocrop plantations, mining and dam building. Foreign government and nongovernmental organizations stage “infotainment” theatre plays to educate and inform the Lao public of its role in protecting the forests even though government projects and concessions are the primary causes of forest destruction. Because all the nationally subsidized performing arts troupes are government mouthpieces they cannot critique the government’s role. Foreign aid agencies funding the dramas are also made complicit in the hypocrisy of promoting forest protection to those with the least power to do so, while both performers and spectators know who is profiting the most from the sale of forest products. This article examines theatrical performances regarding forest protection presented in this context of performativity in which the state manipulates socialist rhetoric to conceal its actions that enrich its officials and capitalist partners at the expense of the rest of the Lao public.     

Powerful devices: how teens' smartphones disrupt power in the theatre,classroom and beyond

During a series of high school English and Drama class trips to the theatre, so many students were online, the entire back row often glowed blue. Although much of the literature suggests that information and communication technologies are benign and neutral, this back-row collision of digital and live culture signals to teachers that technology is freighted with issues of power: questions of identity formation, consumerism, autonomy and freedom. This qualitative study of high school students at the conclusion of their four-play series suggests that cell phones shape the youth audience experience, that etiquette regarding the use of these powerful devices remains sharply contested, and that students apply a range of strategies to dealing with issues of power and agency around their use.     

To be genuine in artificial circumstances: evaluating the theatre analogy for understanding teachers’ workplace and work

This paper provides teachers and teacher educators with food for thought by developing a broad, contemporary re-evaluation of the often-used analogy between teaching and the theatre. It does so by synthesizing insights from scholarly works in education with insights from writing about theatre, including both historical work and published interviews with practicing stage actors. This approach throws into relief particular ways in which teaching does and does not resemble acting as described by its present-day practitioners. A key parallel is observed between the central challenges faced by teachers and actors: acting requires being truthful in imaginary circumstances, while teaching requires being genuine in artificial circumstances. Using work on bildung, the nature of this challenge is examined, and a call is made to help teachers and students better appreciate the intimate, reciprocal and shared nature of good teaching – a challenge in a culture where corporate interests aggressively promote personalized and “anytime, anywhere” learning. The paper also addresses the phenomenon of massive online courses, which enthusiasts like to believe teach themselves. This idea, I suggest, is as absurd as the notion that a great theatre building could obviate the need for a strong cast. .     

Nurturing Emergent Readers Through Readers Theater

Readers theater is a familiar literacy strategy for children who can read independently; however, it can also be used with younger children who have not yet developed independent reading skills. The purpose of this article is to adapt the concept of readers theater for use with emergent readers. It focuses first on defining readers theater and its many benefits, particularly in the areas of literacy development. Finally, it includes suggestions for successfully implementing a readers theater program with young children.     

The school theatre as a place of cultural learning: the case of Soviet Latvia (1960s–1980s)

Abstract

The goal of this article is to reveal how through school theatre activities under authoritarian rule, changes took place in pupil knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour regarding culture, namely, how the process of cultural learning occurs. I use a historical case study, specifically the case of the Valmiera School Theatre, which was the leading theatre group, not only in Soviet Latvia, but also in the entire Soviet Union. My primary sources are eight unstructured interviews, 20 published memoirs, articles in the press, theatre programmes, and photographs. One part of Soviet pedagogy was aesthetic upbringing, which was implemented through state-funded collectives, including school theatre groups. By participating in theatre activities, students gained knowledge of cultural heritage (literature, theatre, art, etc.), the ability to perform and acquire skills in other practical fields, and developed an appreciation of culture as a value. I argue that cultural learning through theatre was demonstrated by the fact that the students transferred their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to a new context, namely, their places of work and public cultural activities (e.g. amateur theatres). This case study also reveals the specific role of school theatre in the process of cultural learning, as well as some sensitive issues in the relationship between knowledge-orientated or formal educational environments, and the informal creativity of school theatre.     

试论戏剧艺术在新四军统战工作中的运用

新四军在开展统一战线工作过程中,充分运用了戏剧这一艺术形式。戏剧活动在争取民众对抗战支持,进行友军统战工作,揭露顽固派分裂统一战线的罪行,争取国际友好人士的同情和援助四个方面起积极作用。戏剧作为一种统战方式,具有生动形象、范围广、层次高、影响大等特点,戏剧艺术在新四军统战工作中的运用是卓有成效的。     

明代中后期的荒诞剧

明代中后期,随着社会思潮的激烈转向和世俗生活的混杂动荡,某些对社会世俗有着深刻而独特认识的知识者,创作出一批从外在艺术形式到内在价值取向皆偏离传统雅文化轨道的戏剧作品。此类作品重在"娱己"而非"娱人",凸现出鲜明的主体意识。考察它们的"异质"所在并揭示其产生的原由,有助于更清晰地把握当时文人的思想状况和文化心态。