Institute for Culture and Society

• Recent publications
• Recent news
• Performing Water by Alejandra Canales
• Kearrin Sims in Laos

Recent publications

For a full list of publications see the HDR Publications page.

2013

Paling, W. 2013, ‘Ordinary City, Ordinary Life: Off the Expo Map’, in, Winter, T. (ed.), Shanghai Expo: An International Forum on the Future of Cities (opens in a new window), London: Routledge.   

Sims, K. 2013, 'Playing Dirty’, Southeast Asia Globe (opens in a new window), March.

Smith, E. K. 2013, ‘The Australian republic – “love it or leave it!”’, in, Jones, B. J. and McKenna, M.(eds), Project Republic: Plans and Arguments for a New Australia (opens in a new window), Australia: Black Inc.

Recent news

Louise Ryan wins international essay competition

Congratulations to PhD student Louise Ryan who has won an international essay competition for her essay on MONA (Museum of Old and New Art (opens in a new window)) in Tasmania. The competition will pay all costs for Louise to go to Berlin from 26-29 June 2013 to participate in the Irmgard Coninx Foundation 17th Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality: 'Travel and Museums: Rethinking the Modern Experience' (opens in a new window)....Read more (ICS News).

Welcome to our new students

We are pleased to welcome the following new students to ICS: Seema Reynolds, Michael Hartup, Christiane Kuhling, Laura Anne Kraak, Peter Davison, Cecilia Hilder and Sebastian Martin Valdez....Read more (ICS News).

ICS congratulates its new graduates

Congratulations to the five Institute for Culture and Society students who graduated in the UWS autumn graduation ceremony on 16 April: Lilliana Correa, Maria Glaros, Cathy O’Callaghan, Willem Paling and Michael Wilson....Read more (ICS News).

Frances Williamson leads OLT funded project

Congratulations to PhD student Frances Williamson who is leading a new Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded project PASSwrite....Read more (ICS News).

Kearrin Sims speaks at Where Is Home: Place, Belonging and Citizenship in the Asian Century event

In March 2013, Kearrin Sims presented at Where Is Home: Place, Belonging and Citizenship in the Asian Century, a two-day workshop examining the transformations of place-making and cultural citizenship in the era of Asian influence....Read more (ICS News).

Alejandro Miranda a 'summer hotdesker' at Information and Cultural Exchange

Congratulations to PhD student Alejandro Miranda who was one of seven UWS students ‘summer hotdesking’ at Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE). During his six weeks at ICE, Alejandro created five musical soundscapes from audio captured in Bankstown, Liverpool, Auburn, Fairfield and Parramatta....Read more (ICS News).

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Performing Water by Alejandra Canales

As part of her Doctor of Creative Arts, Alejandra Canales developed a multi-platform documentary project, Solid_Liquid_Gas_H2O (opens in a new window).

Performing Water consisted of a 30-minute documentary; an online media archive, Solid_Liquid_Gas_H2O (opens in a new window); and a multimedia installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art Newtown.

In this practice-based research project, Alejandra considered the material performance of water. She explains: ‘It attempted to bring “nature” and “performance” together as a project of experimentation through the creation of a documentary film that explored water as a social power, water as a matter, and as a performer. The creative process was complemented by a short exegesis, which described the reflective practice of the endeavour and offered an account of performativity.’

As part of her research Alejandra spent eight months travelling, and meeting and interviewing people in Dubbo and Mildura, Australia; Santiago and Vallenar, Chile; London, Manchester and Brighton, UK; and Delft and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. During this time she worked with Belgium photographer Anne Ransquin.

Her website Solid_Liquid_Gas_H2O (opens in a new window)includes short films and photographs of her travels, some of which are featured below.

Alejandra raises such questions as: Who owns water?; How do we understand, value and represent water?; What is the journey that water makes?; Where is water? and How do we re-think and revalorize water? She hopes that audiences will consider where water is (and isn’t), how they relate to water and what it means to them, and to reflect on a set of different values and points of view in order to create a sustainable future.

Having now completed her DCA, Alejandra continues her work as a filmmaker and is currently working on various independent documentary projects as a director and producer.

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Kearrin Sims in Laos

ICS PhD Candidate Kearrin Sims returned to Sydney at the end of March 2012 after 10 months of fieldwork in Laos. Kearrin’s research explores regional connectivity and integration in Laos with a specific focus on Chinese Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct Investment. Situated at the centre of the Asian Development Bank’s sustained efforts to improve trade routes within the Greater Mekong Subregion, Laos has never been more regionally integrated than it is today. In regards to Chinese investment, China is the most influential emerging regional power in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and Laos’ largest foreign investor, with influential interests in almost every economic sector in Laos today.

For his fieldwork, Kearrin has primarily been working in key regional nodal points in Laos of Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and the two border Special Economic Zones in northern Laos of Boten and TongPeun. His research examines the localised impacts and outcomes of national and regional ‘macro-scale’ development initiatives on impoverished ‘urban’ Lao communities and includes the longstanding development concerns of resettlement, development induced displacement, and the marginalisation of ethnic minorities.