History of Art and Cloth & Habitable Space

I've had another two classes.  The History of Art tutorial made me feel quite anxious.  There seems a lot of work about subjects that I know nothing about, and we were asked to pick topics for our presentation and first essay.  The timetabling is out of sequence, as I get the tutorial before the lecture.  So I am not in command of the lecture information, before we start working on it in the tutorial! I prefer to get the presentation done early in the semester, because I like to work steadily, and not to have several assessments all at the same time.  This semester I have 2 essays and a presentation for Indigeneous Studies, 2 essays and a presentation for History of Art, and for Cloth & Habitable Space, 2 practical assessments and a written proposal.  I prefer to have them spread out a bit, and only one assessment in each week.  Given some assessment dates are defined by the tutors, I prefer to get the presentations done as early as possible to get them out of the way.

However once I got into the textile module, I started enjoying myself.  We started with group work.  I'm in a group with girls from last year's module and this makes it a lot easier.  We are looking at how to change the dressing of an area of interior architecture.  Each group has a different material to work with, choosing from industrial felt, plastic and wire net, gauze, foam sheeting, and plastic.  My group, with Ellie, Cassie and Victoria is working with foam sheeting.  We chose a corner in the dye room that has a mirror and brick wall.  We drew patterns from the brickwork, that were affected by the reflection from the mirror.  We had to put it into a repeat on a macquette, then apply it to the foam sheeting.  We ended up with a simple line pattern that we are cutting into the foam sheet, which will stand in a quarter circle around the corner with the bricks and mirror.  As you look through the pattern cut into the foam, you will see the bricks on one side and reflection of the back of the foam in the mirror.  I think next week we will be using the cut out shapes to add to the surface. 

It was slightly irritating to receive the class handout and find that on the first class, we were expected to bring a camera to document our progress.  Which none of us had.  Photos really add to your visual diary, especially when it is someone else's idea/sketch that the group choose to take forward for the project.  I will be in the History of Art lecture today and I think I will take my camera and go to the textile workshop and photograph the work we have done so far so I can put work to date in my visual diary.  It is quite apparent from the class specification that extensive documentation of testing is expected.  And this needs to start now.

This module will cover laser cutting, tufting, pleating and machine felting.  I'm happy to learn about this, but I do find it a bit odd that in a third year module, Curtin is still teaching.  In the UK, by this stage, people would be working on their own projects.  As I am a 2nd year student in a third year module, it is suits me to be learning new techniques, because I am here to develop skills. But in my heart, I want to be developing the printing and pattern making skills that I learned last semester.  And I'd like to use the repeat printer that we mastered last year, and we don't have one of these at Herts.  So I am a little frustrated but admit that I've learned so much more by being at Curtin, that I just need to get on with it.  Take the experiences that are offered and don't fret about not expanding the ones I've enjoyed so far.

Indigeneous Studies - first class of new semester

This is a much smaller class than I expected.  There are about 17 of us for the main lecture, and two tutorial groups that fit with different people's timetables.  Our tutor, Ken Hayward, is from the Noongar aboriginal group, and played the didgeridoo for us as part of his Welcome to Country.  He looks like he will be a wonderful lecturer - very articulate and with a broad ranging knowledge of his subject.  I'm looking forward to it.

There are 7 in my tutorial group.  There are a group of 4 students from the USA - all from the same university in Texas; all studying business.  There are also 2 other mature students: one is an archaelogist studying for her masters, who has worked extensively with indigeneous people in the Broome/Darwin areas; the other is a business student. 

As Jim commented on email, I'm having my usual wobble of confidence before the semester gets going.  There seems so much to cover and knowledge to gain.  I wonder whether I will keep up.  I've been reading the course specifications for my 3 modules and am feeling slightly overwhelmed.  But at least I have only 3 modules.  I can give myself credit for getting one module done during summer school so I will be less pressured. 

Back to School!

Tomorrow I am back at uni after 4 months summer holidays. 4 months is too long really - I was very glad to have 6 weeks of summer Drawing school during that time.  I packed a lot into the holidays - 4 week road trip to Cairns, created a sketchbook, entertained Maurice for 3 weeks, summer school and a 5 day coach trip to Ningaloo Reef - but I'm ready to return to class.

I have 3 modules for the coming semester.  Mondays I work on Aboriginal Studies, Tuesday and Thursday is History of Art, and Wednesday is Cloth and Habitable Space. 

Roll on tomorrow.

Day 5 Kalbarri-Perth continued

We stopped in the Kalbarri National Park at the coastline and looked at the amazing cliffs facing the sea.  This time the rock was white, presumably limestone.  It was quite surprising, when only a mile or so inland the river had carved a gorge through red sandstone, such a short distance away. 

We drove along the side of a shallow lake in Karatha.  This lake was an astonishing colour - from a distance it was a purple/pink colour, but on getting closer it was bright terracotta red/orange.  This lake was full of a marine algae - dunaliella salina - which creates beta-carotene.  This is part of the A vitamin group.  Carotene is the substance that makes carrots and cantaloupe melons orange.  Also flamingoes that feed on lakes with this algae, have a pink colour to their feathers, and those that do not ingest this, are white.  The company BASF use this lake to produce beta-carotene, and export it commercially.  It was an astonishing sight.

Beta carotene being produced by algae in the lake

Alongside the road there were round gourd like objects growing.  The leaves had withered away.  We were told that these were paddy melons.  They grow freely along the roadside and are a very, very bitter fruit.  So bitter that even the ants won't eat them. 

Our final stop of the day was for a walk around the Pinnacles.  These were in a large sandy desert area. Some spires of stone protruding up from the ground were about 2 feet high, but others were 7/8 feet high.  There are a variety of complicated theories about how these stones were formed, but basically it is thought that limestone has eroded to form spires, then sand has blown in to cover them, and now the wind is blowing the sand away again, to expose these astonishing forms.  We walked around this area for about 90 minutes, and saw hundreds, and hundreds of pinnacle stones.  We also saw kangaroo footprints, although no animals in the desert area.  We saw kangaroos from the coach when we left, and they had found shaded areas under big shrubs where they could easily overlook the surrounding scrub.  The information centre had displays on how different types of limestone were formed, and typical animals that came out after dark, including snakes, emu and bats.

Day 5 Kalbarri-Perth

We set off about 8am from Kalbarri and drove into the Hawks Head area of the national park.  At this time of year, the environment is normally arid and dessicated by the end of summer.  But because of the cyclone rain a couple of weeks ago, everything was sprouting green, and looked as if spring flowers would blossom before we went back into autumn and winter.  Very unusual.

River from high ground in Kalbarri National Park

Hawks Head rock

Hawks Head rock, looking to the right over the river.

Same river, to the left

Day 4 Carnarvon-Kalbarri

We woke up this morning, wondering whether or not we would be able to head south.  When I put my head outside my door, I realised it was raining.  There was no smell of smoke.  I thought this felt promising as hopefully, the rain would have extinguished the bush fire.  At breakfast the local staff had varied opinions on this - ranging from "this type of rain is associated with lightening and may start different fires in places that have not yet burned", to "the road will be opened, and will stay open". 

Our driver contacted the fire authority and received confirmation that the road south was open.  We all leapt into the coach.  The original plan was to look around historic parts of Carnarvon, but because of the road conditions we headed south straight away.  We had a quick look at the Overseas Telecommunications Company (Australia) Satellite Earth Station, which was originally a Government listening post, but is now defunct.  Quite an impressive dish for the 1960s.  It tracked the Apollo moon landing and provided live coverage to the Perth area and also tracked Halley's comet.  The dish is 30m across and apparently has parabolic and hyperbolic reflectors (whatever they are!).  It is the only remaining satellite dish in the world that still has both of these.

Defunct satellite station at Carnarvon

And a suitably defunct looking sign.

A little way along the road, we were driving on metalled road, but with gravel roads leading off.  When the rains come, these gravel roads are often closed because they turn into a bright red quagmire.  As we had had rain the previous night, the driver said some gravel roads were likely to be closed but even he was surprised when the road sign said all local gravel roads were closed.

"Local area closed due to rain"

Imagine how quickly this would churn up if people drove on it in the wet

We were shown the Gasgoyne River, which surprisingly for this time of year, had some water in it.  Apparently the rivers here spend large parts of the year appearing to have a dry bed.  But in reality, they only have flowing water during heavy rain.  For the rest of the year, the water is flowing under the sand.  You can tell that the river is healthy and contains underground water by the condition of the River Gum trees that grow all the way along the riverbank.  They were a bright, healthy green, indicative that their heads were in full sun, but not under stress because their roots were in water.

Day 3 Carnarvon-Ningaloo Reef-Carnarvon

This was a wonderful day out.  We drove through extensive areas of the bushland.  As we have progressed through the most part of summer, this land is normally very dry and arid, completely scorched by the sun and very often recently burned because of lightening strike during electric storms.  However, about 2 weeks ago some cyclones came through (cyclone Tracey?) and deposited huge quantities of water over extensive areas, sometimes of hundreds of kilometers.  As a result, the grasslands were green!  The soil was very red, and had changed from pure sand to some sort of clay base, so in places the water was pooling and standing, not draining away.

Storm cloud forming

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and started seeing extensive colonies of termite mounds.  These were dome shaped moulded mud which the ants had designed to have extensive air conditioning, by creating air vents and labyrinthine corridors inside.  They looked very dramatic surrounded by clumps of eau-de-nil coloured grass, already forming seedheads, contrasting with the terracotta red termite mounds.  Some termite mounds were 1.5m high and to achieve this height, they must be at least 100 years old.

Me standing on the Tropic of Capricorn line

This anthill is over 7 feet high and is well over 100 years old.

We drove through an area where a small bush fire was burning with smoke drifting across the road.  From a distance we could see the bushfire smoke rising into a cloud, changing colour from pale grey, and lightening to white as it rose. 

Ningaloo Reef was a fascinating place.  We had a boat trip to the reef itself, which is only about a 10 minutes away from the shore.   The boat came very close to the waters edge, and we waded through crystal clear water, about knee deep, before climbing onto the glass bottomed boat.  Everyone knows about the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast, but this reef is much less known, and much closer to shore.  This reef is less colourful than the Great Barrier Reef, but is much more textured.  There were brain corals, stags horn corals, boulder coral - all sorts of different shapes.  We were also shown areas where there was coral regrowth.  Decades previously boats crossing the reef had pruned the top off the coral reef, leaving great broken areas.  However a rare type, lavender coral, is revitalising the dead areas and is apparently very rare.  It looked just like growing lavender in flower. 

Not the greatest picture as it is taken on the glass bottomed boat,
but it gives the impression.

As you can see, lots of different shapes and textures.

We snorkelled for about 45 minutes.  My mask fitted perfectly (last time it did not) and I had fascinating session trying to look in detail at the fish and coral, to remember and correctly identify them.  I definitely saw a blue finned parrot fish and red spot emporer, a sergeant fish but the rest I can't remember.  There was definitely one with electric blue and fuschia fins but can't remember the name. 

On the way home we crossed the Murchison River.  This shows the level of water, very high for the height of summer, in comparison to the old bridge.  The flood markers which were often submerged by flash flooding caused by cyclones.

The new bridge with old bridge as a speck in the distance. 
The authorities plan for the new bridge to be able to handle the river in spate.

We returned to our hotel, heading south back to Carnarvon.

Tonight at dinner, we heard that the road north from our hotel had been closed, due to bush fire, after we came through. We were all relieved to have got through before the road closed, but unfortunately, there is an advisory alert out that the road south from Carnarvon may be closed by tomorrow because of a bush fire there. This will put our trip out. I'm not bothered at all so long as I am home by Sunday night, but we are meant to be back in Perth on Friday, and some tour members are meant to fly home from Perth on Friday evening, and Saturday. My attitude is "if we can't travel, we can't travel". I'll make the best of it, whatever. I do hope that if we get stuck, we can find rooms. When bush fires close roads, the hotels fill up, with firemen and other staff who deal with these events. Whatever happens, it will turn out ok. As our driver said, the authorities have all night to deal with it and we can just hope the road is open.