Welcome
Welcome to the website of the National Academy of Screen and Sound (NASS) Research Centre.
We are a multi-campus research centre specializing in the production of creative works based on research in media, communication and culture.
NASS is committed to local, global, interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to screen production research and in order to meet its research objectives NASS undertakes the following activities:
- National and international research collaboration
- Research-based productions
- Project incubation
- Postgraduate supervision
- Consultancies
- Specialized training
- Industry partnership
- Advocacy
- Seminars and conferences
- Exhibitions and festivals
- Coursework postgraduate programmes
- Non-award and undergraduate feeder programmes
Partner Institutions
NASS Research Centre partner institutions are:
- School of Arts, Murdoch University, Western Australia
- Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, Victoria
- Cultural Centre, University of Malaya
The present administrative centre is at Murdoch University, Western Australia where NASS researchers serve a range of postgraduate and undergraduate programs in the Media Arts Centre (MAC), School of Arts.
NASS researchers, alumni and research associates are also located at many other Australian and international universities.
Current Research Themes
NASS has a number of ongoing and interconnected research themes, including:
- Screen Production and Research Collaboration (SPARC)
- Transnational and Interdisciplinary Visualization
- Spatial Narrativity and Spatial Affects
- Embodied Visualization
- Representation and Retranslation of Trauma
- Cultural Legacy of the Nuclear Era
- Auto-ethnography and subjectivity
- Cyber Trails, Knowledge Trails and Cyber Archives
- Phenomenology of Dreaming
- Diegetic Life Forms and Diegetic Logic
- Cutting, Continuity and Consciousness
- Performance, Trance, Disassociation and Misrecognition
- Audience and MRI
- Liminal and sublime audience engagement
Research-In-Action
To facilitate national and international research collaboration NASS has established a number of interconnected research-in-action digital hubs:
- Indian Ocean SPARC Research Network
- Creative Arts as Cultural Diplomacy
Refereed e-Journal
NASS is home to IM: Interactive Media an refereed, interdisciplinary e-journal conceived as a collaborative forum for researchers in screen and screen production.
NASS Press
NASS is home to NASS Press a refereed, interdisciplinary monograph publishing program for researchers in creative arts and screen production.
Current Grant Projects by NASS Researchers
- Nuclear Futures: Using community arts and digital media for a range community arts initiatives across Australia and overseas focusing on the traumatic impact of nuclear testing and building resilience. $620,000 Australia Council Creative Communities Partnership Initiative and Arts South Australia. 2014-2017.
Recent Completed Grant Projects by NASS Researchers
- Developing a Collaborative National Postgraduate Research Program for 22 Australian Film Schools,
OLT funded Innovation and Development Project [ID11-2099], $220,000.
Completed January 2014 - The Global Hibakusha Project.
Japanese funded, three-year Kaken-hi research project exploring digital media and the social and cultural connection between radiation exposed communities around the world. (¥11,000,00 A$150,000).
Completed March 2014. - Barque Stefano Yinikurtira Trail
Planning Grant with Lottery West Trail and Murdoch Foundation, $30,000.
Completed February 2013. - East Africa Touring program of West Australian Indigenous Film
Australian International Cultural Council grant: $20,000. For translation/subtitling into Kinyarwandan and Swahili to tour a program of WA indigenous films to East Africa.
Completed August 2011. - Assessing Graduate Outputs in Nineteen Australian Film Schools
ALTC funded Priority Assessment project [PP8-926], $219,000.
Completed November 2010
Recent Research Degree Completions
- Davey, Phillip (2014). Crawfords Productions: What would we have Done without Crawfords: An exploration of Crawford Productions’ contribution to the development of an ‘Australian Consciousness’.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Law, Joanne (2014) Constellations: Walter Benjamin’s allegories and montage and the contingent assemblies of fragments in art practice.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Murray, Leo (2013) Film sound: Applying Peircean semiotics to create theory grounded in practice.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Bender, Stuart (2012) Film style and the World War II combat genre.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Knight, Ingle (2012) On taking liberty: The role of emotion in creating a mimetic illusion.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Melissa Merchant (2012) The Actress and Shakespeare: The Impact and Influence of the Actress on the Performance of Shakespeare during the Reformation.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University. - Pillai, D. Muralitharan (2012) Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as interpreted by the Temple of Fine Arts International: A ‘personal’ devotional poetics.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Fernandes-Satar, Audrey (2010) After the last ship: a post colonial reconstruction of diaspora.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University. - Connolly, Dani (2011) Out of the shadows: Representations of the reading and writing process in fiction.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Ferrara, Helen (2011) Nurturing creativity: A journey of personal transformation.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Hawley, Erin (2011) Filmic machines and animated monsters: retelling Frankenstein in the digital age.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Durey, Judith (2010) Translating hiraeth, performing adoption: art as mediation and form of cultural production.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Kate McClung (Beverley) (2010), Short Film Distribution In The Digital Age
Masters by Research thesis, External supervisor for VCA (Melbourne University) - Rijavec, Frank (2010) Sovereign voices.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Miller, Kenneth Clyde (2009) More than fifteen minutes of fame: The evolution of screen performance.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Sexton-Finck, Larissa Claire (2009) Be(com)ing reel independent woman: an autoethnographic journey through female subjectivity and agency in contemporary cinema with particular reference to independent scriptwriting practice.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Hockey, Michael, (2008) Spiegelbild: Seeing our reflection in the art of H.R.Giger,
Masters by Research thesis, Murdoch University - O’Brien, Paula (2008) The Rajneesh sannyasin community in Fremantle.
Masters by Research thesis, Murdoch University - Rossetti, Sarah Jane (2008) Enigmatic Pearls: Authorship and Representation: Competing Cultural Positions in Pilbara Pearl, Nullarbor Pearl and Shoalwater Pearl.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Anandan, Saseedaran K. (2007) Enhancing the performance experience: application of design concepts of form, space and choreography in Indian dance theatre.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Tampalini, Serge (2006) Affective space (looking back).
PhD thesis, Murdoch University - Ellis, Kathleen (2004) You look normal to me: the social construction of disability in Australian national cinema in the 1990s.
PhD thesis, Murdoch University
Current Higher Degree (PhD) Research Candidates
- Ivanka Sokol (APA scholarship, full time).
- Owen Beck (APA scholarship, full time).
- Briohny Doyle (APA scholarship, full time).
- Gwenael Velge. (international scholarship, full time).
- Antonia Cavcic (APA scholarship, full time).
- Brendon Briggs (APA scholarship, full time).
- Olivia Efthimiou (APA scholarship, full time).
- Helen Thomas (APA scholarship, full time).
- Allison Oliver Bell (part time).
- Glen Stasiuk (part time).
- Minaxi May (part time).
- Christopher Rowett (part time).
- Tim Burnes (part time).
- Andrew Ewing (part time)
Recent Creative Arts Outputs
- Ground Zeroes – Maralinga. (2013) Curated photographic exhibition. ‘Pakala Parnaku’. Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery, Fremantle, 2-18 August.
- Excursion. (2013). 20 minute narrative drama.
- Hiroshima Traces. (2012). 15 minute documentary. Screened at Hiroshima/Nagasaki Film Festival, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge, 5 August.
- Hope for the Future. (2010). Screened on Rwanda National Television, 7 April. Screened 20,000+ audience, Rwanda National Stadium during 16th anniversary ceremony.
- Nuke York, New York. (2012).Multimedia installation/exhibition. City University of New York.
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