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The aim of producing Bah Luj Production, four folk tales books accompanied by a compact disc of its narration, dialogs and music is to revitalize the folk tales, music and cultural heritage of the indigenous Semai by condensing them into an innovative resource package, tailored to appeal to the current generation’s consumer interests and lifestyles. The targeted audiences for the product are Malaysians, in particular the Semai community, as well as other local and international consumers. The purpose of this paper is to examine a practice-led approach toward considering the empowerment of selected culture bearers assisted by the intervention of researchers from the academia in facilitating the sustainability of indigenous cultural traditions in Malaysia.

This approach is practice-led – Bah Luj Production was developed based on action, reflection, review and revision. This paper provides visibility to the research process, enabling readers to understand the issues, challenges and decision-making processes. The practice-led approach that was used for this project provides a realistic practical guide, bridging the gap between theory and practice. In the conclusion, the authors also bring forth ideas for improvement through reflection, on suggested approaches in ways this research did not manage to pursue.

This paper proposes three approaches in advocating for cultural sustainability through innovation: collaboration between selected culture bearers and researchers in the academia; indigeneity of cultural expressions and illustrations; and adaptability and relevance to current interests of indigenous people and consumers of indigenous music and literature. This paper argues that it is important for the researcher to navigate research with relevance to the context and situation.

While many articles focus on presenting the outcomes of a research project, this paper guides the reader toward understanding the limitations, constraints and negotiations made by the research team during the research and production stages. Transparency in the process of decision making will enlighten readers on realistic, practical approaches as opposed to idealistic theoretical methods.

This paper argues for sustainability through innovation and posits that cultural heritage practices that continue to be performed are those that are adaptable, flexible to change and open to innovation – therefore maintaining relevance to time, context and consumers. This paper posits that researchers should be flexible and practical in their research actions and avoid generalizations that come out of recent and popular critical theories as the most, or only suitable, approaches for diverse communities.

The development of an alternate approach, theory/concept and guidelines toward sustainability through innovation make this study the first of its kind. This approach integrates tradition with creation.

Deleuze and Guattari have argued that in art, including literature, the senses get hold of the world in a non‐conceptual or “sensational” way, adding “new varieties” that can lead to new ways of knowing and seeing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of multi‐disciplinary, practice‐led research in creative writing as a form of knowledge making in qualitative research.

The author uses her own writing, especially the novel Swimming (Vanark Press, 2009), which is situated in the broader context of feminist fiction writing, as a subversive feminist project that aims to intervene in and challenge the dominant narratives of what it means to be a woman, by creating “alternative figurations” of “woman” which highlight differences among women and enhance our understanding of “woman” as a complex and multiple subject always “in process”.

By using her own practice of fiction writing and research as a case study, the author explores the ways that constructing an imagined narrative – in this case a novel – can make a contribution to knowledge and raise questions about representation, truth and subjectivity.

In this paper, through a few examples from her novel, the author's aim has been to write a narrative of the process, of “material thinking” that led to the final work.

The purpose of this paper is to promote narrative inquiry as a legitimate research approach for artists undertaking postgraduate research higher degrees.

This paper takes the form of a literature review describing practice-led research. It draws heavily on theories of art to support its claims.

In creative arts postgraduate research degrees, where the thesis is delivered in the form of artifacts and an exegesis, new knowledge and understandings are produced in two fields. In the first of these two fields, new theoretical knowledge detailing the conceptual basis for the creative work may contribute to the understanding of the purpose and nature of art. The second field of new knowledge involves artifacts as they can enlarge knowledge about what the author feel and know through images that illuminate experiences and understandings of life. The development and delivery of these forms of new knowledge occur in an interdependent manner.

The original contribution of this paper is the manner in which artifacts are shown to demonstrate the theoretical knowledge claims articulated in the exegesis Furthermore, this paper highlights the significance and value of new knowledge and the manner in which this knowledge is effectively shared.

This chapter discusses textography as a strategy for researching academic writing in higher education. Textography is an approach to the analysis of written texts which combines text analysis with ethnographic techniques, such as surveys, interviews and other data sources, in order to examine what texts are like, and why. It aims to provide a more contextualized basis for understanding students’ writing in the social, cultural and institutional settings in which it takes place than might be obtained by looking solely at students’ texts. Through discussion of the outcomes of a textography, which examined the written texts submitted by visual and performing arts doctoral students at a number of Australian universities, we reflect on what we learnt from the study that we could not have known by looking at the texts alone. If we had looked at the texts without the ethnographic data not only are there many things we would not have known, but many of the things we might have said would likely have been right off the mark. Equally, had we just had the ethnographic data without the text analysis, we would have missed the insights provided by the explicit text analysis. The textography enabled us to see the diversity of practices across fields of study and institutions as well as gain an understanding of why this might be the case, all of which is of benefit to student writers and their supervisors.

The purpose of this paper is to address the advantages of education and training in creating the “Audiovisual/Digital Media Essay” (AV/DME), starting from visual and cinematic thinking as a way of setting up, developing and concluding an argument.

Recognising the advantages to education and training of the “AV/DME” this paper explores ways of enabling visually disciplined students to work on film theory within their chosen medium, and to develop arguments incorporating audiovisual sources, using appropriate academic skills. It describes a hands-on BA/MA workshop held at Newport Film School (May 2011) and subsequent initial implementation of an examinable DME. The paper contextualises the issue in the light of practice-led and practice-based research and of parity with written dissertations. Drawing on analysis of in-depth interviews with students and tutors, it makes practical recommendations for how to resource, staff and support the implementation and continuation of the AV/DME and/or dissertation.

The paper feeds back from both students and staff on the running of an initial AV/DME workshop and finds that the Film School Newport is suited to running the AV/DME and suggests a framework for its support.

The study needs to be followed up when the students complete their full dissertations.

The AV/DME needs sufficient technical and human resources to support student learning.

The paper provides a clear and original framework for teaching, supporting and assessing the AV/DME. This framework can be disseminated beyond the University of Wales Newport, and can be used to teach the AV/DME in further contexts and to wider groups of students.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a range of questions and problems pertaining to a sound-based project that the author began half-way through 2011. Called Daddy Diary, this archive-in-progress takes the form of a series of free-association audio monologues, produced by a first-time father, that are addressed to his adult-daughter of the future and that reflect upon their evolving familial relationship.

As is often the case with creative projects that are embedded in a plurality of ideological, material and temporal conditions, Daddy Diary requires an eclectic and para-humanities approach to its theorisation. By drawing from ethical, sociological, historical and pedagogical assemblages, this paper shows how Daddy Diary activates a non-hegemonic truth space wherein familial knowledge (tacit knowledge captured in the raw material of the voice recordings) participates in the sustainable and counter-institutional negotiation of self-concept.

Sound recording technologies have made accessible new ways of documenting human life-narratives, thus augmenting how notions of the self can be written, reviewed and shared with a creative learning community. Just as photography has been used in creative practice reinforce parental worth, playing into the experience of holding and letting go, so too does an audio diary provide the apparatus through which a parent may reflexively navigate death anxiety and the possibility of loss. Thus, this paper contains insight that may prove useful for other first-time fathers. It’s insight may also be of benefit to practice-led researchers wishing to understand how to translate non-institutional activity into a creative learning experience.

Just as the foregrounding of sound poses a challenge to the so-called dominance of visual cultural communication, so too can “listening” engage an alternative sensory perspective from which we “see” ourselves.

It is well established that the service system has a poor history of responding holistically to address the needs of children and families living with co-occurring complexities such as domestic violence, parental mental health and/or substance use. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to primarily describe the developmental process used to create guidelines to inform practice at the intersections of domestic violence, mental health and alcohol and other drug services, ensuring that the tactics of coercive control are visible in contexts of complexity.

The guidelines were developed through undertaking a literature review, followed by a practice-led research approach with practitioners from 33 organisations across three Australian states, Safe & Together consultants and researchers. Communities of practice composed of practitioners providing interventions to children and families were central to the approach. Data that informed the development of the guidelines included a literature review, ethnographic notes, qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys and reflections.

Practice-led research engaged practitioners in the development of guidelines to promote an integrated response to working with families experiencing domestic violence, substance use and mental health issues. The integrated approach drew from the Safe & Together model, emphasising partnering with women survivors, pivoting to the perpetrator, focusing on children’s safety and well-being, promoting worker safety, collaborating across agencies and influencing organisational change. The process demonstrated the usefulness of this integrated approach, using practitioner-based examples.

Successful iterative processes to develop the guidelines were undertaken to support cultural change towards holistic and collaborative work across multiple sectors and organisations.