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- Volume 6, Issue 1, 2017
Australasian Journal of Popular Culture - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2017
Volume 6, Issue 1, 2017
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Stopping at the dusty oasis
More LessAbstractAlthough the theme of the open road has dominated the cultural consciousness for generations, such travel and adventure are always interspersed by way-stops: stations along the way where one can pause − where things can happen within the limited environment of the place itself. This article explores the relationship between the road and these stops along the way, specifically in the context of a loose collection of several films, all involving a similar way-stop setting, a sort of arid nowhere. These films share a commonality that appears to derive from Foucault’s notion of ‘heterotopia’ − in that each way-stop constitutes an ‘other’ place. A productive search for antecedents and archetypes reinforces the heterotopic image projected. Further comparisons reveal the same sense of ambiguity and transience for fictional and real life sources as that found in the films examined.
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Nostalgia is not what it used to be: Rural idylls and the American diner
By Mike ScullyAbstractThe author was drawn to visit the mid-western American conurbation of Minneapolis-St Paul by the long-running radio variety programme, A Prairie Home Companion (1974 – present), which gently satirises small-town rural culture. In a fine example of serendipity, he came across Mickey’s Diner, a traditional fast-food outlet that has operated in the same location continuously for almost 78 years. This became a springboard for examining the history of a uniquely American institution and its relevance to today’s cuisine and culture. It was also the chance to look at a city with a population only slightly less than that of Melbourne in a state proud of its rural and Scandinavian heritage.
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Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport and the modern jet city: ‘Your destination awaits you’
Authors: Arun Chandu and Kate Darian SmithAbstractThe 1960s saw the introduction of intercontinental jet aircrafts across the world. Australian Australia was eager to join this international jet set and was given its first opportunity to do so through the construction of a new airport for Melbourne. Built between 1964 and 1970, Melbourne airport, Tullamarine, was Australia’s first purpose-built jetport and the world’s first planned airport city by modernday standards. With all its cutting-edge features, Tullamarine instantly became an edifice to the jet age and the jet set, designed to be enjoyed by both travellers and visitors alike. It was a gateway to Victoria and Australia, but also allowed Victorians their first real taste of international travel. It was the starting point for many a memorable journey.
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Barbeque road warriors
More LessAbstractThis article reviews the general process of competitive barbeque contests in the United States and the requisite road trips those participants make in order to attend these events. It is written from the vantage point of the author, a Master Certified Barbeque Judge, who in 2017 will have participated in over 100 organized barbeque contests sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), which is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Further details on competitive barbeque contests and the current KCBS rules and regulations are available on the kcbs.us website.
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‘Hey amigo! Do you want to go on a trip? Do you want mushrooms?’
More LessAbstractThe Mazatec people from the northern highlands of the Mexican State of Oaxaca are known for the syncretism of their religion, which combines pre-Hispanic culture and Catholic religion introduced with Spanish colonization in the sixteenth century. Nowadays, Mazatec religious practices are characterized by ritual ceremonies revolving around the religious spirit of the people and their cosmology. They are known for using mushrooms and other hallucinogenic plants to connect them with the world of their gods. The sacredness of these mushrooms is such a large and complex topic that no attempt at scientific explanation seems to solve all of the magical mysteries of the Mazatec universe. However, my introduction to it began in 2011 when I was carrying out fieldwork among the Mazatec people as part of my Ph.D. studies in architecture. This article is a direct account of an experience I had that seems to go beyond rational parameters; to a place where the spiritual and magical predominate; to a world in which healers and shamans eat sacred mushrooms in order to perform ceremonial rituals to heal people.
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‘Little old “crumby” places we just drove up to and looked around’: Travel memorabilia and the perception of urban fabric
Authors: David Nichols and Marcus LancasterAbstractAustralians have notoriously and frequently travelled internationally for entertainment, in pursuit of knowledge and experience. This article examines a trip undertaken by two engineers for Ansett Airlines, based in Melbourne, to the United States in the mid-1950s. Using as its basis a photo album compiled by one of the men, this article examines the mid-20th century Australian experience of American modernism, concentrating on transport and tourism facilities both mundane and magnificent.
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Just another day in the life of Hopalong Cassidy
More LessAbstractThe American actor William Boyd (1895–1972) was world famous for his portrayal of Clarence E. Mulford’s fictional cowboy Hopalong Cassidy via comics, films, radio and television. In November 1954, Boyd travelled to Australia (Darwin, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney) for sixteen hectic days to raise money for disabled children. ‘Just another day in the life of Hopalong Cassidy’ focuses on Friday, 12 November 1954, one of the four days that Boyd spent in Melbourne. Somewhat in the manner of French writer Georges Perec (Perec [1978] 2009), it documents Boyd’s activities on that very busy day – including his visits to the Royal Children’s Hospital, Yooralla, the Victorian School for Deaf Children, and Wirth’s Circus – from the points of view of Boyd himself and several people who either saw or met their cowboy hero on the 12th. In the process of re-telling their stories, a unique picture of everyday life in Melbourne in 1954 emerges.
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Travels in the life of the canned Norwegian sprat
More LessAbstractThis article takes the theme of travel and applies it to various aspects of the production, marketing and distribution of canned Norwegian sprats, popularly known as sardines. It will be seen that the industry was international in scope, both in terms of the countries it affected and those by which it was itself affected. At times a single individual is involved, at other times – as at international exhibitions – hundreds of thousands. The article considers intercontinental travel over thousands of kilometres, as well as travel of a few dozen kilometres within a country. It covers the era mostly before air travel and certainly before mobile phones, Google Translate and the European Union. Travel by sea was often less than comfortable and took several days, if not weeks. There were fortunes to be won and more often lost, but the Norwegian canned sprat industry put the country on the world map and laid the foundations for its present prosperity.
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John G. Brandon and ‘Coutts Brisbane’: Two Australian contributors to Sexton Blake and inter-war popular fiction
By John ArnoldAbstractThis article will look at the careers of two Australian expatriate writers, John Gordon Brandon and Robert Coutts Armour, better known as ‘Coutts Brisbane’. Both were born in Australia and both travelled to England to further their careers in their mid-to-late 20s, one in the theatre and the other as an artist. They both became, however, writers of popular fiction, especially of stories for boys, both being frequent contributors to the Sexton Blake Library. Coutts Brisbane was also a pioneer Science Fiction writer. Neither returned to Australia, but their stories and books did and it can well be argued that, despite their being known today only to collectors and a few specialists, both made interesting contributions to popular culture in England (and to Australia) in the second to fourth decades of the last century.
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Overseas study tours and cultural intelligence: Can travel coupled with cross-cultural design thinking workshops improve cultural intelligence in Arts and Design students?
Authors: Lisa Scharoun and Carlos Alberto Montana-HoyosAbstractTravel affords us many things, such as time for reflection, leisure, work and exploration. It can also be key in helping us to understand others, to adjust and adapt to new scenarios and stressors. In this sense, travel can be a means to increase one’s intelligence. This study looks at the metric of cultural intelligence (CQ) – an individual’s ability to function in various cultural contexts – and how travel can increase this. A major dimension of CQ is cultural metacognition, a term that describes the ability of an individual to be culturally aware and adaptable in multicultural situations. Travel to a culture significantly different from one’s own can strengthen cultural metacognition, especially during longer periods of work or study; however, this is also possible during short-term overseas experiences. The importance of high CQ is essential in an increasingly globalized world, and CQ capabilities form a major component of the ‘soft skills’ that employers desire in university graduates. Our study reviews the possibilities for increasing CQ in short-term overseas study through intensive design-thinking workshops with a focus on students of creative arts and design. Previous studies on CQ tended to focus on Management and Business studies. Strong CQ skills are seen as an asset in these fields; however, they are particularly relevant in the arts where career paths do not always have a strictly defined skill set and often rely on graduates to be adaptable and flexible to many varied work situations. This article sets out the process that we utilized in facilitating a series of cross-cultural workshops for Australian design students in Singapore, in partnership with overseas students from Hong Kong and Singapore. Employing case studies, quantitative and qualitative surveys, observation and analysis, our study attempts to show how intensive multidisciplinary and cross-cultural designthinking workshops in short-term study tours for university students can influence the CQ skills of students in creative arts and design disciplines.
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Travelling design: Learning from Hanoi’s craft streets through design-centred Vietnam study tours
More LessAbstractThis article looks at the experiences of design students who took part in study tours of Vietnam offered as summer courses by the School of Design at Swinburne University of Technology in 2014, 2015 and 2016. It discusses the role that travel played in their design projects and their design education in general. The author suggests that looking at aspects of Vietnamese everyday life, including its built environment and local crafts, creates greater awareness and a better understanding of the social and cultural aspects of the design process. As outsiders based in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, over the course of the study tour the students achieved what Edward Relph (1976) called ‘empathetic insiderness’ – i.e. a willingness to be open to the significance of a place and to feel and appreciate this significance – as a result of exploring and engaging with the city’s architecture and everyday life.
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