What's On at UWA

Honourable Aburizal Bakrie is visiting The University of Western Australia as a distinguished guest and speaker of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies. Mr Bakrie is the Golkar Party's nominee for the Indonesian Presidential elections in 2014. Given that Indonesia is the largest Muslim state in the world and our immediate neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region, his views on the implications of Indonesian politics for Australia-Indonesia relations would be of great value to our country.

"Of Mice and Men" Speaker: Orkan Telhan

Life sciences made a recent return to the design scene. Day after day, we witness design evangelists promoting witty products, materials, and architecture that make use of living matter in unprecedented ways: Genetically-crafted mosquitoes fight against their own species to prevent Malaria; synthetic bacteria, when not making fuel, are put to work as low-cost cosmetics for the elderly; bricks made of synthetic fungi lay the walls of post-bio-mimicry architecture.

The Nature of Design is changing. It is becoming an interdisciplinary enterprise beyond form and function; a field of synthetic opportunism to serve up the last bit of molecules for grooming human needs and desires.

The Design of Nature is also changing. Apart from the sentimentalism towards pastoral days, nature, after its “synthetic turn,” is returning back as a molecular battlefield, where each species is trying to take back control from each other.

In this talk, I reflect on the changes that are fundamentally transforming our perception of design and nature today. I discuss a series of work in relation to recent advances in biological sciences and engineering. From living to semi-living, to the non-living, and, synthetically death, I will present new frontiers of design where new ways of composing, assembling, regulating, programming and tinkering life can be seen beyond cheap medicine, better-yielding crops, sustainable building materials or renewable energy, and offer a different logic of life.

Orkan Telhan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher whose investigations focus on the design of interrogative objects, interfaces, and media, engaging with critical issues in social, cultural, and environmental responsibility. Telhan is Assistant Professor of Fine Arts - Emerging Design Practices at University of Pennsylvania, School of Design.

The film demonstrates how villagers living in the Trobriand Islands, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, transformed the game of cricket into their own form of ritual and fun. Methodist missionaries introduced cricket to the Trobriand Islands in 1903, the residents then altered the game to represent their own culture. Through the creation of their own version of the sport, the Trobriand Islanders did not lose sight of the competitive nature of cricket – they just extended the game to include dancing, chanting, ritual warfare and feasting!

Come along and see how the Trobriand Islanders changed a game that we all thought we knew so well.

FREE EVENT

RSVP: Bookings essential to Alexandra Tough on [email protected] or (08) 6488 3079

A public lecture by Professor Shaun P. Collin, WA Premier’s Research Fellow, and Winthrop Professor, The UWA Oceans Institute.

The eye, and ultimately the brain, mediates the detection of light by all organisms on earth. However, eyes are all different and the levels of light available for vision vary enormously in different environments.

This lecture will examine what constitutes an “eye” and the range of functions it has in image formation and setting circadian rhythms in animals that inhabit the ocean and compare these to the eyes of terrestrial animals, including humans.

The oceans are filled with exquisite examples about how light is used for survival and many of these models are informing us of new light detection mechanisms that can be useful for understanding not only the evolution of the eye but also how important it is in maintaining optimal human health.

Cost: Free, no RSVP required.

The UWA Winthrop Singers perform a choral Evensong on Thursdays at 6pm during semester. These currently take place at St Thomas More College chapel.

Responses: Tomkins

Psalm 101

Old Testament Reading: Genesis 47:13-19

New Testament Reading: Hebrews 8:1-7

Canticles: Walmisley in d minor

Anthem: Brumel, "Agnus Dei"

The Lung Institute of WA invites you to a free seminar on: "Lung function – going global in 2012" by Professor Graham Hall from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Time: 12 noon for light lunch with 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation.

A public lecture by Professor Jean-Pierre Burg, Institute of Geology, ETH Zurich 2012 UWA Gledden Visiting Senior Fellow.

The Himalayan syntaxes, at the western and eastern extremities of the Himalaya Mountain Range, are anomalously high regions around which the mountain trends turn by nearly 180°. Geological evidence shows that both syntaxes are crustal-scale folds rose over the last 4 Ma. Concurrent erosion has dug out the rocks that were 30 km deep in the core of these mountains. Rapid exhumation of the deep crustal levels is caused by c. 10 mm a year erosion coeval with crustal scale folding, a rare mode of crustal failure under high stress and shortening rate. The eastern syntaxes, called Namche Barwa, after the central, nearly 8000 m high mountain, is traversed by the Tsangpo River, known as the Brahmaputra downstream, which has followed the trace of the India-Asia Suture for over 1300 km from its source to the doorway of the fold. The cooling history of the exposed deep rocks documents that the antecedent river has been displaced and folded by the growing antiform in which is carved the deepest canyon worldwide. Numerical modeling shows that high stressed syntaxes like in the Himalayas lead to nucleation of first-order thrust faults.This process offers an insight on the formation of major thrust systems that extend over several thousand kilometers along the Himalayan mountain system, and along which several > magnitude 8 earthquakes took place over the last century.

This lecture will examine the geological structure and geodynamic situation of Himalayan syntaxes and discuss the processes responsible for generation of earthquakes in this vulnerable region.

Cost: Free, no RSVP required.

A public lecture by Professor Eric Higgs, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Canada and 2012 UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Professor-at-Large.

The science and practice of ecological restoration have thrived for several decades on the idea that historical knowledge anchors our judgments and practice. The approach has shifted from the idea of fixed reference points to more recent process-oriented configurations. All of this is poised to change. The intensification of anthropogenic environmental and ecological change is moving the bar and the baseline: it is no longer clear what, if any, historical references are appropriate for restoration. Moreover, there are concerns that restoration as we know it may pass on, and certainly global processes of change challenge the local and regional focus of most restoration efforts.

In this lecture Professor Higgs will argue a counterintuitive position that historical fidelity will become more important, and serve as a key virtue of the future for restoration for a rapidly changing nature. This is inspired by recent writing on virtues ethics and ecological restoration. He will draw from his decade-long field project in the Canadian Rocky Mountains examining landscape change with repeat photography, and mingle this with his understanding of the emergence of hybrid and novel ecosystems.

This lecture is a part of the Institute of Advanced Studies 2012 lecture series ‘Global Transformation and Public Ethics’. This series of free public lectures aims to stimulate considered debate about urgent issues in public ethics and policy as well as reflecting on ways we can improve public discourse about such issues. For more information, visit: http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/ethics

The UWA Winthrop Singers perform a choral Evensong on Thursdays at 6pm during semester. These currently take place at St Thomas More College chapel. This week features a Nunc Dimittis by a member of the choir, settings of John Donne, and a Te Deum by New Norcia composer Dom Moreno.

Responses: Tomkins

Psalm 47

Old Testament Reading: Genesis 47:20-26

New Testament Reading: Hebrews 10:19-25

Te Deum - Moreno

Nunc Dimittis - Cardell-Oliver

Anthem: Harris, "Bring us, O Lord God"

Hymn: The day thou gavest

In a synergy of sound, the UWA Symphonic Chorus and Symphony Orchestra blend strengths in the renowned acoustic of Winthrop Hall. Under the direction of resident conductor Alan Lourens, experience the depths of emotion of these remarkable works. Wagner Meistersinger Overture/Hindemith Mathis der Maler/Mozart Requiem

The Westerly Centre, Philip Mead (Chair of Australian Literature), and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature will hold an event to celebrate the life and work of one of the most respected and admired scholars and teachers in Australian literary studies, Bruce Bennett, who sadly passed away in April this year.

The Prospective Students Office is providing a guided walking tour of UWA's Crawley Campus on the Foundation Day long weekend Monday public holiday (4 June 2012).

These tours are for prospective students who would like to find out more about studying at UWA whilst taking in the beautiful gardens and buildings at the Crawley campus.

The tour will include a stop at the Admissions Centre & Prospective Students Office, where you will be able to collect information and course brochures, and find out more about what life is like for our students.

Parents are also welcome to attend.

Tours run for approximately one hour and are available at various times throughout the year after business hours, in the school holidays, and on public holidays, so there is bound to be a time that suits you and your family!

The lecture will focus on the as yet unsuccessful attempts of the opposition to unite, and the determined campaign of the regime to crush the revolt by force. Dr Spyer will give background details and an assessment of both the regime and the insurgency, and will ask why it has been that unlike in other countries which experienced civilian uprisings in 2011, in Syria, the regime has so far managed to survive. Dr Spyer visited Idlib Province Syria in February and will provide evidence and information gathered in the course of that visit as part of the lecture.

Our emissions of carbon dioxide cause some global warming, and it has indeed warmed over the last century. But this doesn’t prove that our emissions are the main cause of that warming—there might be other, larger, natural forces on the temperature. The key question is: how much warming do our emissions cause?

We check the main predictions of the climate models against impeccably sourced, publicly-available data from our best and latest instruments. We find they got them all wrong: they exaggerated the warming of the air and oceans, they predicted a very different pattern of atmospheric warming, and they got the short-term relationship between outgoing radiation and surface warming backwards.

The latter two items are especially pertinent, because they show that the crucial amplification due to the water feedbacks (mainly humidity and clouds), that is assumed by the models, does not exist in reality. This amplification causes two-thirds of the temperature rises predicted by the models, while carbon dioxide only directly causes one third. This assumed amplification is in the models is because it was assumed in turn that our CO2 caused (nearly) all the observed warming since 1750. Now we know the models are wrong and the amplification does not exist, so presumably this assumption is wrong too.

Bio:

Dr David Evans used to consult full-time for the Australian Greenhouse Office (now the Department of Climate Change) from 1999 to 2005, and part-time 2008 to 2010, modeling Australia’s carbon in plants, debris, mulch, soils, and forestry and agricultural products. He earned six university degrees over ten years, including a PhD from Stanford University in electrical engineering (the field most advanced in dealing with feedbacks and complex systems). The evidence supporting the idea that CO2 emissions were the main cause of global warming reversed itself after 1998, causing him to move from being a warmist to a skeptic.

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public no RSVP required.

                                         ****All Welcome****

Prospective students are invited to attend one of our info sessions to learn more about how to achieve an engineering career with UWA. These sessions will explain course details, career opportunities, prerequisite subjects and how to apply, as well as providing the opportunity for attendees to ask questions and meet Faculty staff.

Whether you're coming to the end of your time at high school and are considering your university study options, or you already have an undergraduate degree and are looking to re-skill or complete postgraduate study, our 'Becoming an Engineer with UWA' information sessions will provide you with the information you need to get your career in engineering headed in the right direction.

If you can't make it to this session, further sessions will be held July - November.

Please visit the website for more information and to register your attendance.

Where do native bees live in contested urban environments? How has the colonisation and urbanisation of Perth affected native bee populations? What is the nature of the human/bee interactions and what cultural roles do they play? In the context of a global honey bee crisis, Australian colonisation, and disappearing habitats, a current art/science residency is investigating the nature of bee populations in urban areas. Whilst there is much publicity surrounding the global disappearance of the European honey bee, little attention has been paid to native bee populations and habitats.

Native and European bees are particularly important in pollinating local flora and contribute to the unique biodiversity of the South West region. They also hold unique significance for the Nyungar community. Despite the importance of native bees, little is known about the ecological and cultural consequences of Perth colonisation and urbanisation on these insects. The relationships between bees, humans and the colonisation and urbanisation of Perth are complex. Although there are over 2,000 described native bee species in Australia, 800 of which occur in WA, most are solitary and rarely seen. Nests and habitats are destroyed through landscaping, gardening and land clearing activities. There is also concern over the displacement of native bees by feral European bees.

This talk describes a project involving artists Susan Hauri-Downing and Tarsh Bates, and the Centre for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER) at UWA which combines the different perspectives of art and science to explore human/bee interactions, ecologies and place. We will also discuss the roles of artists within science research groups and show some preliminary outcomes of the residency.

In the debate about Shakespeare’s authorship that began in the nineteenth century the absence of evidence has sometimes been taken as evidence of absence. However, in recent decades a great amount has been unearthed concerning Shakespeare’s life and times. There can now be little or no doubt that Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him. Nevertheless, since some illustrious thespians of this day have sought to question Shakespeare’s authorship through the medium of the recent film, Anonymous, it is worth reconsidering the phenomenon of conspiracy theories in general and those surrounding Shakespeare in particular. Hence the title of my talk: Anonymous or Synonymous: the question of Shakespeare’s authorship revisited.

About the Speaker

Christopher Wortham is Emeritus Professor of English at UWA. Since his retirement he has worked part-time as Professor of Theatre Studies and English Literature at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Fremantle). He is also Cathedral Scholar at St George’s Cathedral, Perth. Among his recent publications are an introductory essay to the volume entitled ‘This Earthly Stage’: World and Stage in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (2010) and a chapter on ‘Meanings of the South’ in European Perceptions of Terra Australis (2011).

Free parking is available via Entrance 1, Car Park No. 3

If glass door is unmanned, please enter via spiral staircase to 1st floor, then go down the stairs to the ground floor meeting room.

Members: Free Non Members $5 donation

Water management is a key issue confronting government, the mining industry and the wider Pilbara community.

This presentation will focus on three current developments in Pilbara water management: preparation of water allocation plans (mainly for the coastal alluvial groundwater resources); the Department of Water and an inter-agency working group considering the issue of providing for the on-use of mine dewatering surplus; and preparation by the Environmental Protection Authority of a guidance note on environmental and water assessments relating to mining operations in the Fortescue Marsh area.

Biographical note

Alex Gardner is Associate Professor of Law at The University of Western Australia where he teaches Administrative Law, Environmental Law and Water Resources Law to undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Australian National University College of Law where he teaches Water Resources Law to postgraduate students. In 2010 he began teaching in the interdisciplinary postgraduate program of the International Water Centre and in 2011 he began teaching Water Law in the University of Queensland postgraduate law program.

Alex researches in Natural Resources and Environmental Law, with a special focus on Water Resources Law. He is the lead author with Richard Barlett and Janice Gray of Water Resources Law, July 2009. He is also one of three legal academics participating in the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training, established in 2009 with funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Water Commission: http://www.groundwater.com.au/ . Alex maintains an environmental law practice, assisting the Environmental Defenders Office (WA) for many years as well as private firms and companies. In recent years, he has advised the Government of Western Australia on water resources legislative reform and, in alliance with consulting firms, has advised the Australian Government on issues in the Murray Darling Basin. He is a senior sessional member of the State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia.

Lauren Butterly graduated with First Class Honours from UWA Law School and completed her honours dissertation in the area of water law. Following graduation, Lauren served as the Principal Associate to Chief Justice Wayne Martin of the Supreme Court of WA and then worked in the Resources team of Blake Dawson’s [now Ashurst] Sydney office. In January 2012, Lauren was invited to take up a research and teaching appointment at UWA Law School. Her research focuses on the legal and policy challenges of addressing cumulative impacts of the water used by mining operations in the Pilbara.

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****

DMA candidate Clare Tunney will be giving her final lecture-recital on the Bel Canto Cello next Thursday 14 June (5pm) in the Eileen Joyce Studio.

Entry is free, all welcome!