2009 AAANZ Conference Abstracts - The Art Association of Australia ...

of them. Following this, we draw upon in-depth observational
and interview data from some immigrant Iranian families living
in Australia to examine the ways in which young girls from this
non-Western cultural and social background engage with these
artefacts in their homes. We examine the ways in which our
participants use these objects to develop their engagement with
the world, and how their relationship with the dolls is co-shaped
by the dolls’ techno-social role. Finally, we discuss how the
specific design elements of these dolls are able to further or
restrict this relationship.
Naghmeh Nouri Esfahani is a PhD student at the University of
South Australia and a tutor in design courses at the University of
South Australia.
Robert Crocker is Senior Lecturer in division of Education, Arts
and Social Sciences.
3. Understanding Artefacts: Reading Heidegger’s
Analysis of ‘Dasein’s Everydayness’ as Practice Theory
Dr Sally MacLaughlin
Practice theory provides an alternative to three approaches that
currently dominate the study of culture: culturalist mentalism,
textualism, intersubjectivism. Practice theory looks to
background practices as the basis of our shared understanding
of the world.
Along with Wittgenstein, Heidegger is recognised as a key figure
in the development of practice theory and yet the concept of
background practices is not explicitly thematized in Heidegger’s
work. Hubert Dreyfus has been influential in drawing out the
relevance of Heidegger to practice theory. Dreyfus’ exposition of
Division one of Being and Time in effect constitutes a practice
theory reading of Heidegger’s analysis of the ‘everydayness of
Dasein.’ In this paper I will explore Dreyfus’ rationale for locating
background practices at the heart of his reading of Being and
Time. I consider the Heideggerian concepts of the ‘ready-tohand,’
the ‘referential whole of significance’ and ‘thrownness,’
drawing out potential relationships between these concepts and
the concept of background practices.
In an overview of the central tenants of practice theory, Andreas
Reckwitz characterises a ‘practice’ as ‘a routinized type of
behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to
one other: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities,
“things” and their use, a background knowledge in the form of
understanding, know how, states of emotion and motivational
knowledge.’ I interrogate this concept of a ‘practice’ in the
light of the interconnection between aspects of our everyday
understanding of the world explored by Heidegger in Being and
Time: interactions between ‘equipment,’ ‘equipmental wholes,’
the ‘in-order-to,’ the ‘towards-which,’ the ‘for-the-sake-ofwhich,’
‘regions,’ ‘attunement,’ ‘talk’ and ‘care.’ I close with a
discussion of how we might bring a Heideggerian practice theory
perspective to our understanding of artefacts and the culture of
design.
Sally McLaughlin is a Lecturer in Visual Communications
Design at the University of Technology, Sydney.
4. Death in Arcadia: No Need to Panic Grahame Kime
Nicholas Poussin’s Et in Arcdia Ego (Louvre, circa late 1630s) has
given rise to divergent art historical interpretations. In the works
of Erwin Panofsky, Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey,
and Judith Bernstock the painting is considered as meditation
on death, an elegy of memory and friendship, and a prelude to a
‘golden age’ of French dynastic rule. It aligns with the temper of
Sheila McTighe’s association of Poussin with the libertinage and
offers Louis Marin an opportunity to critique the theoretical and
methodological process of Panofsky. Against this background
of art historical discourse I propose to explore the iconography
of Et in Arcadia Ego as a measure of discourses in 17th century
science and philosophy. Poussin’s use of Arcadian iconography,
an image associated with sensual pleasure and the conception
of the locus amoenus, the ancient poet’s descriptions of the
‘fresh, green comforts, or pleasance representative of nature’s
intimate “places of delight”, might also be considered as a place
of reason. In answer to the question posed by the painting,
‘Who once lived in Arcadia’ my paper will examine relationships
between the image of Poussin’s Arcadia and the developments
of 17th century thought as represented in particular by Cartesian
rationalism. Whereas Arcadia may be thought of historically as a
place of sensual pleasures I propose to examine whether, at least
in Poussin’s case, it is not also the image of a rational, quantifiable
world. My examination of this question will be through a visual
analysis of the painting and the currents of intellectual inquiry in
the 17 th century that intersected with an antagonised conception
of antiquity.
Grahame Kime is Arts Centre Coordinator for Hazelhurst
Regional Gallery and Arts Centre. His previous curatorial work
includes Heaven on Earth; Visions of Arcadia and Flora: Still Life
Moving Fast both exhibitions held at Hazelhurst. He is currently
assisting with an exhibition based on a private collection of
Australian art and curating a survey of the artist Shen Jiawei,
Shen Jiawei: From Mao to Now. Both exhibitions will be held in
2010. Grahame holds a Master of Arts by coursework from the
University of Sydney and is currently undertaking a Masters by
Research with a thesis focused on Nicholas Poussin.
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