This article examines the disruptive role that fog and associated weather conditions play in human livelihood activities undertaken on and around the Grand Banks of the north-western Atlantic, the affective atmosphere they create and their effect on human participants. After an introduction to the position and nature of the Grand Banks, relevant weather systems, ocean currents and iceberg trajectories through the region, the article profiles the nature of fishing (and, subsequently, oil extraction) in the area, of the precarity of livelihood activities undertaken and their reflection and inscription in various media. This approach identifies the manner in which aquapelagos (integrated terrestrial and marine systems) are not necessarily safe or stable entities – even in the shortest of terms – and can, indeed, represent assemblages in which humans are stressed and threatened. Within this, the case study examines the manner in which fog is not so much an uncomfortable intrusion into an otherwise manageable industrial operation as a key characteristic to be accommodated. The experience of fog is crucial to the social experience of the Grand Banks and of the aquapelago that is constituted around it. Substantial consideration is also given to the atmospherics of Grand Banks fog in literature and visual art and of the imaginative space created for it.
{"title":"Extraordinarily Hazardous","authors":"P. Hayward","doi":"10.1344/co2023347-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co2023347-24","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the disruptive role that fog and associated weather conditions play in human livelihood activities undertaken on and around the Grand Banks of the north-western Atlantic, the affective atmosphere they create and their effect on human participants. After an introduction to the position and nature of the Grand Banks, relevant weather systems, ocean currents and iceberg trajectories through the region, the article profiles the nature of fishing (and, subsequently, oil extraction) in the area, of the precarity of livelihood activities undertaken and their reflection and inscription in various media. This approach identifies the manner in which aquapelagos (integrated terrestrial and marine systems) are not necessarily safe or stable entities – even in the shortest of terms – and can, indeed, represent assemblages in which humans are stressed and threatened. Within this, the case study examines the manner in which fog is not so much an uncomfortable intrusion into an otherwise manageable industrial operation as a key characteristic to be accommodated. The experience of fog is crucial to the social experience of the Grand Banks and of the aquapelago that is constituted around it. Substantial consideration is also given to the atmospherics of Grand Banks fog in literature and visual art and of the imaginative space created for it.","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87781104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consumed in the fog","authors":"Erin Malley","doi":"10.1344/co20233446-50","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20233446-50","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88149505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Receiving an Aurealis Award for best horror novel in 2019, The Rich Man’s House tells the story of events that unfold within and around the mansion commissioned by Walter Richman on a mythical mountain in the Southern Ocean near Tasmania, Australia. The external atmosphere around Richman’s house consists of elemental forces or “presences” that become increasingly sinister. These external elements and the architectural atmosphere of the house create disturbing uncertainties about how to interpret the events of the novel. Collapsing traditional notions of background and foreground, McGahan’s novel is susceptible to “an atmospheric reading” (Chandler, 199) that includes but exceeds the fogs, clouds, mists and winds that are its partial constituents.
{"title":"Effects of Atmosphere in Andrew McGahan’s “The Rich Man’s House”","authors":"Marea Mitchell","doi":"10.1344/co20233457-70","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20233457-70","url":null,"abstract":"Receiving an Aurealis Award for best horror novel in 2019, The Rich Man’s House tells the story of events that unfold within and around the mansion commissioned by Walter Richman on a mythical mountain in the Southern Ocean near Tasmania, Australia. The external atmosphere around Richman’s house consists of elemental forces or “presences” that become increasingly sinister. These external elements and the architectural atmosphere of the house create disturbing uncertainties about how to interpret the events of the novel. Collapsing traditional notions of background and foreground, McGahan’s novel is susceptible to “an atmospheric reading” (Chandler, 199) that includes but exceeds the fogs, clouds, mists and winds that are its partial constituents.","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77294735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article uses diatoms and the role they play in cloud formation as a prompt to consider histories of weather modification in practice, science fiction and possible future applications to address climate change. Diatoms are a form of microalgae that are present in all waterways and contribute significantly to atmospheric oxygen. They also provide condensation nuclei around which water droplets form, effectively creating clouds. Such naturally occurring particulate matter interacts with intentional and unintentional anthropogenic influence on the atmosphere. The long history of folk speculation and scientific experimentation about effective ways of seeding clouds for rain can help us consider the potential impacts of new forms of atmospheric intervention. From the use of algae as a tool for bioremediation to marine cloud brightening techniques, a multiscalar ecological awareness needs to be publicly fostered in making choices about how to influence climate futures.
{"title":"Future Clouds","authors":"Benjamin Kidder Hodges","doi":"10.1344/co202334112-120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co202334112-120","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses diatoms and the role they play in cloud formation as a prompt to consider histories of weather modification in practice, science fiction and possible future applications to address climate change. Diatoms are a form of microalgae that are present in all waterways and contribute significantly to atmospheric oxygen. They also provide condensation nuclei around which water droplets form, effectively creating clouds. Such naturally occurring particulate matter interacts with intentional and unintentional anthropogenic influence on the atmosphere. The long history of folk speculation and scientific experimentation about effective ways of seeding clouds for rain can help us consider the potential impacts of new forms of atmospheric intervention. From the use of algae as a tool for bioremediation to marine cloud brightening techniques, a multiscalar ecological awareness needs to be publicly fostered in making choices about how to influence climate futures.","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76722589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vicente Bicudo de Castro, Heitor Coelho, Danilo Bantim Frambach
We live in a world increasingly dominated by technology, and there are many technological advances that we frequently use about which we know very little. Among them, one we know mostly through metaphor stands out: “cloudification”. Metaphors play a central role in our understanding of the concepts and ideas that present themselves, revealing for the first time something that was already there. In this way, we propose the term mistification as a more accurate expression of the current technocratic/technological status quo for which the terms “cloud” and “cloudification” are used. The proposed term – a neologism – conveys elements of Gothic horror which, we hope, precisely capture the current experience of end-users of the cloud. Using New Dark Age (Bridle, 2018) as a point of departure, we propose an analogy between end-users of the cloud with players in a Gothic horror role-playing game, namely the Ravenloft campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Similarly to players in a Gothic horror game, end-users remain ignorant and helpless against all too powerful technocratic/technological giants and their pursuits. This article adds elements belonging to a horror role-playing game campaign setting to a wider cross-disciplinary discussion regarding human-machine interaction.
我们生活在一个越来越被技术主导的世界,有许多我们经常使用却知之甚少的技术进步。其中,我们主要通过隐喻了解的“云化”最为突出。隐喻在我们理解概念和想法的过程中起着核心作用,它第一次揭示了一些已经存在的东西。通过这种方式,我们建议使用术语mistification来更准确地表达使用术语“云”和“云化”的当前技术官僚/技术现状。这个提议的术语——一个新词——传达了哥特式恐怖的元素,我们希望它能准确地捕捉到云终端用户的当前体验。以《New Dark Age》(Bridle, 2018)为出发点,我们将云的最终用户与哥特式恐怖角色扮演游戏中的玩家进行类比,即《龙与地下城》中的Ravenloft战役设置。与哥特式恐怖游戏中的玩家类似,终端用户对所有过于强大的技术官僚/技术巨头及其追求保持无知和无助。这篇文章将恐怖角色扮演游戏的战役背景元素添加到关于人机交互的跨学科讨论中。
{"title":"Mistification","authors":"Vicente Bicudo de Castro, Heitor Coelho, Danilo Bantim Frambach","doi":"10.1344/co20233491-111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20233491-111","url":null,"abstract":"We live in a world increasingly dominated by technology, and there are many technological advances that we frequently use about which we know very little. Among them, one we know mostly through metaphor stands out: “cloudification”. Metaphors play a central role in our understanding of the concepts and ideas that present themselves, revealing for the first time something that was already there. In this way, we propose the term mistification as a more accurate expression of the current technocratic/technological status quo for which the terms “cloud” and “cloudification” are used. The proposed term – a neologism – conveys elements of Gothic horror which, we hope, precisely capture the current experience of end-users of the cloud. Using New Dark Age (Bridle, 2018) as a point of departure, we propose an analogy between end-users of the cloud with players in a Gothic horror role-playing game, namely the Ravenloft campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Similarly to players in a Gothic horror game, end-users remain ignorant and helpless against all too powerful technocratic/technological giants and their pursuits. This article adds elements belonging to a horror role-playing game campaign setting to a wider cross-disciplinary discussion regarding human-machine interaction.","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81079345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since the 1930s there have been over a thousand recorded sightings of monsters in Loch Ness, Scotland. The consensus of experts is these reports of mysterious creatures (known in Scottish Highlands folklore as Nessie) have mundane or prosaic explanations such as hoaxes, wakes, mirages, misidentifications of floating objects (e.g., natural debris, boats) and known native fauna (e.g., deer, otters, diving birds), opposed to extraordinary or unusual explanations such as exotic fauna, escaped animals from traveling circuses, relict plesiosaurs and unknown or elusive species (e.g., ‘long-necked’ pinniped, giant eel). After providing an overview of the different hypotheses and a history of the search for the Loch Ness Monster – the author of this paper argues a rare meteorological phenomenon might explain some monster sightings in the loch during twilight hours between May and August – reflections of noctilucent clouds (NLCs).
{"title":"Nessie and Noctilucent Clouds","authors":"Oliver D. Smith","doi":"10.1344/co20233425-45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20233425-45","url":null,"abstract":"Since the 1930s there have been over a thousand recorded sightings of monsters in Loch Ness, Scotland. The consensus of experts is these reports of mysterious creatures (known in Scottish Highlands folklore as Nessie) have mundane or prosaic explanations such as hoaxes, wakes, mirages, misidentifications of floating objects (e.g., natural debris, boats) and known native fauna (e.g., deer, otters, diving birds), opposed to extraordinary or unusual explanations such as exotic fauna, escaped animals from traveling circuses, relict plesiosaurs and unknown or elusive species (e.g., ‘long-necked’ pinniped, giant eel). After providing an overview of the different hypotheses and a history of the search for the Loch Ness Monster – the author of this paper argues a rare meteorological phenomenon might explain some monster sightings in the loch during twilight hours between May and August – reflections of noctilucent clouds (NLCs).","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79112217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"My Mother’s Ghosts","authors":"S. Lazaroo","doi":"10.1344/co20233451-56","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20233451-56","url":null,"abstract":"Short story from an Asian-Australian perspective.","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"115 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79174847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes weather as enabler of, and able to make, cinematic art. I begin by exploring philosophies of weather and air, and then look at early films where meteoro-logical phenomena receive acute attention alongside related media analyses. Afterwards I analyze two artworks, by Madge Evers and Anna Scime. Each was made by mush-rooms sporifying on receptive media, respectively paper and analog film. This article includes original interviews with both artists.I identify fresh ways of understanding cinema but also weatherly and fungal creativity. Analyzing such artworks, I also think about how artists can develop art practices able to galvanize instead of eviscerate futurity. Consequently, I not only investigate more-than-human creativity, but explore how cinema can facilitate instead of block ecological heal-ing.
{"title":"Weather as cinema","authors":"C. Dymond","doi":"10.1344/co20233471-90","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20233471-90","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes weather as enabler of, and able to make, cinematic art. I begin by exploring philosophies of weather and air, and then look at early films where meteoro-logical phenomena receive acute attention alongside related media analyses. Afterwards I analyze two artworks, by Madge Evers and Anna Scime. Each was made by mush-rooms sporifying on receptive media, respectively paper and analog film. This article includes original interviews with both artists.I identify fresh ways of understanding cinema but also weatherly and fungal creativity. Analyzing such artworks, I also think about how artists can develop art practices able to galvanize instead of eviscerate futurity. Consequently, I not only investigate more-than-human creativity, but explore how cinema can facilitate instead of block ecological heal-ing.","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83636479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inserting the discourse within an existentialist framework, this paper examines our existence of interrupted realities through the lens of Kierkegaardian thoughts and also draws on Simone de Beauvoir’s “Qu’est-ce que l’existentialisme?” (1947). As we navigate a surrealist time of COVID-19 (ab)normal, the lingering pandemic has left an impact on a both societal and psychosocial level. With societies across the globe facing continuous restrictions, what happens to free will? De Beauvoir defines our raison d’être as the individual having reality “only through his engagement in the world”. In this period of limited individual freedom, can we still talk of free will and how shall we engage with this all-pervasive, rule-changing pandemic ‘New Normal’?
本文将话语插入到存在主义的框架中,通过克尔凯郭尔思想的镜头来审视我们被打断的现实的存在,并借鉴西蒙娜·德·波伏娃的“Qu 'est-ce que l 'existentialisme ?””(1947)。当我们度过COVID-19 (ab)正常的超现实主义时期时,持续的大流行对社会和心理社会层面都造成了影响。随着全球社会面临不断的限制,自由意志会发生什么?波伏娃将我们存在être的理由定义为个体“只有通过参与世界”才能拥有现实。在这个个人自由有限的时期,我们还能谈论自由意志吗?我们该如何应对这种无所不在、改变规则的大流行“新常态”?
{"title":"Pandemic as Polemic: Free Will in an Age of Restrictions?","authors":"Jytte Holmqvist","doi":"10.1344/co20223314-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1344/co20223314-24","url":null,"abstract":"Inserting the discourse within an existentialist framework, this paper examines our existence of interrupted realities through the lens of Kierkegaardian thoughts and also draws on Simone de Beauvoir’s “Qu’est-ce que l’existentialisme?” (1947). As we navigate a surrealist time of COVID-19 (ab)normal, the lingering pandemic has left an impact on a both societal and psychosocial level. With societies across the globe facing continuous restrictions, what happens to free will? De Beauvoir defines our raison d’être as the individual having reality “only through his engagement in the world”. In this period of limited individual freedom, can we still talk of free will and how shall we engage with this all-pervasive, rule-changing pandemic ‘New Normal’?","PeriodicalId":10741,"journal":{"name":"Coolabah","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82548896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}