title: Scott Base Redevelopment CEE environmental monitoring report: Year one (January 2019)

authors: O'Neill, Tanya Ann

abstract: An understanding of the soils and the underlying permafrost surrounding Scott Base is important to detect impacts of environmental change or human activities, such as the redevelopment of Scott Base, on the unique soil communities and on geomorphological processes. The Scott Base Redevelopment (SBR) is the largest project ever undertaken by New Zealand in Antarctica. It is a requirement of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty and New Zealand's Antarctica (Environmental Protection) Act (1994) that an environmental impact assessment be completed prior to any activity taking place in Antarctica. A Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation (CEE) of the project is being completed in order to support decision-making with an assessment of predicted environmental impacts linked with the redevelopment. A comprehensive monitoring programme was set up to verify the accuracy of the environmental impact assessment presented in the CEE and to detect unforeseen impacts or impacts that are more significant than expected.
The soil monitoring sites were established in January 2019 to assess current levels of biodiversity and abundance of invertebrates and microbial communities, along with soil chemical characteristics, and visual characteristics within the wider Scott Base redevelopment area. These 25 soil monitoring plots establish a baseline against which future changes can be detected. My role in the project was to determine the chemical characteristics of soil from the monitoring plots, undertake visual site assessments around each monitoring plot, measure depth to ice-cement, and install 12 passive dust samplers adjacent to the monitoring plots.
This report will give background information on the general characteristics of Scott Base soils, including information on active layer, permafrost, soil moisture, soil organisms, and evidence of natural and human induced changes to the soil-permafrost environment. This will be followed by an explanation of the methodology, results and discussion, on my aspect of this multidisciplinary project.

text: Scott Base Redevelopment CEE environmental monitoring report: Year one (January 2019) An understanding of the soils and the underlying permafrost surrounding Scott Base is important to detect impacts of environmental change or human activities, such as the redevelopment of Scott Base, on the unique soil communities and on geomorphological processes. The Scott Base Redevelopment (SBR) is the largest project ever undertaken by New Zealand in Antarctica. It is a requirement of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty and New Zealand's Antarctica (Environmental Protection) Act (1994) that an environmental impact assessment be completed prior to any activity taking place in Antarctica. A Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation (CEE) of the project is being completed in order to support decision-making with an assessment of predicted environmental impacts linked with the redevelopment. A comprehensive monitoring programme was set up to verify the accuracy of the environmental impact assessment presented in the CEE and to detect unforeseen impacts or impacts that are more significant than expected.
The soil monitoring sites were established in January 2019 to assess current levels of biodiversity and abundance of invertebrates and microbial communities, along with soil chemical characteristics, and visual characteristics within the wider Scott Base redevelopment area. These 25 soil monitoring plots establish a baseline against which future changes can be detected. My role in the project was to determine the chemical characteristics of soil from the monitoring plots, undertake visual site assessments around each monitoring plot, measure depth to ice-cement, and install 12 passive dust samplers adjacent to the monitoring plots.
This report will give background information on the general characteristics of Scott Base soils, including information on active layer, permafrost, soil moisture, soil organisms, and evidence of natural and human induced changes to the soil-permafrost environment. This will be followed by an explanation of the methodology, results and discussion, on my aspect of this multidisciplinary project.

year: 2019

title: Towards a Theory of Postmodern Humour: South Park as carnivalesque postmodern narrative impulse

authors: Franklyn, Blair Scott

subjects: South Park

abstract: The philosopher Martin Heidegger describes humour as a response to human 'thrownness' in the world.  This thesis argues that there is a form of humour which can be usefully described as postmodern humour and that postmodern humour reflects the experience of being 'thrown' into postmodernity.  Postmodern humour responds to and references the fears, fixations, frameworks and technologies which underpin our postmodern existence.  It is further contended that South Park is an example of postmodern humour in the way that it exhibits a carnivalesque postmodern narrative impulse which attacks the meta-narrative style explanations of contemporary events, trends and fashions offered in the popular media. South Park's carnivalesque humour is a complex critique on a society in which television is a primary instrument of communication, a centre-piece to many people's lives, and a barometer of contemporary culture, while at the same time drawing attention to the fact that the medium being satirised is also used to perform the critique.  

A large portion of this thesis is devoted to examining and interrogating the discursive properties of humour as compared to seriousness, an endeavour which also establishes some interesting links to postmodern philosophical discourse.  This can be succinctly summarized by the following: 
1.	Humour is a form of discourse which simultaneously refers to two frames of reference, or associative contexts.  Therefore humour is a bissociative form of discourse.
2.	Seriousness is a form of discourse which relies on a singular associative context.
3.	The legally and socially instituted rules which govern everyday life use serious discourse as a matter of practical necessity.  
4.	Ambiguity, transgression and deviancy are problematic to serious discourse (and therefore the official culture in which it circulates), but conventions of humorous discourse.
5.	Humorous discourse then, challenges the singularity and totality of the official discourses which govern everyday life.  Subsequently, humour has been subjected to a variety of controls, most notably the 'policing the body' documented in the writings of Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault.   
6.	Humour can therefore be understood to function in a manner similar to Jean-Fran ois Lyotard's concept of little-narrative's, which destabilize the totality of official meta-narratives. 

Furthermore, this thesis proposes strong links between the oppositional practices of the medieval carnival, as outlined by Mikhail Bakhtin, and the produced-for-mass-consumption humour of South Park.  However, it also demonstrates that although South Park embodies the oppositional spirit of the carnival, it lacks its fundamentally social nature, and therefore lacks its politically resistant potency.  More specifically it is argued that the development and prevalence of technologies such as television, video/DVD, and the internet, allows us to access humour at any time we wish. However, this temporal freedom is contrasted by the spatial constraints inherent in these communication/media technologies.  Rather than officially sanctioned times and places for carnivalesque social gatherings, today, individuals have the 'liberty' of free (private) access to carnivalesque media texts, which simultaneously help to restrict the freedom of social contact that the carnival used to afford.  Further to this, it is argued that the fact that South Park, with its explicit derision of authority, is allowed to circulate through mainstream media at all, implies asymmetric conservative action on the part of officialdom.  In this sense it is argued that postmodern humour such as South Park is allowed to circulate because the act of watching/consuming the programme also acts as a deterrent to actual radical activity.

text: Towards a Theory of Postmodern Humour: South Park as carnivalesque postmodern narrative impulse The philosopher Martin Heidegger describes humour as a response to human 'thrownness' in the world.  This thesis argues that there is a form of humour which can be usefully described as postmodern humour and that postmodern humour reflects the experience of being 'thrown' into postmodernity.  Postmodern humour responds to and references the fears, fixations, frameworks and technologies which underpin our postmodern existence.  It is further contended that South Park is an example of postmodern humour in the way that it exhibits a carnivalesque postmodern narrative impulse which attacks the meta-narrative style explanations of contemporary events, trends and fashions offered in the popular media. South Park's carnivalesque humour is a complex critique on a society in which television is a primary instrument of communication, a centre-piece to many people's lives, and a barometer of contemporary culture, while at the same time drawing attention to the fact that the medium being satirised is also used to perform the critique.  

A large portion of this thesis is devoted to examining and interrogating the discursive properties of humour as compared to seriousness, an endeavour which also establishes some interesting links to postmodern philosophical discourse.  This can be succinctly summarized by the following: 
1.	Humour is a form of discourse which simultaneously refers to two frames of reference, or associative contexts.  Therefore humour is a bissociative form of discourse.
2.	Seriousness is a form of discourse which relies on a singular associative context.
3.	The legally and socially instituted rules which govern everyday life use serious discourse as a matter of practical necessity.  
4.	Ambiguity, transgression and deviancy are problematic to serious discourse (and therefore the official culture in which it circulates), but conventions of humorous discourse.
5.	Humorous discourse then, challenges the singularity and totality of the official discourses which govern everyday life.  Subsequently, humour has been subjected to a variety of controls, most notably the 'policing the body' documented in the writings of Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault.   
6.	Humour can therefore be understood to function in a manner similar to Jean-Fran ois Lyotard's concept of little-narrative's, which destabilize the totality of official meta-narratives. 

Furthermore, this thesis proposes strong links between the oppositional practices of the medieval carnival, as outlined by Mikhail Bakhtin, and the produced-for-mass-consumption humour of South Park.  However, it also demonstrates that although South Park embodies the oppositional spirit of the carnival, it lacks its fundamentally social nature, and therefore lacks its politically resistant potency.  More specifically it is argued that the development and prevalence of technologies such as television, video/DVD, and the internet, allows us to access humour at any time we wish. However, this temporal freedom is contrasted by the spatial constraints inherent in these communication/media technologies.  Rather than officially sanctioned times and places for carnivalesque social gatherings, today, individuals have the 'liberty' of free (private) access to carnivalesque media texts, which simultaneously help to restrict the freedom of social contact that the carnival used to afford.  Further to this, it is argued that the fact that South Park, with its explicit derision of authority, is allowed to circulate through mainstream media at all, implies asymmetric conservative action on the part of officialdom.  In this sense it is argued that postmodern humour such as South Park is allowed to circulate because the act of watching/consuming the programme also acts as a deterrent to actual radical activity.

year: 2006

title: Indigidata Aotearoa post-event summary report 2023

authors: Te Kotahi Research Institute

subjects: Indigenous Data Sovereignty

abstract: From the 21st to the 24th of August, the inaugural Indigidata Aotearoa 2023 was held at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. In recent years there has been significant advances in the fields of Indigenous data science and sovereignty. The Indigidata Aotearoa programme was designed to develop an understanding of Indigenous data science and sovereignty alongside some of the best researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The fully funded wānanga was open to Māori (tauira, kaitiaki, kaipakihi) participants from across Aotearoa. Applications were received from more than 35 respondents, and 23 tauira Māori attended the inaugural event.

text: Indigidata Aotearoa post-event summary report 2023 From the 21st to the 24th of August, the inaugural Indigidata Aotearoa 2023 was held at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. In recent years there has been significant advances in the fields of Indigenous data science and sovereignty. The Indigidata Aotearoa programme was designed to develop an understanding of Indigenous data science and sovereignty alongside some of the best researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The fully funded wānanga was open to Māori (tauira, kaitiaki, kaipakihi) participants from across Aotearoa. Applications were received from more than 35 respondents, and 23 tauira Māori attended the inaugural event.

year: 2023