title: Why aren't we all living in Smart Homes

authors: Suppers, Joris

abstract: Visions of the Future, like the Jetsons cartoons, show homes which are smart and able to control household appliances, to make living easier and more comfortable. Although much research has been carried out into the effectiveness of different visualisation techniques for conveying useful energy consumption information to householders, and in techniques for controlling the timing and coordination of appliance use, these techniques have failed to achieve widespread penetration, and the vision still seems far from a reality. This paper examines the reasons why smart home technologies have so far failed to have any real impact, which is intricately intertwined with the design of visualisations in this context, and why we are not already living in Smart Homes. It examines these questions under four sections: Technology, Consumers, Electricity retailers and Government agencies, using examples from New Zealand’s electricity sector.

text: Why aren't we all living in Smart Homes Visions of the Future, like the Jetsons cartoons, show homes which are smart and able to control household appliances, to make living easier and more comfortable. Although much research has been carried out into the effectiveness of different visualisation techniques for conveying useful energy consumption information to householders, and in techniques for controlling the timing and coordination of appliance use, these techniques have failed to achieve widespread penetration, and the vision still seems far from a reality. This paper examines the reasons why smart home technologies have so far failed to have any real impact, which is intricately intertwined with the design of visualisations in this context, and why we are not already living in Smart Homes. It examines these questions under four sections: Technology, Consumers, Electricity retailers and Government agencies, using examples from New Zealand’s electricity sector.

year: 2014

title: A Literary and Cultural History of Military Science Fiction and the United States of America, 1870s-2010s

authors: Nicholson, Blair

subjects: History

abstract: This thesis is both a literary history of the military science fiction (military SF) subgenre and a cultural history of the United States of America during the twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries. This thesis academically rehabilitates a neglected literary subgenre, and utilises it to prove the efficacy of using literary texts, specifically science fiction (SF) texts, in the study of cultural history. It expands both the sources and methods of interpretation open to cultural historians. Employing the military SF subgenre as its archive, it examines the military SF narratives’ engagement – through extrapolation, metaphor and allegory, as well as didacticism – with their historical-cultural contexts and those contexts’ popular rhetorics, adopting methodologies from cultural history, the history of ideas, and the literary New Historicism. In addition to looking at period-specific themes – ranging from the emergence of the military-industrial complex and consensus anticommunism during the 1950s, through soldier alienation and the ‘cult of the mercenary’ during the Vietnam and post-Vietnam era of the 1970s and 1980s, to the renewed American Exceptionalism and military-civilian divide of the 2000s – this thesis focuses on American attitudes towards militarism and militarisation. The concept of militarism also provides a foundational division in the subgenre, between the two ‘streams’ of militaristic military SF and antimilitaristic military SF. This thesis, however, shows that the subgenre has primarily been sympathetic to militaristic and right-wing rhetorics, support for which has become increasingly strident in modern military SF.

text: A Literary and Cultural History of Military Science Fiction and the United States of America, 1870s-2010s This thesis is both a literary history of the military science fiction (military SF) subgenre and a cultural history of the United States of America during the twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries. This thesis academically rehabilitates a neglected literary subgenre, and utilises it to prove the efficacy of using literary texts, specifically science fiction (SF) texts, in the study of cultural history. It expands both the sources and methods of interpretation open to cultural historians. Employing the military SF subgenre as its archive, it examines the military SF narratives’ engagement – through extrapolation, metaphor and allegory, as well as didacticism – with their historical-cultural contexts and those contexts’ popular rhetorics, adopting methodologies from cultural history, the history of ideas, and the literary New Historicism. In addition to looking at period-specific themes – ranging from the emergence of the military-industrial complex and consensus anticommunism during the 1950s, through soldier alienation and the ‘cult of the mercenary’ during the Vietnam and post-Vietnam era of the 1970s and 1980s, to the renewed American Exceptionalism and military-civilian divide of the 2000s – this thesis focuses on American attitudes towards militarism and militarisation. The concept of militarism also provides a foundational division in the subgenre, between the two ‘streams’ of militaristic military SF and antimilitaristic military SF. This thesis, however, shows that the subgenre has primarily been sympathetic to militaristic and right-wing rhetorics, support for which has become increasingly strident in modern military SF.

year: 2016

title: Indigenising the screen: Screenplay and critical analysis for The Prophet

authors: Bristowe, Joseph Curtis

subjects: indiginization

abstract: This thesis tests the hypothesis that it is possible to both decolonise and indigenise the New Zealand cinema screen. Secondary research reveals how those discourses that promoted roles and expectations for Māori within the New Zealand film industry were based principally upon historical colonial ideologies imposed by various means upon the native populous, and subsequently reproduced. These discourses of race, gender and religion perpetuate negative belief systems about Māori and contribute to the reproduction of stereotypical images of Māori, such as the irrational, naive, simpleminded and warlike Māori man, or the domesticated, lustful and sexually available Māori woman. 

Research by creative practice advances the project of decolonising the New Zealand screen through the writing of a feature length screenplay based on careful research and intimate cultural knowledge, and by working according to an appropriate kaupapa Māori framework. The resulting screenplay, The Prophet, brings to life the multitude of forces that coalesced to shape the life of 19th century Māori warrior and prophet, Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki. In his death, as in his life, he remains an enigmatic figure. In written accounts and in Pākehā memories he appears as a violent rebel, mass murderer and religious fanatic. This epic re-telling focuses on the character of Te Kooti, showing him to be a man who accomplished great feats in the face of injustice, adversity and hardship. 
A critical analysis of the screenplay reveals how I adopted a unique cross cultural writing approach drawing upon both the 'classic' western narrative structure as well as kaupapa Māori pūrākau oral tradition. I argue that this approach combines effectively to materialise strong anti-colonial perspectives aimed specifically at subverting long-held and dominant colonial discourses. Such an approach to scriptwriting rejects the tradition of being defined, constructed and represented through discourses that serve to promote the interests of the Pākehā majority and, in doing so, urges the utilisation of Māori philosophies, concepts and practices in the scriptwriting/film production process.

text: Indigenising the screen: Screenplay and critical analysis for The Prophet This thesis tests the hypothesis that it is possible to both decolonise and indigenise the New Zealand cinema screen. Secondary research reveals how those discourses that promoted roles and expectations for Māori within the New Zealand film industry were based principally upon historical colonial ideologies imposed by various means upon the native populous, and subsequently reproduced. These discourses of race, gender and religion perpetuate negative belief systems about Māori and contribute to the reproduction of stereotypical images of Māori, such as the irrational, naive, simpleminded and warlike Māori man, or the domesticated, lustful and sexually available Māori woman. 

Research by creative practice advances the project of decolonising the New Zealand screen through the writing of a feature length screenplay based on careful research and intimate cultural knowledge, and by working according to an appropriate kaupapa Māori framework. The resulting screenplay, The Prophet, brings to life the multitude of forces that coalesced to shape the life of 19th century Māori warrior and prophet, Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki. In his death, as in his life, he remains an enigmatic figure. In written accounts and in Pākehā memories he appears as a violent rebel, mass murderer and religious fanatic. This epic re-telling focuses on the character of Te Kooti, showing him to be a man who accomplished great feats in the face of injustice, adversity and hardship. 
A critical analysis of the screenplay reveals how I adopted a unique cross cultural writing approach drawing upon both the 'classic' western narrative structure as well as kaupapa Māori pūrākau oral tradition. I argue that this approach combines effectively to materialise strong anti-colonial perspectives aimed specifically at subverting long-held and dominant colonial discourses. Such an approach to scriptwriting rejects the tradition of being defined, constructed and represented through discourses that serve to promote the interests of the Pākehā majority and, in doing so, urges the utilisation of Māori philosophies, concepts and practices in the scriptwriting/film production process.

year: 2009