Digital illustration retains top 10 status, new blog on autism, defence showcased in Paris, ELDAC impresses, Trim’s purrfect re-creation plus supporting disaster response anywhere in the world.
Digital illustration ranked among world’s best third year in a row
Flinders University / CDW Studios have scored in the top 10 for the third year running, for Best Concept Art and Illustration School, in the international Rookies competition.
The partnership was the only Australian institute to make the category in the elite 2019 Rookies – the world’s most respected rankings for educators of artists in creative media and entertainment.
Put together with the help of 120 influential industry experts from around the world, the Rookies World School Rankings covers six categories of digital effects.
Flinders / CDW established the high standard for the hotly contested digital illustration category, holding the number one spot in both 2017 and 2018.
“We are delighted to be in the top ten once again and the only Australian-based institution to make a ranking in this category,” says Katie Cavanagh, course coordinator and lecturer for Flinders’ Bachelor of Creative Arts, Visual Effects and Entertainment Design .
“It’s a fiercely competitive global competition, and we are consistently scoring at the very top with elite digital art and illustration schools from around the world,” Ms Cavanagh says.
Students Jay Blencowe, Jonathan Wenberg and Duncan Li were placed in the 2019 competition to propel Flinders into the top 10.
A total of 500 schools entered from 89 countries, with 3458 entries submitted.
Language lecturer launches autism blog
Flinders Indonesian language lecturer Abby Witts has launched a blog in partnership with Flinders alumna Dr Erin Bulloss, a clinical psychologist, which features monthly posts about autism.
Insights about Autism: Perspectives of late-diagnosed autistic professionals is published by Psychology Today, an international platform with a large readership based out of New York.
The blog will include lived experiences by the authors as late-diagnosed autistic women.
Its first post, on autistic visibility in relation to the media response to Hannah Gadsby’s show, Douglas, went live on Friday 15 September. View it here.
Dr Erin Bulluss works in private practice and will present a guest lecture at Flinders this semester for a clinical psychology masters topic.
ELDAC wins best exhibition
The ELDAC project was awarded Best Exhibition at the recent Oceanic Palliative Care Conference Palliative Care Australia Oceanic conference, held in Perth this year over 10 to 13 September.
End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) provides information, guidance, and resources to health professionals and aged care workers to support palliative care and advance care planning to improve the care of older Australians.
Led by Flinders University, the project is conducted by a national consortium of eight partners comprising three universities and five national agencies.
The Oceanic Palliative Care Conference attracts around 1,000 delegates and is held every two years.
Ten people from Flinders manned four interactive booths representing three projects and showcasing the University’s postgraduate studies in palliative care. Professor Jennifer Tieman, Associate Professor Kim Devery, Dr Kelly Jones and Dr Deidre Morgan presented at the conference.
Defence expertise showcased in Paris
Tony Kyriacou presented to more than 30 French defence companies and other stakeholders at a French-Australia industry day held in Paris on 16 September 2019.
Hosted by the Australian Trade & Investment Commission and the Australian Defence Export Office, the aim of the event was to meet and discuss opportunities with French companies. It provided an ideal opportunity to share Flinders’ research and teaching strengths in defence-related capabilities and its many partnerships already in place.
Building global emergency response
Emergency services take on global significance during large-scale disasters, and experts at Flinders University’s Torrens Resilience Institute (TRI) are working in the background with agencies like the World Health Organization to ensure frameworks for life-saving responses are robust in the most difficult circumstances.
In one of the latest exercises, TRI Associate Director Professor Kristine Gebbie led the preparation of a common set of nursing competencies for high-stakes conditions to support workforce capacity and capability in any location across the globe.
Presenting at the recent International Council of Nurses (ICN) Conference 2019, Professor Gebbie says the framework encompasses planning and preparation, safety and security, law, communication and recovery.
“Common competencies make it easier for each nurse to act responsibly, nurses to work together effectively, and multi-professional teams to include nurses wisely,” Professor Gebbie said at the ICN conference presentation in Singapore.
Prepared in collaboration with international nursing organisations, the ICN’s Building Core Competencies in Disaster Nursing, Version 2.0 provides easy-to-apply standards to enable better coordination of resources, reduce obstacles and promote efficiencies – for use at crucial times. It will be uploaded for use via the ICN website.
Ship’s cat tale purr-fectly recreated
The fond tribute to the black and white cat Trim by British naval explorer Captain Matthew Flinders lives to tell another ‘tail’ in a new book Trim, The Cartographer’s Cat (The ship’s cat who helped Flinders map Australia), available on pre-order from Bloomsbury.
Dr Gillian Dooley has revisited Flinders’ rich biography of his beloved pet Trim in a vivid new edition of his essay A Biographical Tribute to the Memory of Trim.
The remarkable adventures of Flinders and his famous cat have gone through several printings in the past.
After the first version aimed at children was published in 1977, a more scholarly book was released in 1985 and then a pocket edition called ‘Trim: The Story of a Brave Seafaring Cat’ (1997) – all with illustrations by Annette Macarthur-Onslow.
In 2017, Sydney writer Philippa Sandall contacted historian Dr Dooley to write a new edition.
“In this latest book we’ve taken a new approach with illustrations, gone back to check the original manuscript to make sure we’ve included everything Flinders wrote (others have sometimes been abridged), and added new essays and explanatory notes,” Dr Dooley says.
“The aim is to produce a book that is scholarly but also accessible and fun.”
One of the new essays gives the story from Trim’s own point of view, based on Philippa Sandall’s extensive research into the history of animals at sea.
Dr Dooley and fellow Flinders senior research fellow Dr Danielle Clode have also just published another colonial Australia collection of stories about first encounters between European explorers and Indigenous people. The First Wave is available online from Wakefield Press.