Art in Oceania
The visual art and architecture of native Oceania, includes media such as sculpture, pottery, rock art, masks and personal decoration. In these cultures, art and architecture have usually been closely connected, for example, storehouses and meetinghouses are often decorated with elaborate carvings, and so they are presented together in this discussion.
Until the 16th and 17th centuries when European cultures happened upon the scene, Oceanic cultures maintained several forms of Neolithic technology. The only exception was in the northwest of New Guinea, where the tribes living around Geelvink Bay (Teluk Cenderawasih) traded very small quantities of metal from the Indonesians of the Moluccas (Maluku). The art of forging was carefully guarded, like a cult secret; some tools were traded but only in quantities far too small to have made much impact on usual working conditions.
Throughout the rest of Melanesia and in Polynesia and Micronesia, the basic tool remained the stone blade, which was hafted as an adze or an axe, and sometimes interchangeably as both. Tridacna shell was at times used as blades in those parts of Oceania where stone was in short supply, including Micronesia and the Solomon Islands. When obsidian was available, it was chipped into blades for use as both weapons and tools. Other suitable materials included bamboo and bivalve shells, which allow extremely sharp edges. Some fine cutting and engraving was done with unhafted boar tusks or with hafted shark and rodent teeth. Animal bones served as gouges, awls, and needles. All these instruments were employed in working wood, which with only rare exceptions was the main medium used throughout Oceania.
Clay was also employed, mainly for sculptures, for some small musical instruments (whistles), and for pottery in Melanesia and New Guinea. The creating of clay vessels was nearly exclusively women’s work, apart from in several areas in New Guinea and the northern Solomons. A typical method involved spiral coiling of rolls of clay. The decorating of the pot was the work of men.
Some working of shell and turtle shell was done with simple drilling and abrading tools. The carving of stone, although obviously providing far more difficult and time-consuming problems than wood, was employed remarkably often and occurred throughout the Pacific Islands; hammering, pecking, and polishing were the main methods. Even so resistant a material as jade was mastered by sanding with abrasives.
Paint and painting were thought to animate sculpture, at times literally, in religiosymbolic terms, as paint was considered to have magical, vivifying powers. Paints were usually ochres, with some vegetable-derived pigments. Water was the typical medium, on occasion supplemented with sap. Brushes were made from the fibrous ends of chewed or frayed sticks, small feather bundles, pieces of wood, and sometimes the most basic applicator of all, the finger. Apart from sculpture, the surfaces used for painting were rock faces, bark, and tapa (cloth made from worked bark). Rock painting was most common in Australia, where panels of bark were also used. In Melanesia, paintings were made mainly on sago-palm spathes and sheets of tapa cloth. In Polynesia the women created large quantities of tapa, which were then decorated with traditional designs using vegetable dyes. Some of the techniques they employed included painting, stenciling with leaf templates, rubbing over relief-design tables, stamping, and printing with carved bamboo rollers.
The only areas where weaving was practiced were the Caroline Islands, the Polynesian outliers east of the Solomon Islands, some of the Santa Cruz Islands, parts of Vanuatu, the Saint Matthias Group (northwest of New Ireland), and several places on the northern coast of Irian Jaya. Spinning was unknown; instead of yarn or thread, strips of banana fibre were used on a simple backstrap loom. Weaving was a woman’s craft in the Caroline and Saint Matthias islands but was practiced by men elsewhere. A form of “finger weaving,” as in net making, was used by Maori women in creating textiles from flax fibres.
The architecture of the Pacific Islands was varied and sometimes large in scale. Buildings reflected the structure and preoccupations of the societies that constructed them, with a great deal of symbolic detail. Technically, most structures in Oceania were no more than simple assemblages of poles held together with cane lashings; only in the Caroline Islands were complex methods of joining and pegging known.
Oceanic artists’ quest for media was completely opportunistic; they regarded almost anything from the lavish natural world that surrounded them as potentially usable. The marine world provided shells of all kinds, especially conus, cowrie, and nassa shells. Birds gave down, beaks, and plumes (those of the birds of paradise were especially prized); animals provided teeth, tusks, and skins; insects supplied wonderfully brilliant wing cases. The vegetable world was drawn upon for flowers, leaves, and fibres. The assembly of such materials into single objects was rare in Polynesia and Micronesia, but the practice was typical of Australian and Melanesian styles, and contributed brilliantly to their more spectacular effects. The most basic medium of all was the human body, which received both removable and permanent decorations, including scarification, enhanced by treatment to raise keloid welts in New Guinea, and tattooing with needles and pigments elsewhere.
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Sphere: Related ContentHow to get the most from your Grid-Connected Solar Power System
Ok, so you have just had your brand new grid-connected solar panels connected by your friendly accredited solar power installer.
Now, remember the first meeting you had with the sales consultant at the kitchen table. Do you recall discussing your prior energy use in the home, and what habits you should alter if you decided to get solar? If you answered yes, then you probably organised your solar quote through mysolarprice.com.au, as we only deal with solar companies that we know will educate the consumer about their typical power use and give them a better understanding of what power output the system is capable of. Some ‘fly-by-night’ solar panel companies who have only recently arrived on the scene have misled the public in the performance capacity of their grid connected systems. This has led to some mistrust and confusion in the Solar arena. Mysolarprice.com.au knows of these companies, and will not deal with the solar installers found to be giving misleading information or involved in any dishonest sales tactics.
Have you forgotten these power saving tips the solar consultant gave you? If so, don’t worry, as we have the TOP 15 tips for reducing your power consumption to get the most out of your tariff feed, whether that be Net Tariff feed or Gross Tariff feed. Some businesses with larger systems from 2kw (2 kilowatts) or more may not have to modify their behaviour at all and will still be in positive territory, that is, able to get a surplus or credit for their power. This depends on the home, roof type, shade, number of people in the home, appliance usage, and most importantly their behaviour in the home or in other words how they interact with their home. Some families work during the day and turn their standby power off, whilst doing their washing and household chores at night time. Whereas other people have an air-conditioned home office which uses a massive amount of power during the day and which does almost nothing at night. Why does this matter you may ask? If you are in a state like Queensland that has a “Net Tariff Feed” this is extremely important. This basically means you get the balance of the power you send to the grid from the amount of power youuse during the day but not at night, as solar panels do not generate power at night time. Therefore, if you are using a lot of power during daytime when your solar power system is working the hardest, you are competing or cancelling it out with the amount of power you are feeding back to the grid, or “Net” Feed. If however, you are out during the day and turn off all your appliances at the wall to eliminate inactive and active standby but only leave the essential items on like the fridge, you will be streets ahead of the rest and get more of a “net” balance which means one thing: more $$$$$$ in your pocket!
These top 15 energy saving tips range from modifying the building material of the house, to being more energy efficient, to minor behavioural modifications like turning off the lights when you leave the room. This list is in the order of the simplest minor behaviour modifications to bigger structural changes to the building material.
TOP 15 POWER-REDUCING TIPS
1.Turn the lights off when you leave the room. This is especially important if you have energy-guzzling old-fashioned incandescent lights or worse, halogen lights. I have seen people leave on 4 x tastic 500w heat lamps on in the bathroom all day. That’s an incredible 2KW or 2000 watts of power being consumed for no reason.
2.Let in natural light to the internal space. This will reduce the requirements for lights during the day.
3.Replace your incandescent light bulbs and halogens with CFL’s (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) or LED’s. They use only around a quarter or less power than the standard 75watt incandescent or 60watt halogen, and will last much longer than the standard incandescents or halogens.
4.Use Sensor CFL spotlights outside, instead of the old energy-inefficient spotlights of yesterday.
5.Turn off all standby power. This is probably the best tip I can give you for reducing your daily electricity consumption. A typical dwelling generally operates at around 10-15% standby power, so if you have a quarterly bill of $400 that means $40-$60 of that account is standby power -which does nothing! It may not seem like a great deal but that’s approx. $120-$240 a year just for not turning appliances off at the wall. A good way to control your standby is to purchase a proper standby power board.
6.Choose energy-efficient appliances. This doesn’t necessarily mean throwing out your 5-year-old fridge because it only has 2 stars, and spending $2,500 on one that is 4 star. It means if you are presented with an option of buying a new appliance, then make sure it has the highest star rating available. So if you have the money and the choice is over a 2 star 50 inch plasma TV or a 5 star 50 inch Led TV you should get the LED.
7.Turn off any second or third fridges not in use. I have found in my energy audits that a great number of people have a spare chest freezer or 20-year-old rusting fridge with deteriorated seals in a hot garage. This will account for a large chunk of your electricity bill. Sometimes I’ve opened the door and there is nothing even in there, so the fridge is running -and working overtime- for no reason.
8.Turn off the computer screens and speakers when not in use. This is so easy, but most people I come across forget to do this. If you have a Sub-Woofer with a separate power supply be sure to turn that off also when not in use.
9.Draft Sealing in Winter. If you use electric heating in winter, be sure to stop any drafts, otherwise you are simply wasting money.
10.Use ceiling fans or pedestal fans instead of air-conditioning. Air-conditioning can be one of the most expensive appliances to use in summer. If are going to use air-conditioning in summer, make sure that the room is properly sealed, the windows are covered and you have insulation in the ceiling.
11.Air-Conditioning Tips for Summer.
- Buy the right sized air-conditioner for your room -not house, unless it’s ducted. If buying ducted make sure it can be zoned.
- Buy an energy efficient inverter air-conditioner with a high star rating for both cooling and heating.
- Set the thermostat between 18-21 degrees. Every degree celsius higher that you set the a/c increases your consumption by 10%
- Re-circulate cool air from the inside rather than using hot air from outside. If the compressor is outside make sure its not sitting exposed in the western sun.
- Make sure the windows have both internal and external shading.
12.Air-Conditioning Tips for Winter.
- Set the thermostat to 23-26 degrees
- Wear warmer clothes to insulate your body so you don’t need mechanical heating
- Insulate your house as with Air-Conditioning in Summer Tips.
- Because hot air rises, a ceiling fan can be turned to the lowest setting -in reverse- as this actually pushes the warm air down towards the home’s occupants
- Avoid electric radiator heaters and electric fan heaters as they are massively expensive.
It is better to use reverse cycle air conditioning as it’s far cheaper (most people don’t know this).
13.Insulation. Reflective foil type insulation is better in sub-tropical climates such as Brisbane has, but thicker, bulky insulation such as wool/fibreglass or polyester is best suited to the more temperate climates such as Toowoomba.
14.Windows. There are plenty of things you can do to insulate your windows to stop the heat entering the place during summer, and keep it in during winter. In summer it’s important to keep direct solar radiation off the east and west windows by vertical screening, and keep it off north facing windows with big eaves or horizontal shading. This is so you can let the sun in during winter when it’s lower in the sky. These are principles known as solar passive design.
15.Hot Water. If you have an electric hot water system and you have it on the wrong tariff this can be the bulk of your bill. Generally, your hot water should be on an off-peak tariff depending on your location and retail provider. A hot water bill is normally a quarter of your electricity bill if the system is electric. If it is a relatively new heat pump it will be much less. The most effective water heating device is Solar Hot Water, with a natural gas boost.
These are just some of the basic energy-saving tips I have come across while doing household energy audits which I find most people need help with. If you can reduce your daily consumption it’s going to make it a lot easier to:
1. Keep your bills down, and
2. Make it easier for the Solar Panels to work and provide you with a bonus or credit on your next bill.
One other thing I haven’t mentioned is panel care. Your panels should be kept free of dirt and grime, as even dust on the panels can drastically reduce the panel’s performance by up to 30% or more. I will look at the process of solar panel maintenance in my next article.
If you require any further energy saving tips or solar power saving tips, then Mysolarprice.com.au can help. We provide all the solar panel infomation necessary to make a well-informed solar purchasing decision.
Mysolarprice.com.au specialise in solar power brisbane solar hot water brisbane and solar pool heating brisbane
Sphere: Related ContentAll About The New Red Laser Application For iPhones
The iPhone contains a few applications available for it and more are being created and applied to the app store all the time. Just about anybody can make an application for the iPhone and put it in the app store; all that one is required to do is show the app to Apple for screening and approval.
One helpful application is be the red laser that comes available with the Apple iPhone. The red laser lets people to scan an item and immediately have access to the available prices of that specific product online. Alongside the online comparison shopping that the barcode scanner provides, the red laser also has a number of other very useful features. For instance, you can scan a film noticed while walking around a shopping mall and the red laser will find a copy of it online and will also provide for you to have the entire film sent to your TiVo.
The red laser is also able to add items to your shopping list. For example, when a person is about to discard their toothpaste, they can scan it and it will be added on the shopping list reminding them to stock up on it next grocery shopping trip.
One can use the red laser to scan just about anything and get information that is applicable to their interests. You can try using it on a book and the red laser will be able to locate a copy of it within a nearby library. It is able to do this due to its highly developed integration with the world’s largest library catalogue -WorldCat. The red laser is also capable of looking for a copy of any book scanned and find all the online retailers which have it in stock.
In addition to finding prices and locating products, the red laser will also allow you to scan food. If someone is allergic to any ingredient, one can scan a product and then reveal the allergen info. Instead of having to look through the entire list of ingredients in the packaging, red laser will reveal a list of all the ingredients within the item and present the most common allergens within it. On top of all that, red laser could also help you eat in a healthier way by revealing the full nutritive contents within the food.
Red Laser has several other useful features -you may be surprised at the number of items you can scan and find useful information on. This is definitely an application worth buying.
If you are looking for a great provider of architectural rendering services, annual report design or web design. Brisbane businesses can contact bydaughters for a free quote and expert advice.
Sphere: Related ContentWhy you should turn to stone cladding when building your dream home
If you ask anyone who knows about stone cladding, they’re most likely to tell you one thing over everything else: it’s the bee’s knees. Really, a stack of rocks and stone never looked so good. If you’re planning at building your own dream home, you’ll want to consider including stone cladding in the final design of your house.
Far from appearing like your typical bunch of rocks stacked on top of each other, the majority of constructions that use stone cladding can look very aesthetically pleasing, not to mention dependable and very easy to construct. Stacked stone examples are far and wide and can be found in a multitude of places. Take for example a certain country retreat in the Daylesford Hills in Victoria, where they opted to use stacked stone instead of the usual sandstone walling. The architect ended up using Craft Stone European Castle Stone Golden Sand as the alternative.
The result of this was a much more pleasant design and they were able to avoid additional footings, by using timber frame & fibre cement as a substrate. This was done for use in an outdoor portion - a rock wall if you will - so it’s something that will easily catch the attention of people passing by if they ever come across it.
But of course, usage is not limited to outdoor parts of a house. Indoor use is also popular, and when it comes to cases like these, its benefits can be experienced in a number of ways of ways, whether it ends up in the kitchen or in the rumpus room.
A stacked stone fireplace can take advantage of such an architectural marvel, where a timber frame clad with fibre cement sheet can be used to create. A 12mm Standard mortar joint can be used to fit the Craft Stone Stacked Ledgestone Merlot for the construction. The best part is the whole thing can take one day to construct which brings to light the amazing cost and labor saving incentives that this could potentially bring to the table. Face it - less construction time means less construction worker costs, and fewer expenses in general.
With clear benefits such as those mentioned above, it’s no wonder that this method is becoming more and more popular. Add the fact that resulting designs can compliment just about anything, and suddenly it’s not so hard to comprehend why people say it’s the perfect design feature. Stone cladding is what dream homes are made of!
For more information about stone cladding, stacked stone and rock wall building options, please contact Craftstone Australia.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Importance of Decorative Night Lights in Interior Design
Lighting is a crucial aspect of any room. It takes a lot of effort and research to choose the right night lights, as it can make or break a room. Decorative lights can easily liven up a space, irrespective of how boring the furniture is. Lighting also plays an essential in creating the ambience in a room. Where you place these lights should also be planned carefully, as wrong placement can ruin the mood in a room.
Interior design has significantly improved throughout the years, as decorative pieces and furniture have come to present a more modern feel to them. With the evolution of interior design trends came the similar evolution of ambient lighting. Designer night lights have become one of the most important aspects of a interior design project. Choosing decorative lights that make a statement fulfills both the aesthetic and functional sides of the designing process. Whether you want classic designs or modern ones, there is definitely a lighting piece that will suit your needs and preferences.
Adding a lampshade or two in a bedroom can make a huge difference. Drop lights are also nice additions to the living room and the dining room and string lights are increasingly becoming a necessity when decorating. There are so many unique designs for night lights these days that it can be rather overwhelming to choose. Decorative lights add an attractive touch to the room and depending on the kind of light you decide to use, it can create the overall theme of the room. More contemporary designs include LED colour changing lights, large drop lights and metallic lighting fixtures. irregardless of what your interior design theme is, you can find a lighting fixture that will complement it. This even extends to the gardens and water features with outdoor lighting.
A lot of the modern lights today are also more cost-efficient they don’t consume too much electricity as they used to. It is ideal to decide on one center light and add several accent lights so that you can dim the lighting in the room should you meed to. Warm lighting can greatly influence the ambience in the room, as it is a lot more comfortable than white lights.
Chandeliers have also greatly evolved through the years. From elaborate tear drop chandeliers, they now come in varying designs and colours. Dark wrought iron chandeliers offer more minimalistic options for homes, as they are not as ornamental as traditional chandeliers but can be as beautiful in look and effect. Decorative night lights are certainly a wonderful investment, as they can improve the aesthetic element of any home.
Sphere: Related ContentPlastic Packaging Facts
Because packaging helps to monitor the present environment of a food product, it is useful in creating conditions that increase the storage life of a food. Packaging materials that are usually used for foods are usually classed as flexible (paper, thin laminates, and plastic film), semi-rigid (aluminum foil, laminates, paperboard, and thermoformed plastic), and rigid (metal, glass, and thick plastic). Plastic materials are widely used in food packaging because they are relatively inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to manipulate into desired shapes.
The selective permeability of polymer-based materials to gases, such as carbon dioxide and oxygen, as well as light and moisture, has led to the development of modified-atmosphere packaging. If the barrier properties are carefully chosen, a packaging material can maintain a modified atmosphere inside the package and thus extend the shelf life of the food product.
Dehydrated foods must be kept away from moisture during storage. Packaging materials such as polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, and polypropylene have low moisture permeability. Similarly, packaging materials with low gas permeability are used for fatty foods in order to minimize oxidation. Because fresh fruits and vegetables respire, they use packaging materials, such as polyethylene, that have high permeability to gases.
Smart packages use properties that meet the unique needs of certain foods. For example, packages produced with oxygen-absorbing materials remove oxygen from the inside of the package, thus protecting oxygen-sensitive products from oxidation. Temperature-sensitive films display an immediate change in gas permeability when they are exposed to an environment above or below a set constant. These films morph from a crystalline structure to an amorphous structure at a set temperature, causing the gas permeability to change substantially.
If you are looking for shrink packaging film and shrink wrap equipment, talk to Redblade. Redblade are the experts in plastic packaging and Cryrovac film.
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