Art in Oceania

The visual art and architecture of native Oceania, includes media such as sculpture, pottery, rock art, basketry and personal decoration. In these cultures, art and architecture have often been closely connected, e.g. storehouses and meetinghouses have been decorated with beautiful carvings, and so they are presented together in this discussion.

Until the 16th and 17th centuries when European societies appeared upon the scene, Oceanic cultures maintained various forms of Neolithic technology. One 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 zealously guarded, virtually as a cult secret; some tools were traded but only in quantities too small to have made much impact on normal working conditions.

Throughout the rest of Melanesia and in Polynesia and Micronesia, the basic tool was the stone blade, which was hafted as an adze or an axe, and sometimes interchangeably as both. Tridacna shell was occasionally used as blades in those parts of Oceania where stone was in short supply, including Micronesia and the Solomon Islands. When obsidian became available, it was chipped into blades for use as both weapons and tools. Other suitable materials included bamboo and bivalve shells, which take very 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 tools were used in working wood, which with only rare exceptions was the main medium used throughout Oceania.

Clay was also employed, in the main for sculptures, for some small musical instruments (whistles), and for pottery in Melanesia and New Guinea. The creating of pottery vessels was almost 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 equipment. The carving of stone, although obviously providing far more arduous and time-consuming problems than wood, was used remarkably often and occurred throughout the Pacific Islands; hammering, pecking, and polishing were the main methods. Even such a hard a material as jade was mastered by sanding with abrasives.

Paint and painting were thought to animate sculpture, sometimes literally, in religiosymbolic terms, as paint was considered to have magical, vivifying powers. Paints were usually ochres, with other vegetable-derived pigments. Water was the typical medium, on occasion added to with sap. Brushes were made from the fibrous ends of chewed or frayed sticks, small feather bundles, pieces of wood, and sometimes the most elementary applicator of all, the finger. Apart from sculpture, the surfaces used for painting were rock faces, bark, and tapa (cloth made from pounded bark). Rock painting was very common in Australia, where panels of bark were also used. In Melanesia, paintings were made mainly on sago-palm leaves and sheets of tapa cloth. In Polynesia the women created great quantities of tapa, which they then decorated with abstract designs using vegetable dyes. The techniques they used 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, a small number 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 occasionally large in scale. Buildings reflected the structure and preoccupations of the societies that constructed them, with much 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 ocean provided shells of all kinds, especially conus, cowrie, and nassa shells. Birds gave down, beaks, and plumes (those of the birds of paradise were particularly 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 gathering of such materials into single objects was uncommon 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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How 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 initial meeting you had with the sales consultant by the kitchen table. Do you recall discussing your previous 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 engage solar companies that we are certain will educate the consumer about their typical power use and give them a thorough 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 provide here 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 people 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 the behaviour in the home or in other words how they interact with their home. Some people work during the day and turn their standby power off, whilst doing their washing and household chores at night time. Whereas some people have an air-conditioned home office and use a massive amount of power during the day and do 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. A Net tariff feed 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 great deal 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 dwelling, to being more energy efficient, to minor behavioural modifications like turning off the lights when you leave the room. This list will be in the order of the simplest minor behaviour modifications to bigger structural changes to the building material.

TOP FIFTEEN POWER-SAVING IDEAS

1.Turn the lights off when you vacate a room. This is very 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.Allow natural light into the rooms. This will reduce the need 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 about a quarter or less power than the standard 75watt incandescent or 60watt halogen, and can last far longer than the standard incandescents or halogens.

4.Use Sensor CFL spotlights for outdoors, instead of the old energy-inefficient spotlights of yesteryear.

5.Turn off all standby power. This is probably the best tip I can give you for reducing your daily electricity consumption. A typical house usually 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 around $120-$240 a year just for not turning appliances off at the wall. A good way to monitor your standby is to buy 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 being used. I have found in my energy audits that many people have a spare chest freezer or 20-year-old rusting fridge with splitting seals in a hot garage. This will account for a great chunk of your electricity bill. Sometimes I’ve opened the door and there’s nothing even in there, so the fridge is running -and working overtime- for no reason.

8.Turn off the computer monitors and speakers when not being used. This is so easy, however 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 are using electric heating in winter, be sure to stop any drafts, otherwise you are merely wasting money.

10.Use ceiling fans or pedestal fans instead of air-conditioning. Air-conditioning is one of the most expensive appliances to run in summer. If are going to use air-conditioning in summer, make sure that the room is well-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 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 instead of using hot air from outside. If the compressor is outside be sure its not sitting exposed in the western sun.
- Ensure the windows have both internal and external shading.

12.Air-Conditioning Tips for Winter.

- Set the thermostat to 23-26 degrees
- Wear warm clothes to insulate your body so you don’t need mechanical heating
- Insulate your home 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 best in sub-tropical climates such as Brisbane has, but thicker, bulky insulation such as wool/fibreglass or polyester is better suited to more temperate climates such as Toowoomba.

14.Windows. There are a lot 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 is 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 allow the sun in during winter when it is lower in the sky. These are principles known as solar passive design.

15.Hot Water. If your home has an electric hot water system and it is on the wrong tariff this can be the greater part 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 a electricity bill if the system is electric. If it is a newer heat pump it will be much less. The most efficient water heating device is Solar Hot Water, with a natural gas boost.

These are just a few of the generic energy-saving tips that I have come across while performing 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 have yet to mention 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 an informed solar purchasing decision.

Mysolarprice.com.au specialise in solar power brisbane solar hot water brisbane and solar pool heating brisbane

All About The New Red Laser Application For iPhones

The iPhone has a number of applications available for use with it and more are being created and added to the app store all the time. Just about anybody can invent an application for the iPhone and put it in the app store; all that anyone has to do is show the app to Apple for screening and approval.

One useful application is be the red laser which comes available with the Apple iPhone. The red laser lets people to scan an item and instantly have access to the available prices of that specific product online. Alongside the online comparison shopping which the barcode scanner provides, the red laser also has several other very useful features. For instance, you can scan a movie noticed while at a shopping mall and the red laser will find a copy of it online and will also allow 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, whenever somebody is going to throw away their coffee jar, they can scan it and it will be added on their shopping list so as to remind them to purchase it next grocery shopping trip.

One can use the red laser to scan just about anything and find information that is relevant to their interests. You can use it on a book and the red laser will be able to locate a copy of it within a nearby library. It is capable of this because of its highly developed integration with the world’s biggest library catalogue -WorldCat. The red laser is also able to look for a copy of any book scanned and locate all the online retailers that hold it in stock.

Other than finding prices and looking for products, the red laser will also allow you to scan food. If someone is allergic to an ingredient, one can scan a product and then tap on the allergen info. Instead of having to go through the long list of ingredients in the packaging, red laser will reveal a list of all the ingredients within the product and show you the most common allergens within it. On top of all that, red laser will also help you eat better by showing you the full nutritive contents within the product.

Red Laser comes with several other helpful features and you would be surprised at the number of items you can scan and find helpful information on. This is definitely an application worth getting.

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Why you should turn to stone cladding when building your dream home

If you chat to anyone who’s knowledgeable about stone cladding, they’re most likely to tell you one thing over everything else: it’s the bee’s knees. Really, a bunch of rocks and stone never looked so good. If you’re thinking of building your own dream home, you’ll want to consider including stone cladding in the final design of your house.

Far from looking like your typical bunch of rocks stacked on top of each other, most constructions that use stone cladding are very aesthetically pleasing, not to mention reliable and extremely easy to build. 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 go for it instead of the usual sandstone walling. The architect chose Craft Stone European Castle Stone Golden Sand as the alternative.

The result of this was a far more pleasant design and they were able to avoid additional footings, particularly by using timber frame & fibre cement as a substrate. This was used in an outdoor portion - a rock wall if you will - so it’s something that will often catch the attention of passersby if they ever come across it.

But of course, usage is in no way limited to outdoor sections of a house. Indoor use is also permitted, 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 usually takes a day to construct which brings to light the stunning cost and labor saving incentives . It’s obvious - less construction time means less labour costs, and fewer expenses in general.

With clear benefits like those mentioned above, it’s no wonder the stone cladding method is becoming more and more popular nowadays. Add the fact that resulting designs can go well with just about any design, and suddenly it’s not to see 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.

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The Importance of Decorative Night Lights in Interior Design

Lighting is a very important part of any room. It takes a great deal of effort and research to choose the right night lights, as it can make or break a room. Decorative lights liven up a space, irrespective of how boring the furniture is. Lighting also plays an essential in orchestrating 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 evolved throughout the years, as decorative pieces and furniture have come to use a more contemporary feel to them. With the advancement of interior design trends came the similar evolution of lighting. Designer night lights have become one of the most important aspects of any interior design project. Choosing decorative lights that create a statement fulfills the aesthetic and functional side of the designing process. Whether you want more traditional 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 an amazing difference. Drop lights are also welcome 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 today that it can be quite overwhelming to make an informed decision. Decorative lights add an interesting feel to the room and depending on the kind of light you choose, it can set the overall theme of the room. More contemporary designs include LED colour change lights, large drop lights and metallic lighting fixtures. No matter what your interior design theme is, you can find a lighting fixture that will be ideal. This even extends to the garden and pond with outdoor lighting.

A lot of the modern lights these days are also more cost-efficient as they don’t consume as much electricity as before. It is preffered to decide on one center light and add several accent lights so that you are able to dim the lighting in the room should you want 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 decades. From elaborate tear drop chandeliers, they now come in different 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 feel and lighting. Decorative night lights are most certainly a fantastic investment, as they can improve the aesthetic appeal of any home.

Plastic Packaging Facts

Because packaging helps to control the immediate environment of a food product, it is valuable in creating conditions that lengthen 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 cheap, lightweight, and easy to contort into desired shapes.

The selective permeability of polymer-based materials to gases, such as carbon dioxide and oxygen, as well as sunlight and moisture, has led to the development of modified-atmosphere packaging. If the barrier materials are carefully selected, 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 offer low moisture permeability. Similarly, packaging materials with low gas permeability are utilized for fatty foods in order to minimize oxidation. Because fresh fruits and vegetables respire, they require packaging materials, such as polyethylene, that have high permeability to gases.

Smart packages use properties that meet the unique requirements of certain foods. For example, packages produced with oxygen-absorbing chemicals remove oxygen from the interior of the package, thus protecting oxygen-sensitive products from oxidation. Temperature-sensitive films show a sudden change in gas permeability when they are exposed to an environment above or below a set constant. These films change 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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