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Monash reanimates Jane Austen
Photo: Chris Browne
A new exhibition has taken the author’ s words and life and put a futuristic spin on them.
Jane Austen would surely feel pride, not prejudice, at the opening of a new exhibit in her honour, marking 200 years since her death.
Jane Austen, By a Lady is a collaboration between Monash emeritus professor of medicine Chris Browne and students from the university’ s Master of Design program, led by Faculty of Art Design and Architecture members Jeff Janet, Indae Hwang and Ben Roberts.
However, it’ s not a straightforward depiction of Regency-era Austen. Rather, they’ ve projected her into the 21st century with animations and virtual reality features. In turn, visitors to the exhibit, at Melbourne’ s Library at The Dock, are transported back to the 1800s, as they are immersed in the virtual history, culture and geography of Chawton, England, Austen’ s home town.
There is, for instance, a large screen that rotates projections of original Jane Austen book illustrations.
“ They actually look better than the ones on the pages,” Browne says.
There’ s also a virtual reality display of Austen’ s house and its surrounds, and a touchscreen with floating silhouettes that, when tapped, reveal Austen quotes on their reverse.
But not everything on display is futuristic. A collector of rare 19th century English books for 47 years, Browne leant some of his treasured Austens to the exhibit, like a third edition of Pride and Prejudice, published in 1817.“ A first edition costs $ 200,000,” he says.
The exhibit is a true case of‘ by the people, for the people’: most of the participant Monash multimedia students were from Asian backgrounds. Although designing the exhibit constituted an assessment, they were delighted to discover Austen.
“ Only two of them had ever read Jane Austen before,” Browne says.“ I received lots of emails from them asking which books of hers they should read to get a flavour of her work.” ■
Unis given cash to boost cybersecurity courses
Two Australian universities have been asked to help make up the shortfall in cybersecurity experts.
Just glance at the news headlines and you will know that cyber warfare is here, and it’ s huge. It potentially cost Hillary Clinton the US presidency, and almost foiled Emmanuel Macron’ s French presidential plans.
Now, the Australian government is investing in preventing it on our shores.
It has given $ 1.9 million to Melbourne University and Edith Cowan University to beef up their cyber security courses.
In accepting the funds, ECU vice‐chancellor professor Steve Chapman said his institution already had“ one of the best” cyber security programs, with 1000 graduates to date.
The investment is vital, not only because cyberattacks have proliferated worldwide, but also because there aren’ t enough experts to combat it. There will be a global shortfall of over 1.5 million cybersecurity professionals by 2020. In Australia, a fifth of these positions will remain vacant if the deficit isn’ t addressed.
Cybersecurity has a range of applications beyond government and cybersecurity firms. The largest companies in the world – Google, Facebook and Microsoft, for instance – hire cybersecurity specialists. Those in the field reap the financial rewards.
“ Cybersecurity skills are in such high demand,” said professor Andrew Woodward, executive dean of ECU’ s School of Science.“ We see our best students being offered six-figure salaries when they’ re only in their second year of a degree.”
But the new funding isn’ t solely dedicated to enhancing current students’ experiences. It will also be funnelled to programs enticing school kids to study STEM subjects, short courses for those already in the field, and university pathway programs for TAFE students.
Those who graduate from ECU with a cyber security qualification might expect to work for WA Police, the Australian Federal Police, Cisco, Interpol, Woodside, Emirates Airlines or CERT Australia – all partners of the university. ■
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