Associate Professor Angela Ndalianis
Associate Professor, Cinema + Cultural Studies
Qualifications
PhD, BA Hons, B Litt.Hons, Dip.Ed. (UniMelb), Dip. Hum. (La Trobe), Grad. Dip. (AFTRS).
Biography
Angela Ndalianis is Associate Professor in Cinema and Cultural Studies. She specialises in Hollywood cinema, digital media and the convergence of popular forms such as films, computer games, comic books and theme park spaces. Her research also explores transdisciplinary and transhistorical approaches to entertainment forms and their history, and she is especially interested in the baroque dimensions of contemporary culture. She both teaches and publishes in these areas.She is Associate Editor of the international refereed journal Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal and Editor of the online journal Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media. Angela is also on the Trustee Board of the National Gallery of Victoria and on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Comics Studies, U.S.A.
Current research
Spectopolis: Theme Park Cultures
This book, which was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, explores the history, influence and cultural significance of the theme park. Past influences such as artistocratic gardens and theatrical extravaganzas, world expositions, amusement parks, picture palaces are explored; and the influence of theme parks like Disneyland of the contemporary urbanscape and new entertainment destinations are also a key component of this research. Forthcoming 2009.Media Interfaces
Through intertextuality and interactivity this book examines the audience/media relationship in media such films, computer games, television, comic books and theme park attractions.Children of Frankenstein: Science Fiction, Automata and the Emergence of Robot Realities
This research project has been funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant (2009-11). It evaluates the extent to which the gap is closing between science fiction and scientific reality, and it explores how the entertainment industry is playing a crucial role in realising the presence of robots and artificial life forms in our social spaces (in film and computer effects and ‘entertainment’ robots). Angela is pictured with her robot 'pleo' dinosaur Gertie on the right.Curatorial Culture
This is a collaborative book project with Professor Jim Collins from the University of Notre Dame, U.S.A. The project investigates the impact that digital technologies have on the collecting and exhibition of culture, and evaluates how new delivery systems are redefining the how concept of the “display” of images at art museums has transformed at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The book explores how the accessibility and portability of digital information has given rise to a curatorial culture in which seemingly everyone can assemble their own music, film, television, and art libraries. Tthe inflence uthat entertainment culture and its love of spectacle has on had museum architecture is also integral to this project.The Hispanic Baroque: Complexity in the First Atlantic Culture
is a collaborative research project that is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2008-12: $2.5 million). The project leader is Professor Juan Luis Suárez (The University of Western Ontario) and a team of international baroque scholars have been brought together to explore the impact of the European baroque on the North and South Americas. Angela's contribution consists of her expertise on the neo-baroque and contemporary culture, which is a significant part of this project. The outcomes include conferences, journal publications, book publications, and exhibitions. Further information about the entire project is available at http://www.transatlantic.uwo.ca/baroque.html and on the neo-baroque component: http://neobaroque.wordpress.com/Knowledge transfer
- Trustee, National Gallery of Victoria, Board of Trustees. Committee obligations include: Trustee Board; Collections Management Committee; Exhibitions Committee (Chair); Victorian Foundation of Living Artists; Publications Committee.
- Associate Editor,Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal
- Editor, Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media
- Editorial Board, Cultographies. Wallflower Press: Book Series.
- Editorial Board, Intensities: the Journal of Cult Media. (2006-current).
- Editorial Board, Mediekultur. (2006-current).
- Advisor, Ground floor redevelopment, Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
- Board of Directors, Institute for Comics Studies, Missouri.
Publications
Books
- The Comic Book Superhero, ed.Angela Ndalianis, New York and London, Routledge, 2009.
- Super/Heroes: from Hercules to Superman, ed.s Wendy Haslem, Angela Ndalianis, & Chris Mackie, Washington, New Academia Publishing, 2007.
- Angela Ndalianis, Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2004.
- Stars in Our Eyes: the Star Phenomenon in the Contemporary Era, ed.s Angela Ndalianis and Charlotte Henry, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
Chapters in Books (selected)
- “The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero”, The Comic Book Superhero, ed. Angela Ndalianis, New York and London, Routledge, 2009, ch.1.
- “Enter the Aleph: Superhero Worlds and Hypertime Realities”, The Comic Book Superhero, ed. Angela Ndalianis, New York and London, Routledge, 2009, ch.12.
- "Chasing the White Rabbit to Find a White Polar Bear: Lost in Television”, ReadingLost: Perspectives On A Hit Television Show, ed. Roberta Pearson, I.B.Tauris, London. 2009, pp.193-310.
- “Stargate SG-1: Jack O’Neill I love thee, let me count the ways”, The Essential Cult TV Reader, ed. David Lavery, University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky. (In press, 2009).
- "Dark Rides, Hybrid Machines and the Horror Experience", Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema, ed. Ian Conrich, I.B.Tauris. (In press, June 2009)
- “Architektur und Rhetorische Inszenierung”, in Design als Rhetorik, ed.s Gesche Joost and Arne Scheuermann, Basel, Birkhäuser Verlag, 2008, pp.191-203.
- “Foreword”, Baroque Tendencies in Contemporary Art, Ed. Kelly Wacker, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, 2008.
- “Do we Need another Hero?” Super/Heroes: from Hercules to Superman, ed.s Wendy Haslem, Angela Ndalianis, & Chris Mackie, Washington, New Academia Publishing, 2007.
- “Art Cinema” in The Cinema Book, ed. Pam Cook, British Film Institute, London, 2007.
- “Tomorrow’s World that We Shall Build Today” in Screen Consciousness: Technology, Cinema, Mind and World. ed.s Robert Pepperell and Michael Punt, Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York. 2006.
- “Le Baroque ‘rechargé’: Effets spéciaux et seductions Technologiques“ in De Tron à Matrix: Réflexions sur un cinema d’un Genre Nouveau. ed. Ludovic Graillat, CRDP de Midi-Pyrénées: Toulouse, 2006, pp.103-122.
- "Estética Neobarroca y entretenimiento contempor à neo" in Barrocos y Neobarrocos: El Infierno de Lo Bello, ed. F. Javier Panera Cuevas, Salamanca Ciudad de Cultura: Salamanca, 2005, pp.337-365.
- “Television and the Neo-Baroque”, in The Contemporary Television Serial, ed.s Lucy Mazdon and Michael Hammond, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 2005, pp.83-101.
- “The Rules of the Game: Evil Dead II ...Meet thy Doom”, Hop on Pop: the Politics and Pleasures of Popular Cultures, ed.s Henry Jenkins, Tara McPherson, Jane Shattuc, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp.503-516.
- “Architectures of the Senses: Neo-Baroque Entertainment Spectacles”, Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics Of Transition ed.s David Thorburn & Henry Jenkins, MIT Press, Massachusetts, 2003, pp.355-73.
- “Caravaggio Reloaded: Neo-Baroque Poetics”, Caravaggio: Darkness & Light, Exhibition Catalogue, Art Gallery of NSW/National Gallery of Victoria, 2003, pp.72-77.
- “Introduction: Stars in Our Eyes” & “Digital Stars in Our Eyes”, Stars in Our Eyes: The Star Phenomenon in the Contemporary Era, (ed.s Angela Ndalianis and Charlotte Henry), Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, pp. vii-xvii & pp. 165-178.
- “Special Effects, Morphing Magic, and the 90s Cinema of Attractions”, in Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick Change, ed. Vivian Sobchack, Minnesota University Press: Minneapolis, 2000, ch.12, pp.251-71.
- “Evil Will Walk Once More”: Phantasmagoria ~ the Stalker Film as Interactive Movie? in On a Silver Platter: CD-Roms and the Promises of a New Technology, ed. Greg Smith, New York, New York University Press, 1999, pp.87-112.
- "Style, Spectacle, Excess and The Bold and the Beautiful"", Tomorrow Never Knows: Soap on Australian Television, ed.s Kate Bowles and Sue Turnbull, Sydney: Australian Film Institute, 1994. pp.25-41.
Articles in Journals (selected)
- “From Neo-Baroque to Neo-baroques?”, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos. Vol. 32, issue 1, 2009. (in press, May)
- “The Wonder of Digital Effects” Southern Review: Communication, Politics and Culture, vol.37, no1. 2004.
- “‘Hail to the King!’ – the Return of Doom”Journal for Media History (Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis), No.2, December 2004, pp.100-117.
- “Paul Verhoeven and his Hollow Men”, Screening the Past, issue 13, December 2001.
- “The Frenzy Of The Visible ~ Spectacle And Motion In The Era Of The Digital”, Senses of Cinema, no.3, February 2000.
- "Muscle, Excess and Rupture: Female Body Building and Gender Construction", Media Information Australia, no.75, February, 1995, pp.13-23.
- "Muscles, Hybrids and New Bad Futures", World Art, vol.1, no.1, 1994, pp.76-81.
Postgraduate Supervisions
Current Ph.D.
- Leonie Cooper - From Viewing Stars to Building Worlds: Screen Media as Figured through the Astronaut
- Tessa Dwyer - Derrida, Subbing, Dubbing and the Cinema
- Karen Healey - Power and Responsibility: Boundaries in Flux in Superhero Comics Culture.
- Christian McCrea - Computer Games, Technology and Hauntology
- Mehmet Mehmet - Sound and the Cinema
- Radha O'Meara- Rethinking Seriality (co-supervision)
- Martyn Pedler - X-RAY Vision: Being a Superhero
- Jack Teiwes - The Superman Multimedia Franchise.
- Dan Torre - Processing the Animated Documentary
- Saige Walton - The Cinema's Baroque Flesh
- Lee-AnnTrewartha - Born Again Baroque: Contemporary Notions of the Historical Bel Composto (La Trobe - external supervision - combined creative)
- Clare Pitkethly - The Gap in the One: teh masking of Ontological Consistency in (Super)Hero/(Super)Villain Mythology (La Trobe - external co-supervision)
Current M.A.
- Stephen Rowley - Picture-Perfect Towns: The Idealised Community and the Perils of Dream Building.
- Gala Hingston - Representations of Magicians Onscreen and the Magic of the Cinema.
- Katherine Rafferty - Reconsidering Fan Culture.
Ph.D. Completions
- Richard Misek, Chromatic cinema a history of black-and-white and colour, 2008.
- Allan Cameron, Modular narratives : contemporary cinema's tales about time, 2006.
- Djoymi Baker, Broadcast space : tv culture, myth and Star Trek, 2005.
- Bronwyn Morkham, Through the mind's eye : rethinking cinema and subjectivity. 2002
- Gabrielle Murray, This wounded cinema, this wounded life : violence and utopia in the films of Sam Peckinpah, 2001. (Co-supervision)
- Justin Shaw, Melodrama, social spectatorship and the modern social problem film, 2001.
- Felicity Colman, Passaic boys are hell : Robert Smithson's modes of time, 2001. (Co-supervision)
Masters Theses
- Patrick Porter, Stories from the Buffyverse : intertextuality, temporality and the cult fandom of Buffy the vampire slayer, 2007.
- Roisin O'Dwyer, B-Film Conditions of Production and Modernist Form, 2002.
- Paul Venzo, Dare to desire : a study of Pedro Almodóvar's "imperfect masterpiece"- La Ley del deseo (1987), 2001.
- Charlotte Henry, The cyborg body, technology and identity in the new bad future, 2000 .
- Shirin Hanfi-Scott, The truth is out there : the transcendent validation of postmodernism in the X-Files, 2000.
- Mehmet Mehmet, 'You ain't bad, you aint nothin' : Michael Jackson's inauthentic authenticity, 1999.
- Karen Hildebrandt, Art, cyberspace and hypertextual accessibility, 1999.
- Kirsten Slifirski, The end of discretion ;: performing the nation, 1998.
- Trisha Huang, Hong Kong entertainment cinema : genre, auteur, postcoloniality, 1997.
- Kate Hall, Buddy Cop Films: Desire and its Concealment in a World of Race, Sex, Power and the Pursuit of Justice, 1997.
- Sarah Guthrie, Feeling for the overflow : extending identity in the films of John Cassavetes, 1997.
- Angela Jooste, Cracks: the Art of Rosemarie Trockel, Rebecca Horn and Astrid Klein, 1996
- Frances Guerin, Risses in der Optik : the graffiti-art on the Berlin Wall, 1993.
Teaching
- 106-201 Hollywood & Entertainment
- 106-246 Television & Popular Culture
- 107-258 Game Studies
- 107-459 Screen Media & Mediated Experiences
- 107-405 Spectacles: Museums to Theme Parks (overseas subject)
- 107-470 The Carnivalesque & the Cinema
- 107-551 Digital Imaging, Film & Web Publishing
Full subject descriptions are available on the University of Melbourne Handbook.