Art in Oceania
The visual art and architecture of native Oceania, includes media such as sculpture, pottery, rock art, painting, and personal decoration. In these societies, art and architecture have often been closely connected, for example, storehouses and meetinghouses have been decorated with detailed carvings, and so they are presented together here.
Until the 16th and 17th centuries when European cultures appeared upon the scene, Oceanic societies maintained several types 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 amounts 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 for blades in the 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 working materials included bamboo and bivalve shells, which take 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 used, 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, except in only a few areas in New Guinea and the northern Solomons. The usual 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 such a hard a material as jade was mastered by grinding with abrasives.
Paint and painting were thought to animate sculpture, often literally, in religiosymbolic terms, as paint was considered to have magical, vivifying powers. Paints were generally ochres, with some vegetable-derived pigments. Water was the usual medium, occasionally supplemented with sap. Brushes were created 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 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 leaves and sheets of tapa cloth. In Polynesia the women manufactured large quantities of tapa, which they then decorated with traditional 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, 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 occasionally large in scale. Buildings reflected the structure and preoccupations of the cultures that constructed them, with much symbolic detail. Technically, most buildings 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 kingdom 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 added brilliantly to their more spectacular effects. The most basic medium of all was the human body, which allowed for 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’ve just had your new grid-connected solar panels connected by your friendly accredited solar power installer.
Now, think back to the initial meeting you had with the sales consultant by the kitchen table. Do you recall having a conversation about your previous energy use in the home, and what habits you ought to 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 provide information to 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 is aware 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 the 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 homes with larger systems from 2kw (2 kilowatts) or more may not have to change their electricity usage 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 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 little 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, because 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 not there 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 can only mean one thing: more $$$$$$ in your pocket!
These top 15 energy saving tips range from modifying the building material of the home, 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 15 POWER-SAVING 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.Allow natural light into the internal space. This will reduce the need for lights during the day.
3.Replace all 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 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 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 sound like much but that’s approx. $120-$240 a year just for not turning appliances off at the wall. An easy way to control your standby is to buy a proper standby power board.
6.Choose energy-efficient appliances. This doesn’t have to 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 split seals in a hot basement. This will account for a large chunk of your electricity bill. Sometimes I’ll open 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 monitors 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, then be sure to cover any drafts, otherwise you are merely wasting money.
10.Use ceiling fans or pedestal fans instead of air-conditioning. Air-conditioning can be 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 tightly sealed, the windows are covered and you have insulation in the ceiling.
11.Air-Conditioning Tips for Summer.
- Buy the optimum sized air-con 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 its usage by 10%
- Re-circulate cool air from within rather than drawing hot air from outside. If the compressor is outside make 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 need less 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 because it’s a lot cheaper (most people don’t know this).
13.Insulation. Reflective foil type insulation is best in sub-tropical climates such as Brisbane receives, whereas thicker, bulky insulation such as wool/fibreglass or polyester is better suited to 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 home during summer, and keep it in during winter. In summer it’s important to keep direct sun rays 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’s 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 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 the 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 when performing household energy audits which I find most people need help with. If you can reduce the 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 can also mention is panel care. Your panels should be kept free of dirt and grime, because even a small build-up of 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.
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