Academic literature on the topic 'Isolation haute tension'

This paper investigated Inclusive Teaching Practices by English Language instructors and its role in minimizing violence and enhancing learning in the classroom. Through the use of a questionnaire strategy and using well-known principles of Rogers’ client-centred therapy and Inclusive school theory of Mel Ainscow and Tony Booth, data was designed and administered to English language instructors in some three secondary schools (GBHS Bafang, GBHS Bamenda and GTHS Maroua) randomly selected from three regions in Cameroon which had generated discussion on the subject matter. Findings revealed that most English language instructors have never participated in workshops or career development courses on special needs education, inclusive teaching and differentiation and so, have not acquired the competence needed in inclusive teaching. Further findings showed that, most teaching is not inclusive, humanistic and holistic and thus creates tension, frustration, isolation, humiliation and no sense of belonging of students with impairments. Such environment breathes hatred, hate speech and violence. Recommendations have been made to the ministries of Education in Cameroon, teachers’ training colleges, school administrators and teachers to redress the situation.

In this paper, we draw upon a study exploring how COVID-19 and social isolation impacted young people’s (aged 13–18) experiences of online sexual and gendered risks and harms in England during nationwide lockdowns and upon their return to school. We explore the complexities, tensions and ambiguities in youth navigating algorithmised feeds on social media apps such as TikTok and content featuring idealised cis-gendered, heterosexualised feminine and masculine embodiment. Young people repeatedly witness hateful and abusive comments that are algorithmically boosted. We argue that this toxic content normalises online hate in the form of body shaming and sexual shaming, developing the concept of the postdigital to analyse the offline, affective, embodied and material dimensions of online harm, harassment and abuse. We also explore young people’s direct experiences of receiving harmful comments, including girls’ and gender and sexuality-diverse youth’s experiences of body and sexual shaming, as well as boys’ experiences of fat shaming; which, in many instances, we argue must be classified as forms of image-based abuse. Using our postdigital lens, we argue that the ways heteronormative, cis-gendered masculine and feminine embodiment are policed online shapes behaviour and norms in young people’s everyday lives, including in and around school, and that better understanding and support around these issues is urgently needed.

I was fortunate to be invited as the editor for this special issue on a topic that speaks to me both personally and professionally. On a personal note, I find that working collaboratively, challenging as this may be at different times, has been my default and preferred way of working. Engaging with colleagues from different arts therapy disciplines has offered me opportunities to learn and reflect upon my practice, encouraged me to articulate what I am doing and offered the sense of belonging to a community. Although a trained dance movement psychotherapist, I often perceive myself to be located within the wider community of arts psychotherapies, a sense of belonging that echoes the concept of ‘koinonia’ (community) introduced by de Mare in large groups (de Mare, Piper & Thompson 1991). In terms of my prior professional experiences, looking at what is similar and common across arts psychotherapies and what is unique and different has certainly taken a lot of my research time including the work I undertook for my PhD studies (published in my first book: Karkou & Sanderson 2006). I was fascinated to discover that there are indeed things that arts psychotherapists do have in common. We define the arts in the same democratic, participatory and non-elitist way. We see creativity as a key concept that enables engagement and supports therapeutic outcomes. We see imagery, symbolism and metaphors as additional tools which go beyond the particular characteristic of the modality and the art form, and enable internal, communicative, implicit, and thus safe engagement with difficult issues. We tend to value the non-verbal aspects of our work, believing that change takes place through a combination of artistic engagement and the therapeutic relationship. We all agree that what is happening within sessions involves an intentional use of the arts affecting clients in different ways; for this reason we assess needs and evaluate process and outcomes as a routine task. Finally, instead of operating with our own artistic biases, we anchor our work within clearly defined therapeutic frameworks in order to better serve the needs of the clients we work with and work for. In the 1998 survey of arts psychotherapies (published by Karkou and Sanderson in 2006), six frameworks were identified, presented and discussed: the humanistic/existential, psychoanalytic/psychodyna-mic, the developmental, the artistic/creative, the active/directive, and the eclectic/integrative. Arts psychotherapies in the UK – in different degrees, combinations and with multiple variations – appear to somehow make use of one or more of these theoretical and practice-based frameworks that guide the work with clients and offer direction and psychological meaning to the therapeutic process. Τhe book (Karkou & Sanderson 2006) also covers distinctive practices, practices that are unique, adding richness and creating interesting variety, if not at times also generating creative tensions. A dialogue often comes from these tensions opening up possibilities for new ways of thinking and working. This special issue on interdisciplinary dialogues is therefore one more attempt to enable the professionals in this field to talk, debate, agree, find connections and move – collaboratively and jointly – forward. Having a clear professional identity may act as a holding concept that enables both an internal definition as well as useful dialogues to take place. In the first paper of this issue we turn to Europe, and Latvia in particular, to see, in a paper written by Akmane and Martinsone, how professional development has been facilitated amongst arts therapists in this country. In particular, attention is paid to the development of the professional identity of both qualified and student arts therapists. Arts therapies, being a new profession in Latvia (one that has arisen within only the last ten years) has seen an impressive growth, with training programmes in place within higher education institutions, legal recognition of the profession and established posts in healthcare. The article explores Berliner’s (1994) definition and stages of development of professional identity which was developed within education. This definition and stages are adopted as a theoretical frame to research the complex concept of professional identity amongst students and qualified professionals. Turning points in one’s professional identity – such as the shift from the first to the second year of one’s training – are discussed next to factors that support (e.g. the presence of colleagues, the legal framework of the profession) or hinder (e.g. limited finances, overall stress and health problems, uncertainty about the future) the development of such an identity. When the acquisition of this identity is taking place, external factors such as supervision and continuing education appear to play a more important role in its development. However, the development of an internal sense of this identity, even if it may take place over time, suggests that such an identity has been achieved. Interestingly, the rapid development of not only the profession, but also of the professional identity of practitioners in Latvia, can be partly located in the collaborative character of this development. Unlike several other countries where different arts therapies have attempted to grow independently, collaborative and coordinated action has enabled the profession in Latvia to grow fast while taking advantage of joint support and cross-discipline fertilisation. On the other side of Europe, in the UK, where the tradition of arts therapies is longer, we can find examples of such collaborative ideas both within and beyond the education of arts psychotherapists. In higher education – where the education of arts psychotherapists takes place in the UK – Laahs and Derrington contextualise their paper within the widely discussed principle of ‘interdisciplinary education’, which is extensively discussed in healthcare contexts. Interdisciplinary sessions in a Scottish setting involving a music therapy student and a dance movement psychotherapy student are presented and discussed. The authors conclude that this work added to the experience of the students in terms of peer support, enabling each of them to widen their understanding of neighbouring fields, and strengthening their skills to communicate ideas and thoughts relating to their clinical work across disciplines. In this special issue, two additional UK-based examples of such collaborations are included which are located within the National Health Service (NHS). The first paper by Hackett presents work that takes place in the north of England, while the second by Havsteen-Franklin, Maratos, Usiskin and Heagney refers to practices in the south of the country. The former focuses on collaborative work amongst arts psychotherapists who work primarily with people with learning disabilities and autism, while the latter has a mental health focus, making clear suggestions that collaborations are not limited to a particular client population but can take place for the benefit of diverse client needs. Along similar lines, the first paper discusses collaborations amongst arts psychotherapists on a number of levels. Borrowing terminology from the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines, it conceptualises arts psychotherapies as complex interventions that share therapeutic aims, clinical observations and evaluation, techniques and therapeutic work. The paper investigates the practice of a team which consists of practitioners from all four arts psychotherapies. Team members meet monthly for case study discussions, share practice in away days and facilitate joint therapy groups next to their engagement in ongoing research and collaboration with multiple work environments including higher education establishments. In the south, the second paper describes collaborative work that connects with evidence-based interventions such as mentalisation-based therapy and dynamic interpersonal therapy. More specifically, areas discussed involve the concept of mentalisation that are present in arts psycho-therapies, and aspects of the arts psychotherapies work that can be potentially of value to verbal-based therapies. This takes place next to a very thorough exploration of what we do as arts psychotherapists. Through a thorough investigation of arts psychotherapies practice within a particular Trust and the engagement of practising arts psychotherapists, the authors present and discuss their discoveries of a number of aspects of shared practice. They study particular concepts in greater depth through the use of video-recorded role-playing scenes. The way a music therapist is using affect attunement, for example, is studied as a way for different arts psychotherapists to explore how this concept can be used with clients with psychosis. The authors conclude that there is certainly scope to investigate further what happens in arts psychotherapy sessions and attempt to identify a common language, while exploring further what we are doing as practitioners and why. A complex relationship between theory and practice is suggested which links back to the idea discussed by Hackett about arts psychotherapies being complex interventions. Certain aspects may be articulated, some of our actions within sessions can be explained and justified, but the field retains – and many would argue should retain – space for the unpredictable, for the creative and the intuitive. Moving from the UK to Germany, collaboration amongst arts therapies is explored by Aroni in the area of oncology. The paper discusses how a continuing professional development programme on oncology originally designed for dance movement therapists was adapted to include all arts therapists. The paper highlights the usefulness of bringing together the different types of arts psychotherapies, offering a rich dialogue between disciplines that has allowed new types of educational practice to emerge and potentially grow. A less formal collaboration has been followed in the paper that explores the life of the group ‘CATI’ (by Athanasiadou, Kagiafa, Karkou, Lykopoulou, Mpampalis, Mpitzaraki, Mpouzioti, Sampathanaki and Tsiris). The group consists of over 15 therapists from each of the different arts therapies disciplines, who are based mainly in Greece and the UK, and came together to deliver collaborative seminars, workshops and events. The paper reports on the authors’ reflections regarding their experience of being part of this group. These reflections emerged through a process of artistic inquiry (Hervey 2000); a methodological approach which becomes increasingly popular within art and dance movement therapy. Six of the members of the group immersed themselves in arts-making processes, responding creatively to the question: “What is the meaning of the group CATI for us?” After ‘dialoguing’ with images, movement and music created during the data generation process, a number of important themes emerged that appeared to be meaningful to the group members. The themes were: (i) new perspectives, (ii) personal and collective growth, (iii) exploring identities, (iv) commitment, demands and difficulties, (v) personal engagement, (vi) theoretical perspectives, (vii) collective processes of the team, and (viii) collaboration. The authors conclude that the group has operated as a platform for mutual explorations, a forum where professionals with common interests can exchange ideas, co-operate and develop. Initiatives like the one taken up from the group CATI can inspire further actions, highlighting what is common and of value across disciplines, while attempting to bridge theoretical or methodological differences. This special issue continues with an area with increased sensitivity, that is the contribution of creativity, the arts and arts therapies to the end of life care. In the interview Hartley gives to Ridley, he shares his 25 years experience of working in this area arguing for the need of flexibility and responsiveness to both the private and social needs of patients. The contribution of the arts and arts therapies to patients’ end of life care is also captured in the book edited by Hartley and reviewed by Petta. The book informs us of ways of working and reminds us of the unique and diverse contributions these interventions can make to people faced with death. In all cases, collaborative work is highlighted. This special issue closes with two additional book reviews. The first book, reviewed by Derrington, is a highly informative and comprehensive book on the role of evaluation in arts therapies by Tsiris, Pavlicevic and Farrant. Derrington recommends it as a user-friendly guide to evaluation that can be used by practising arts therapists as well as students. The second book, reviewed by Athanasiadou, refers to mindfulness in the arts therapies. Edited by Rappaport, this is a pioneering book that manages to bring together and balance inner listening with creativity, while forging links not only amongst arts therapists but also with the fields of meditation, neuroscience as well as different creative and body-based practices and psychotherapies. At a time when we are faced with a global recession and cuts being implemented in all services, working closely together, finding a common language and offering support for each other become vital for professional survival. The strengths of the one discipline can be added to the strengths of the other, creating a professional front that operates on the basis of mutual respect for one’s unique practice, experience and potential contribution. The papers included in this special issue certainly demonstrate that such collabo-rations do not challenge professional identities but add value, offer better services to clients, safeguard professionals from potential isolation, and – as was certainly the case with the CATI group that I was part of – add an enormous amount of enjoyment and excitement. Furthermore, this issue highlights the need to engage in a dialogue with other important initiatives outside the field of arts therapies, such as medicine (e.g. oncology), healthcare (e.g. interdisciplinary education, complex interventions, mindfulness), initiatives in other psychotherapies (e.g. mentalisation-based therapy, dynamic interpersonal therapy, body psychotherapy), the arts (e.g. interdisciplinary projects and improvisatory experimentations) and research (e.g. artistic inquiry, evidence-based models, and neuroscience). For all of us, this certainly seems a good time to engage in these discussions. References Berliner, D. C. (1994). Expertise: The Wonders of Exemplary Performance. In J. N. Mangieri & C.C. Block (Eds.), Creating Powerful Thinking in Teachers and Students. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. De Mare, P., Piper, R., & Thompson, S. (1991). Koinonia: From Hate through Dialogue to Culture in the Large Groups. London: Karnac Books. Hervey, L. W. (2000). Artistic Inquiry in Dance/Movement Therapy: Creative Research Alternatives. Illinois: Charles C Thomas. Karkou, V., & Sanderson, P. (2006). Arts Therapies: A Research-Based Map of the Field. Edinburgh: Elsevier. Suggested citation: Karkou, V. (2016). Interdisciplinary dialogues. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, Special Issue 8(1), 8-11.

There is an expression, in recent Marvel superhero films, of a social anxiety about genetic science that, in part, replaces the social anxieties about nuclear weapons that can be detected in the comic books on which these films are based (Rutherford). Much of the analysis of superhero comics – and the films on which they are based – has focussed its attention on the anxieties contained within them about gender, sexuality, race, politics, and the nation. Surprisingly little direct critique is applied to the most obvious point of difference within those texts, namely the acquisition, display, and use of extra-ordinary abilities. These superhero films represent some of the ways that audiences come to understand genetics. I am interested in this essay in considering how the representation of genetic mutation, as an error in a bio-chemical code, is a key narrative device. Moreover, mutation is central to the way the films explore the social exclusion of characters who acquire super-abilities. My contention is that, in these Marvel comic films, extra-ordinary ability, and the anxieties expressed about those abilities, parallels some of the social and cultural beliefs about the disabled body. The impaired body thus becomes a larger trope for any deviation from the “normal” body and gives rise to the anxieties about deviation and deviance explored in these films. Impairment and illness have historically been represented as either a blessing or a curse – the source of revelation and discovery, or the site of ignominy. As Western culture developed, the confluence of Greek and Judeo-Christian stories about original sin and inherited punishment for parental digression resulted in the entrenchment of beliefs about bent and broken bodies as the locus of moral questions (and answers) about the abilities and use of the human body (Sontag 47). I want to explore, firstly, in the film adaptations of the Marvel comics X-Men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and The Hulk, the representation of changes to the body as the effect of invisible bio-chemical states and processes. It has been impossible to see DNA, whether with the human eye or with technical aid; the science of genetics is largely based on inference from other observations. In these superhero films, the graphic display of DNA and genetic restructuring is strikingly large. This overemphasis suggests both that the genetic is a key narrative impetus of the films and that there is something uncertain or disturbing about genetic science. One such concern about genetic science is identifying the sources of oppression that might underlie the, at times understandable, desire to eliminate disease and congenital defect through changes to the genetic code or elimination of genetic error. As Adrienne Asch states, this urge to eliminate disease and impairment is problematic: Why should it be acceptable to avoid some characteristics and not others? How can the society make lists of acceptable and unacceptable tests and still maintain that only disabling traits, and not people who live with those traits, are to be avoided? (339) Asch’s questioning ends with the return to the moral concerns that have always circulated around the body, and in particular a body that deviates from a norm. The maxim “hate the sin, not the sinner” is replaced by “eradicate the impairment, not the impaired”: it is some kind of lack of effort or resourcefulness on the part of the impaired that is detectable in the presence of the impairment. This replacement of sin by science is yet another example of the trace of the body as the site of moral arguments. As Bryan Turner argues, categories of disease, and by association impairment, are intrinsic to the political discourse of Western societies about otherness and exclusion (Turner 216). It is not surprising then, that characters that experience physical changes caused by genetic mutation may take on for themselves the social shame that is part of the exclusion process. As genetic science has increasingly infiltrated the popular imagination and thus finds expression in cinema, so too has this concern of shame and guilt become key to the narrative tension of films that link changes in the genetic code to the acquisition of super-ability. In the X-Men franchise, the young female character Rogue (Anna Paquin), acquires the ability to absorb another’s life force (and abilities), and she seeks to have her genetic code resequenced in order to be able to touch others, and thus by implication have a “normal” life. In X2 (Bryan Singer, 2003), Rogue’s boyfriend, Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), who has been largely excluded from her touch, returns home with other mutants. After having hidden his mutant abilities from his family, he finally confesses to them the truth about himself. His shocked mother turns to him and asks: “Have you tried not being a mutant?” Whilst this moment has been read as an expression of anxiety about homosexuality (“Pop Culture: Out Is In”; Vary), it also marks a wider social concern about otherness, including disability, and its attendant social exclusion. Moreover, this moment reasserts the paradigm of effort that underlies anxieties about deviations from the norm: Iceman could have been normal if only he had tried harder, had a different girlfriend, remained at home, sought more knowledge, or had better counsel. Science, and more specifically genetic science, is suggested in many of these films as the site of bad counsel. The narratives of these superhero stories, almost without exception, begin or hinge on some kind of mistake by scientists – the escaped spider, the accident in the laboratory, the experiment that gets out of control. The classic image of the mad scientist or Doctor Frankenstein type, locked away in his laboratory is reflected in the various scenes in all these films, in which the scientists are separated from wider society. In Fantastic 4 (Tim Story, 2005), the villain, Dr Von Doom (Julian McMahon), is located at the top of a large multi-story building, as too are the heroes. Their separation from the rest of society is made even more dramatic by placing the site of their exposure to cosmic radiation, the source of the genetic mutation, in a space station that is empty of anyone else except the five main characters whose bodies will be altered. In Spiderman (Sam Raimi, 2002), the villain is a scientist whose experiments are kept secret by the military, emphasising the danger inherent in his work. The mad-scientist imagery dominates the representation of Bruce Bannor’s father in Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003), whose experiments have altered his genetic code, and that alteration in genetic structure has subsequently been passed onto his son. The Fantastic 4 storyline returns several times to the link between genetic mutation and the exposure to cosmic radiation. Indeed, it is made explicit that human existence – and by implication the human body and abilities – is predicated on this cosmic radiation as the source of transformations that formed the human genetic code. The science of early biology thus posits this cosmic radiation as the source of what is “normal,” and it is this appeal to the cosmos – derived from the Greek kosmos meaning “order” – that provides, in part, the basis on which to value the current human genetic code. This link to the cosmic is also made in the opening sequence of X-Men in which the following voice-over is heard as we see a ball of light form. This light show is both a reminder of the Big Bang (the supposed beginning of the universe which unleased vast amounts of radiation) and the intertwining of chromosomes seen inside biological nuclei: Mutation, it is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single celled organism to the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia evolution leaps forward. Whilst mutation may be key to human evolution and the basis for the dramatic narratives of these superhero films, it is also the source of social anxiety. Mutation, whilst derived from the Latin for “change,” has come to take on the connotation of an error or mistake. Richard Dawkins, in his celebrated book The Selfish Gene, compares mutation to “an error corresponding to a single misprinted letter in a book” (31). The language of science is intended to be without the moral overtones that such words as “error” and “misprint” attract. Nevertheless, in the films under consideration, the negative connotations of mutation as error or mistake, are, therefore, the source of the many narrative crises as characters seek to rid themselves of their abilities. Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), the villain of Spiderman, is spurred on by his belief that human beings have not achieved their potential, and the implication here is that the presence of physical weakness, illness, and impairment is the supporting evidence. The desire to return the bodies of these superheroes to a “normal” state is best expressed in_ Hulk_, when Banner’s father says: “So you wanna know what’s wrong with him. So you can fix him, cure him, change him.” The link between a mistake in the genetic code and the disablement of the these characters is made explicit when Banner demands from his father an explanation for his transformation into the Hulk – the genetic change is explicitly named a deformity. These films all gesture towards the key question of just what is the normal human genetic code, particularly given the way mutation, as error, is a fundamental tenet in the formation of that code. The films’ focus on extra-ordinary ability can be taken as a sign of the extent of the anxiety about what we might consider normal. Normal is represented, in part, by the supporting characters, named and unnamed, and the narrative turns towards rehabilitating the altered bodies of the main characters. The narratives of social exclusion caused by such radical deviations from the normal human body suggest the lack of a script or language for being able to talk about deviation, except in terms of disability. In Spiderman, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is doubly excluded in the narrative. Beginning as a classic weedy, glasses-wearing, nerdy individual, unable to “get the girl,” he is exposed to numerous acts of humiliation at the commencement of the film. On being bitten by a genetically altered spider, he acquires its speed and agility, and in a moment of “revenge” he confronts one of his tormentors. His super-ability marks him as a social outcast; his tormentors mock him saying “You are a freak” – the emphasis in speech implying that Parker has never left a freakish mode. The film emphasises the physical transformation that occurs after Parker is bitten, by showing his emaciated (and ill) body then cutting to a graphic depiction of genes being spliced into Parker’s DNA. Finally revealing his newly formed, muscular body, the framing provides the visual cues as to the verbal alignment of these bodies – the extraordinary and the impaired bodies are both sources of social disablement. The extreme transformation that occurs to Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), in Fantastic 4, can be read as a disability, buying into the long history of the disabled body as freak, and is reinforced by his being named “The Thing.” Socially, facial disfigurement may be regarded as one of the most isolating impairments; for example, films such as The Man without a Face (Mel Gibson, 1993) explicitly explore this theme. As the only character with a pre-existing relationship, Grimm’s social exclusion is reinforced by the rejection of his girlfriend when she sees his face. The isolation in naming Ben Grimm as “The Thing” is also expressed in the naming of Bruce Banner’s (Eric Bana) alter ego “Hulk.” They are grossly enlarged bodies that are seen as grotesque mutations of the “normal” human body – not human, but “thing-like.” The theme of social exclusion is played alongside the idea that those with extra-ordinary ability are also emblematic of the evolutionary dominance of a superior species of which science is an example of human dominance. The Human Genome Project, begun in 1990, and completed in 2003, was in many ways the culmination of a century and a half of work in biochemistry, announcing that science had now completely mapped the human genome: that is, provided the complete sequence of genes on each of the 46 chromosomes in human cells. The announcement of the completed sequencing of the human genome led to, what may be more broadly called, “genomania” in the international press (Lombardo 193). But arguably also, the continued announcements throughout the life of the Project maintained interest in, and raised significant social, legal, and ethical questions about genetics and its use and abuse. I suggest that in these superhero films, whose narratives centre on genetic mutation, that the social exclusion of the characters is based in part on fears about genetics as the source of disability. In these films deviation becomes deviance. It is not my intention to reduce the important political aims of the disability movement by equating the acquisition of super-ability and physical impairment. Rather, I suggest that in the expression of the extraordinary in terms of the genetic within the films, we can detect wider social anxieties about genetic science, particularly as the representations of that science focus the audience’s attention on mutation of the genome. An earlier film, not concerned with superheroes but with the perfectibility of the human body, might prove useful here. Gattaca (Andrew Nicol, 1997), which explores the slippery moral slope of basing the value of the human body in genetic terms (the letters of the title recall the chemicals that structure DNA, abbreviated to G, A, T, C), is a powerful tale of the social consequences of the primacy of genetic perfectibility and reflects the social and ethical issues raised by the Human Genome Project. In a coda to the film, that was not included in the theatrical release, we read: We have now evolved to the point where we can direct our own evolution. Had we acquired this knowledge sooner, the following people may never have been born. The screen then reveals a list of significant people who were either born with or acquired physical or psychological impairments: for example, Abraham Lincoln/Marfan Syndrome, Jackie Joyner-Kersee/Asthma, Emily Dickinson/Manic Depression. The audience is then given the stark reminder of the message of the film: “Of course the other birth that may never have taken place is your own.” The social order of Gattaca is based on “genoism” – discrimination based on one’s genetic profile – which forces characters to either alter or hide their genetic code in order to gain social and economic benefit. The film is an example of what the editors of the special issue of the Florida State University Law Journal on genetics and disability note: how we look at genetic conditions and their relationship to health and disability, or to notions of “normalcy” and “deviance,” is not strictly or even primarily a legal matter. Instead, the issues raised in this context involve ethical considerations and require an understanding of the social contexts in which those issues appear. (Crossley and Shepherd xi) Implicit in these commentators’ concern is the way an ideal body is assumed as the basis from which a deviation in form or ability is measured. These superhero films demonstrate that, in order to talk about super-ability as a deviation from a normal body, they rely on disability scripts as the language of deviation. Scholars in disability studies have identified a variety of ways of talking about disability. The medical model associates impairment or illness with a medical tragedy, something that must be cured. In medical terms an error is any deviation from the norm that needs to be rectified by medical intervention. By contrast, in the social constructivist model, the source of disablement is environmental, political, cultural, or economic factors. Proponents of the social model do not regard impairment as equal to inability (Karpf 80) and argue that the discourses of disability are “inevitably informed by normative beliefs about what it is proper for people’s bodies and minds to be like” (Cumberbatch and Negrine 5). Deviations from the normal body are classification errors, mistakes in social categorisation. In these films aspects of both the medical tragedy and social construction of disability can be detected. These films come at a time when disability remains a site of social and political debate. The return to these superheroes, and their experiences of exclusion, in recent films is an indicator of social anxiety about the functionality of the human body. And as the science of genetics gains increasing public representation, the idea of ability – and disability – that is, what is regarded as “proper” for bodies and minds, is increasingly related to how we regard the genetic code. As the twenty first century began, new insights into the genetic origins of disease and congenital impairments offered the possibility that the previous uncertainty about the provenance of these illnesses and impairments may be eliminated. But new uncertainties have arisen around the value of human bodies in terms of ability and function. This essay has explored the way representations of extra-ordinary ability, as a mutation of the genetic code, trace some of the experiences of disablement. A study of these superhero films suggests that the popular dissemination of genetics has not resulted in an understanding of ability and form as purely bio-chemical, but that thinking about the body as a bio-chemical code occurs within already present moral discourses of the body’s value. References Asch, Adrienne. “Disability Equality and Prenatal Testing: Contradictory or Compatible?” Florida State University Law Review 30.2 (2003): 315-42. Crossley, Mary, and Lois Shepherd. “Genes and Disability: Questions at the Crossroads.” Florida State University Law Review 30.2 (2003): xi-xxiii. Cumberbatch, Guy, and Ralph Negrine. Images of Disability on Television. London: Routledge, 1992. Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. 30th Anniversary ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Karpf, A. “Crippling Images.” Framed: Interrogating Disability in the Media. Eds. A. Pointon and C. Davies. London: British Film Institute, 1997. 79-83. Lombardo, Paul A. “Taking Eugenics Seriously: Three Generations Of ??? Are Enough.” Florida State University Law Review 30.2 (2003): 191-218. “Pop Culture: Out Is In.” Contemporary Sexuality 37.7 (2003): 9. Rutherford, Adam. “Return of the Mutants.” Nature 423.6936 (2003): 119. Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor. London: Penguin, 1988. Turner, Bryan S. Regulating Bodies. London: Routledge, 1992. Vary, Adam B. “Mutant Is the New Gay.” Advocate 23 May 2006: 44-45. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Mantle, Martin. "“Have You Tried Not Being a Mutant?”: Genetic Mutation and the Acquisition of Extra-ordinary Ability." M/C Journal 10.5 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/10-mantle.php>. APA Style Mantle, M. (Oct. 2007) "“Have You Tried Not Being a Mutant?”: Genetic Mutation and the Acquisition of Extra-ordinary Ability," M/C Journal, 10(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/10-mantle.php>.

IntroductionFrom reality television and self-help literature to exhortations to be “true to yourself,” authenticity pervades contemporary culture. Despite their prevalence, cultures of self-improvement and authenticity are routinely linked to arguments about increasing narcissism and declining care for others. Self-improvement involves self-based practices geared to help realise the “improved” and “better you” while authenticity is focused on developing the unique, inner and “real” you. Critiques of both self-improvement and authenticity culture are particularly evident in a sociological tradition of “cultural pessimism” (Hookway, Moral). This group of thinkers argue that the dominance of a “therapeutic” culture where the “self improved is the ultimate concern of modern culture” has catastrophic social and moral consequences (Reiff; Bell; Lasch; Bellah; Bauman and Donskis). Drawing upon Charles Taylor, I take critical aim at such assessments, arguing that ideals and practices of authenticity can be morally productive. I then turn to an empirical investigation of how everyday Australians understand and practice morality based on a qualitative analysis of 44 Australian blogs combined with 25 follow-up online in-depth interviews. I suggest that while the data shows the prevalence and significance of “being true to yourself” as an orientating principle, the bloggers produce a version of authenticity that misses the relational and socially-shaped character of self and morality (Taylor; Vannini and Williams).Authenticity and NarcissismA key tenet of modern cultural diagnosis (Rieff, Bell; Lasch; Bellah; Bauman and Donskis) is that Westerners have become increasingly “narcissistic” as cultural authority weakens and the self becomes something to “be discovered” and “worked out” (Bauman). Rieff, a key proponent of this tradition, locates the problem specifically with the rise of therapeutic culture in the 1960s, which denied the proper prohibitive function of culture and transformed moral problems into analytic issues for the self-actualising and “authentic” self. Bell identifies growing consumerism and weakening religion as issuing a shift from a culture of restraint to a culture of release, resulting in an unparalleled permissiveness, hedonism and potential nihilism. More recently, Bauman and Donskis (13) argue that our consumerist pursuit of “authentic” or “peak” experiences tears apart the once solid social bonds of the past. For these theorists, a modern culture postulating the uniqueness and authenticity of the individual can only result in a diminishing care for others and a self-defeating culture of self-fulfilment.Lasch launches perhaps the most scathing critique of “authenticity” culture. Lasch asserts that the modern West has seen the emergence of a “culture of narcissism:” a culture pathologically preoccupied with the care and well-being of the self. He contends that meaning and morality comes to be increasingly defined through the lens of “psychic self-improvement” and “an intense preoccupation with the self” (Lasch 25). Lasch writes:Having no hope of improving their lives in any of the ways that matter, people have convinced themselves that what matters is psychic self-improvement: getting in touch with their feelings, eating health food, taking lessons in ballet or belly-dancing, immersing themselves in the wisdom of the East, jogging, learning how to relate’, overcoming the ‘fear of pleasure’ (Lasch 4).This search for self-fulfilment within the private realm of the self offers little hope of escape in Lasch’s analysis. It is a symptom of the disease rather than a treatment. Having sacrificed obedience to a higher authority for an intensive focus on the authentic and self-actualising self, the modern West is left with amoral, uncaring and “narcissistic” selves (Lasch). In the end, morality has little hope in a culture in which the individual is allowed to create their “own set of rules,” where “no” has disappeared from our moral vocabulary, and where foundational moral laws enforced by religious tradition and higher moral authorities have disappeared.Self-Improvement and Authenticity as Moral Ideals A central problem with cultural decline accounts is that they miss how the search for personal authenticity or self-discovery could be morally productive (Taylor). Practices of therapy and self-improvement do not always need to be one-dimensionally read as exemplars of narcissism (Wright). For example, it is important to recognise how contemporary therapeutic and confessional cultures, underpinned by a focus on self-authenticity, self-discovery and personal growth, can emphasise the “moral makeover” or becoming a “better” person (Elliott and Lemert 124). Talk-shows, self-help literature, reality TV and blogging are all cultural examples that underpin how the therapeutic search for authenticity does not have to read as a one-way road to shrinking moral concern.Lasch’s indices of moral decline—“the wisdom of the east” or “eating health food”—can also be read in a more positive moral light. Take yoga, meditation and vegetarianism as examples. These practices are growing rapidly in popularity in Australia (Penman; Hookway, Moral) and have a strong cultural focus on values of authenticity. While these self-practices emphasise personal growth, self-awareness and self-care, at the same time they promote ethical relations of responsibility between self, others, body, nature, animals and environment. As actor Gillian Anderson said: “the whole thing about meditation and yoga is about connecting to the higher part of yourself, and then seeing that every living thing is connected in some way” (Marati). Could these practices, therefore, not be re-interpreted as self-originating acts of ethics—as acts of personal authenticity that morally recognise the Other? (Taylor)?Taylor (1992) provides a useful approach to salvage values of authenticity from the despair of much cultural diagnosis. He (81) suggests that the ethical ideal of authenticity—wrapped in notions of self-discovery, self-fulfilment and personal improvement—now plays a central role in modern Western culture. Taylor (11) emphasises the moral possibilities of authenticity as an ethical ideal built on the principle of “being true to yourself” (Taylor 26). This is a moral mode that rests in the moral ideal of “being true to my own originality,” which is “something only I can articulate” (Taylor 29).Taylor (74) contends that “at its best” authenticity as a contemporary ideal “allows a richer model of existence.” Rather than destroying it point-blank for its weaknesses, Taylor sets as his task to raise the bar of the ideal. He suggests that authenticity in this higher form calls upon people to adopt a self-responsible form of life that engenders people to be “true to themselves” within relations of responsibility to others. The key to achieving this is a tempered version of authenticity that acknowledges its “constitutive tensions” (Taylor 71). This is a reconstructed ideal that balances the creative, original and non-conformist dimensions of authenticity—the artistic aspects—with external signifiers or points of reference outside the self.What Taylor is doing here is putting some checks and balances around authenticity as a notion of unfettered self-determining freedom. He does this by underlining the significance of the self in relation to what he calls “horizons of significance.” For Taylor, it is only through “horizons of significance”—for example, history, nature, charity, citizenship and God—that we come to know and recognise ourselves in meaningful ways (45–48; 68). Taylor highlights here the importance of a social self where the individual choosing/feeling self is absurd taken in isolation from others (36).Like the poet, the musician or the artist, moral creation is personal and intensely subjective but it is still connected to a social self. For example, vegetarianism or yoga may involve the development of an authentic relationship with the self through the cultivation of qualities of personal awareness, growth and self-care but they are also fundamentally about dialogical relations with others—with animals, with nature, with a sense of social and cosmic connectedness. As Taylor asserts, personal sensibility finds significance in the construction of a world independent of self-choice and feeling (89). The value of Taylor is that he recovers authenticity and practices of self-improvement from the straight out negativity of decline theory but does not trivialise morality to a sort of unfettered self-determining and disencumbered freedom. This theoretical discussion provides a conceptual framework in which to investigate how everyday moralities are constructed and practiced in contemporary Australia.Present Study How do Australians understand and experience morality in their everyday lives? What role does authenticity play? What are the implications of this and what it does it mean for authenticity as a contemporary ethical ideal? To help answer these questions I now report the findings of a qualitative study I conducted into everyday Australian moralities. A small qualitative sample of bloggers is in no way representative of the population but provides some illustrative examples of the shape and influence of authenticity culture on moral life. The aim of the everyday moralities project was to “thickly describe” (Geertz) how individuals “write” and “talk” their everyday moral worlds into existence from their own perspectives. The first part of the study involved a qualitative analysis of 44 Australian blogs. Blogs offered an original empirical lens through which to investigate the contemporary production of morality and selfhood in late-modernity. The blogs were selected as a form of personal life record (Thomas and Znaniecki 1833) that allowed access to spontaneous accounts of everyday life that reflected what was important to the blogger without the intervention of a researcher (Hookway, Entering). The blogs were sampled from the blog hosting Website LiveJournal (LJ). Blogs were selected that contained at least two incidents, moments, descriptions or experiences that shed light on the blogger’s everyday moral constructions and practices. The second part of the study inviting sampled bloggers to participate in an online interview to further develop themes expressed in their blog posts. This resulted in 25 online interviews, which were conducted via various instant-messaging programs.“Being True to Yourself”: Authenticity as Moral Value? Meet Queen_Extremist, a 26 year-old female university student from Melbourne and president of the university student association. While writing that her life is “all in a spin”, Queen_Extremist says she “likes who I am, I like the way I do things, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. I stayed true to myself”. Although Queen_Extremist may position herself as someone who is “not sure what [her] beliefs are based on, or whether they are worthwhile”, she “knows who she is”. And while potentially conflicted about whether “the concept of staying true to one’s self is arrogant and selfish”, “being true to yourself” according to what “feels right” is positioned as a sort of royal road to the construction of everyday rightness. She writes:I know what I feel. I know when something feels wrong to me. I know when something feels right. And I know that it feels terrible when I do something that feels wrong. It’s not logical. It’s not rational. I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do or if it’s selfish or arrogant. But I don't like being something I’m not. I don't like being false or changing my personality for others. I’m really happy with who I am. If something contrary to that is required, I suggest that someone other than me is requested to do it.Queen_Extremist offers a clear articulation of the everyday guiding power of authenticity. This type of morality is rooted in an obligation to realise an authentic selfhood found in a feeling-based sense of right and wrong. One “looks within” to the subjective and authentic world of the feeling and true self to determine “right” and “wrong.” The source of “who I am” is found within the inner world of “true feelings”. So while Queen_Extremist may feel that she does not “know much about anything” she is confident in her knowledge of who she truly is and what she truly feels. This is an ethical knowledge that she can explicitly trust. The trick for Queen_Extremist’s practice of an “ethics of authenticity” is discovering who you are and sticking to it.Universal_cloak, Squash_pippa and Snifflethebouncer all advance a similar moral strategy that highlights the power of “being true to yourself”. 32-year-old Universal_cloak, an artistic designer from Melbourne, writes on her blog of the importance of “being true to yourself” and its helping role in “making moral choices about who I am and what I stand for”:Being true to yourself is one of the most important things you can nurture in life … I think it’s important to live your life in a way that reflects who you are. If you lead a false life you will sooner or later run into problems because you’re ignoring huge parts of yourself that require attention (interview).Universal_cloak believes that “it’s morally wrong to avoid, ignore or otherwise mistreat yourself”. Inverting “do unto others”, she writes, “if you wouldn’t do it to other people, don’t do it to yourself”. She reasons that to not be “who you are” is inherently self-destructive: “I have known people who have ignored who they are, and as a result have sort of ‘soured themselves’”. For Universal_cloak, a corollary of “souring” the self is “souring” relations to others: “in turn, they build up this sourness and it reflects in their life, making them sour toward other people”. For Universal_cloak, authenticity not only governs the relation of self upon self but also involves relations of care with others; the personal search for authenticity is connected to how one treats and relates to other people.Similarly, Snifflethebouncer, a 22-year old PhD student from Sydney, writes “one of the things that matters most to me, with morality, is that you feel genuine about what you’re doing”. Feeling emerges here as a strategy to validate a “genuine” or “authentic” morality:You feel in your heart that it’s the right thing. If you feel one thing and do something else, then you’re not being true to yourself. If I feel one thing is the right thing to do, but I do something else (to benefit myself, most probably), then I’ll feel bad about it, and I’ll feel I haven't followed my morals.Squash_pippa, a 32-year-old female community worker from Sydney, elaborates the significance of “being true to yourself” as a code of action by describing a story about someone who “invented themselves to be someone that they’re not” and how this had caused her to feel inferior, to even “hate” herself “for not being as good as what they were”. She explains, claiming to now see the “situation objectively”, that this person had actually lied about “who they were” by “making themselves out to be so good”. They had violated the ideal of being the “real” and “authentic” you. For Squash_pippa this meant they were actually a “lesser person” as they were not prepared to accept the reality of “who they really are”. This notion of being authentic to the self (Taylor) is something Squash_pippa says she has always committed to. She is “who I am” and “never compromises what ‘feels’ right”:I am who I am and people can either like me or hate me, either way I’m not too fussy just as long as I never have to go against the morals and values I have and never compromise what ‘feels’ right … We all have our faults and they're not always easy to accept but it takes a stronger person to accept who they really are than the one who lies and makes themselves to be someone who they’re not.Queen_Extremist, Universal_cloak, Squash_pippa and Snifflethebouncer evoke a type of “ethics of authenticity”, where the notion of “being true to yourself” is sourced from the “romantic solace” of moral feeling. In these accounts, there is only one true or authentic self—the rest are imposters that lead to falseness and the problems of inauthenticity, fakery and phoniness—the contemporary sins of an “age of authenticity”.Being true to self is developed in these accounts as a life-principle that suggests we all have a unique and original way of being moral within us that needs to be realised and fulfilled. For these bloggers, the primary moral task is to search and reveal the “authentic” self, the real and truthful self that lurks within. While “being true to yourself” operates as a powerful framework of belief in these blog accounts, it does not meet Taylor’s criteria of authenticity in its “higher form.” Authenticity is mobilised in its more “narcissistic” form, where moral talk is never linked to something external to the self. For example, Queen_Extremist knows who she is and does not want to be something she is not. Likewise, Universal_Cloak believes in living life “in a way that reflects who you are”. These are highly subjectivist accounts of morality which not only ignore the social basis of morality but also present morality as unilateral and deaf rather than something that is responsive to people’s suffering or flourishing (Sayer). Authenticity—using Taylor’s language—is presented in an impoverished form where ideals of action never reside outside the self and thus fail to invoke a better or higher form of life worth searching and striving for (Taylor 61). In many ways, we end up with evidence that support declinist accounts of authenticity discourses as self-centred, introverted and amoral.ConclusionIn this paper I have examined the importance of authenticity as a contemporary cultural and moral value. In the first part, I showed how authenticity and cultures of self-fulfilment have been negatively theorised by the “cultural pessimists.” Using the work of Taylor, I went on to argue that authenticity, particularly the ethical principle of “being true to yourself” can be retrieved from the pessimism of thinkers like Rieff, Lasch, Bell, Bauman and Donskis. I argue that Taylor is particularly important in how he recognises the value of authenticity in terms of it’s creative and artistic dimensions but also the external “horizons of significance” that give it substance, life and meaning. The second part of the paper moved to an empirical analysis of how authenticity was mobilized by a selection of Australian bloggers. For these individuals, to be authentic means not “being something I’m not” (Queen_Extremist); “not leading a false life” (Universal_cloak); and not “inventing” yourself “as someone else”. Like reality television contestants, their task is to sort the real from the fake, from those “playing the game” and those being themselves—to work out who’s being “real” and who’s not. Why authenticity is clearly a powerful guide for this group of bloggers, their accounts do seem to partly support the pessimists’ charge of narcissism. Ideas of authenticity are presented as coming purely from inside the self without reference to external “horizons of significance.” This leaves us with an anemic form of authenticity that ignores the social basis of self, authenticity and morality (Taylor).“Being true to yourself” is a moral strategy that invokes a modernist assumption of a stable and unitary model of self. It is a version of self that appears distinctly “non-liquid” (Bauman). There are, for example, no “multiple” or “fragmented” selves in the blog accounts of Queen_Extremist, Universal_cloak and Snifflethebouncer but only “true” and “false” “personalities”; “real”, “false” or “invented selves”. As Universal_cloak says, being “true to yourself” means “to live your life in a way that reflects who you are” (Universal_cloak). In this way the bloggers appear to not only miss the socially-shaped character of the moral self but also the aboutness of morality—how morality is about people’s well-being, suffering and flourishing rather than simply the authority of the subject (Sayer).Two key research agendas emerge from these findings. First, further research is needed to empirically investigate wider practices of authenticity and morality beyond internet populations and to examine the extent and shape of narcissism. Second, there are fruitful lines of inquiry in investigating the dynamics of “being true to yourself” in a “liquid” age supposedly defined by identity reinvention and instant transformation (Elliott and Lemert). Does the pursuit of an authentic ethical self represent a form of resistance to identity fluidity and reinvention or could it actually feed the short-termism of a “no strings attached” world, where the search for “true” or “authentic” selves promote a culture of “moving on” and weak social bonds (Bauman and Donskis 14)?ReferencesBauman, Zygmunt, and Donskis, Leonidas. Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity, 2013. Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity, 2000.Bell, Daniel. The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, 1976.Bellah, Robert, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steve Tipton. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996.Elliott, Anthony and Charles Lemert. The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization. New York: Routledge, 2006.Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973.Hookway, Nicholas. “Entering the Blogosphere: Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research.” Qualitative Research 8.1 (2008): 91–113.Hookway, Nicholas. “Moral Decline Sociology: Critiquing the Legacy of Durkheim.” Journal of Sociology 20 Jan. 2014. DOI: 10.1177/1440783313514644.Lasch, Christopher. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. New York: W.W. Norton, 1979. Marati, Jessica. 50 Quotes about Meditation and Yoga. 2012. 15 Jan. 2015 ‹http://ecosalon.com/50-quotes-on-meditation-amp-yoga/›.Penman, Stephen. Yoga in Australia: Sign of the Times. 2010. 15 Jan. 2015 ‹http://www.yogasurvey.com/SignoftheTimes.pdf›.Rieff, Phillip. The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud. New York: Harper and Row, [1966] 1987.Sayer, Andrew. Why Things Matter to People. New York: Cambridge UP, 2011.Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.Thomas, William I. and Florian Znaniecki. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. New York: Dover,[1918] 1958.Vannini, Phillip and J. Patrick Williams. Authenticity in Culture, Self and Society. Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Wright, Katie. “Theorizing Therapeutic Culture: Past Influences, Future Directions.” Journal of Sociology 44.1 (2008): 321–336.

“Perhaps the only thing more counterfeit than Australian Idol co-host/FM radio jock Kyle Sandilands’s carotene tan is the myth of his significance.” So wrote Helen Razer in 2007 of radio host Kyle Sandilands in a piece entitled Kyle Sandilands, you are a big fake fake. In the years since Razer’s commentary, commentators and radio listeners have continued to question the legitimacy of Sandilands’s performance as a radio host, while his supporters have defended him on the basis that this performance is authentic (Wynn). References to him as “shock jock,” a term frequently associated with talkback radio, suggest Sandilands’s approach to performance is one of intended confrontation. However, the genre of radio to which his performance is associated is not talkback. It is chat-based programming, which relies on three tenets: orientation to the personal, use of wit, and risk of transgression. This paper examines the question: To what extent is Kyle Sandilands’s performance of authenticity oriented to the genre format? This paper argues that the overall success of Sandilands is supported by his mastery of the chat-based genre. The Radio Host, “Authenticity”, and PerformanceKyle Sandilands has been one of Australia’s most prominent and controversial radio hosts since the 1990s. In 2014, Sandilands was one half of Australia’s most successful breakfast team, hosting the nationally syndicated Kyle and Jackie O Show with fellow presenter Jacqueline Henderson on Kiis 1065 (Galvin, Top Radio). Sandilands’s persona has received significant attention within the mediasphere (Galvin, Kiss; Razer). Commentators argue that he is often “putting it on” or being overly dramatic in order to attract ratings. The following interaction is an example of on-air talk involving Sandilands (“Ronan Keating and Kyle Sandilands Fight On-Air”). Here, Sandilands and his co-host Jackie O are talking with singer Ronan Keating who is with them in the studio. Jackie plays Ronan a recording in which Sandilands makes fun of Keating:Kyle: ((On recorded playback)) Oh god. I don’t want to look like Ronan Keating, you two foot dwarf.((pause))Ronan K: ((laughs)) Right (.) I don’t know how to take that.Kyle: Well I’m glad it ended there because I think it went on and on didn’t it? ((Looks at Jackie O))Jackie O: I was being kind. ((Looks at Ronan)). He went on and on.Kyle: That says something about…Ronan: Play it, play it [let me hear it]Kyle: [no no] I don’t have the rest. I don’t have the rest of [it]Ronan: [No] you do. Kyle: No I don’t have it on me. It would be here somewhere.Jackie O: [Ok this…]Ronan: You go on like you’re my friend, you know you text me, you say you love me and are playing all these songs and then on radio you rip the crap out of me.Kyle: I was just joking. I think I said something like his little white arms hanging out of his singlet…and something like that.Jackie O: OK this is getting awkward and going on. I thought you guys would have a laugh, and…Kyle: [It’s tongue in cheek]Ronan: [That’s’ not cool man]. That’s not cool. Look I popped in to see you guys. I’m going to New Zealand, and I’ve got one night here (.) I’ve got one day in Sydney and that’s the crap that you’re dealing me.((silence from all))Kyle: ((Looking at Jackie)) Good one Jackie. ((Looking at Ronan)) That’s not crap. That’s just radio banter. This segment illustrates that Sandilands recognises talk as performance when he defends his criticism of Keating as “just radio banter”, inferring that his comments are not real because they are performed for radio. The argument between Keating and Sandilands, reported in media outlets such as The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph the following day, was significant because the two had been friends, something referred to a few minutes later by Keating:Ronan: You’ve changed, man. You’ve changed. I come back and you’re on a new station and all this and that. But you’ve changed…I knew you when you were a nice guy.This segment may or may not have been staged to illicit publicity, and it is one of many possible examples that could have been selected that involve an altercation between Sandilands and a guest. Its inclusion in this paper is to illustrate orientation by co-participants, including Sandilands, to a “real self” (one that has changed) and performance (talk for radio) as an example of talk.If one is to be a fake, as Helen Razer suggested of Kyle Sandilands, one needs to be measured against that which is authentic. Authenticity is not a static concept and accordingly, can be difficult to define. Are we talking about being authentic (real) or being sincere (honest), and what really is the difference? This is an important point, because I suspect we sometimes confuse or blur the lines between these two concepts when considering authenticity and performance in media contexts. Erickson examines the difference between sincerity and authenticity, arguing “authenticity is a self-referential concept; unlike sincerity, it does not explicitly include any reference to others,” while sincerity reflects congruity between what one says and how one feels (123). Authenticity is more relevant than sincerity within the cultural space because it is self-referential: it is about “one’s relationship to oneself,” whereby actors “exist by the laws of one’s own being” (Erickson 124).Authenticity and performance by radio hosts has been central to broadcast talk analysis since the 1980s (Tolson, Televised; Tolson, ‘Authentic’ Talk; Tolson, New Authenticity; Scannell; Shingler and Wieringa; Montgomery; Crisell; Tolson, ‘Being Yourself’). The practice of “performing authenticity” by program hosts is, therefore, well-established and consistent with broadcast talk as a discursive genre generally. Sociologist Erving Goffman specifically considered performativity in radio talk in his work, and his consideration of theatrical performance written early in his career provides a good starting point for discussion. Performance, Goffman argued, “may be defined as all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in any way any of the other participants” (8). In performing, actors play a part or present a routine in such a way that the audience believes the character (Goffman).This presents an interesting dilemma for radio hosts, who act as facilitators between the institution (program) and the audience. Hosts talk—or interact—with their co-hosts and listeners. This talk is a performance for an overhearing audience, achieved (or performed) by facilitating interpersonal talk between two or three people. This talk is conversational, and requires the host to play on “interpersonality”—creating the sense of a close personal relationship with audience members by talking to “anyone as someone” (Scannell). A host is required to embody the character of the radio station, represent listeners (Shingler and Wieringa), and perform in a way that appears natural through conversational talk, all at the same time. A host also needs to display personality, possibly the most critical element in the success of a program.Authenticity, Shock-Value, and Radio GenreThe radio economy revolves around the personality of a celebrity host, and audiences expect celebrity hosts to which they listen to be playing a role despite appearing to be authentic (Stiernstedt). At the same time, radio hosts are aware of the “performed nature of the displayed self” (215). The audience familiar with a host or hosts expect some inconsistency in this playing of role: “The uncertainty such performances generate among the audience is intentional, and the motive of the producers is that it will encourage audiences to find ‘evidence’ of what ‘really happened’ on other media platforms” (Stiernstedt). There is much evidence of this in the mediasphere generally, with commentary on Sandilands and other “shock jocks” often featuring in entertainment and media sections of the general press. This coverage is often focused on examining hosts’ true personality in a “what’s behind the person” type of story (Overington; Bearup; Masters). Most research into host performance on radio has been conducted within the genre of talkback radio, and the celebrity talkback “shock jock” features in the literature on talkback (Turner; Douglas; Appleton; Salter; Ward). Successful radio hosts within this genre have fostered dramatic, often polarising, and quick-witted personas to attract listeners. Susan Douglas, in an article reflecting on the male hysteric shock jock that emerged in the US during the 1980s, argued that the talk format emerged to be inflammatory: “Talk radio didn’t require stereo or FM fidelity. It was unpredictable. It was incendiary. And it was participatory.” The term “shock jock” is now routinely used to describe talk-based hosts who are deliberately inflammatory, and the term has been used to describe Kyle Sandilands.Authenticity has previously been considered in Australian talkback radio, where there is a recognised “grey area between news presentation and entertainment” (Barnard 161). In Australia, the “Cash for Comment” episode involving radio talkback hosts John Laws and Alan Jones specifically exposed radio as entertainment (Turner; Flew). Laws and Jones were exposed as having commercial relationships that influenced the manner in which they dealt with political topics. That is, the hosts presented their opinions on specific topics as being authentic, but their opinions were exposed as being influenced by commercial arrangements. The debate that surrounded the issue and expectations associated with being a commercial radio host revealed that their performance was measured against a set of public standards (ie. a journalist’s code of ethics) to which the hosts did not subscribe. For example, John Laws argued that he wasn’t really a journalist, and therefore, could not be held to the same ethical standard as would be the case if he was. This is an example of hosts being authentic within the “laws of their own being;” that is, they were commercial radio hosts and were being true to themselves in that capacity.“Cash for Comment” therefore highlighted that radio presenters do not generally work to any specific set of professional codes. Rather, in Australia, they work to more general sector-based codes, such as the commercial and community broadcasting codes of practice set by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. These codes are quite generic and give no specific direction as to the role of radio presenters. Professor Graeme Turner argued at the time that the debate about “Cash for Comment” was important because the hosts were engaging in public discussion about policy, often interviewing politicians, a role normally associated with journalists. There was limited fall-out for Laws and Jones, but changes were made to disclosure requirements for commercial radio. There have been a number of attempts since to discipline radio hosts who seemingly fail to meet community and sector standards. These attempts have appeared tokenistic and there remains acceptance that talkback radio hosts should be opinionated, controversial, and potentially inflammatory. Research also tells us that callers within this genre are aware of the rules of interaction (O'Sullivan). However, it is important to understand that not all talk-based programming is talkback.The Case of Sandilands and Adherence to GenreAlthough he is often referred to as a “shock-jock”, Kyle Sandilands is not a talkback radio host. He is the host on a chat-based radio program, and the difference in genre is important. Chat-based programming is a speech genre based on wit, orientation to the personal, and the risk of transgression. Chat-based programming was originally theorised in relation to television by Andrew Tolson (Televised), but more recently, it has been applied it to breakfast programs on commercial radio (Ames, Community). Talkback segments are incorporated into chat-based programming, but overall, the type of talk and the basis of interaction throughout the show is very different. In chat-based programming, hosts work to foster and maintain a sense of listening community by taking on different roles—being a friend, host, counsellor, entertainer—depending on the type of talk being engaged with at the time (Ames, Host/Host). Like all forms of broadcast programming, chat-based radio is driven by the need to entertain, but the orientation to the personal and risk of transgression alter the way in which “being real” or “true to oneself” (and therefore authentic) is performed. For example, chat-based hosts orient to callers in a way that prioritises sociability (Ames, Community), which is in contrast to studies on talkback interaction that reveal an orientation to conflict (Hutchby). The key point here is that talk on chat-based programming is different to the talk that occurs on talkback.Kyle Sandilands’s ability and desire to outrage has possibly always been part of his on-air persona. He has made a staff member masturbate live, questioned a 14-year-old about her sexual experiences, called a journalist a “fat slag”, and insulted members of the radio industry and listening public. In an interview with Andrew Denton, Sandilands categorised himself as a fellow victim. He talked of his difficulties as a teenager and largely justified his on-air behaviour by saying he did not think of the consequences of his actions in the heat of the live moment:I just didn’t even think about that. Back in those days I would only think about what I thought was funny and entertaining and it wasn’t until reflection once it had gone to air then everyone flipped out and everyone started saying you know, oh this could have gone horribly wrong. (Sandilands)Sandilands’s self-categorisation actually meets the description of being a radio presenter, described by Stephen Barnard in Studying Radio, one of the early “how to be a radio presenter” texts released in the UK in 2000:Unlike music presenters, phone-in presenters do not work within the comforting disciplines of a prescribed format but are hired for their ability to think on their feet. Phone-in presenters have as much or as little leeway as station heads allow them, leading to widely diverging approaches and a continual testing of the limits of tolerance. (Barnard 161)Sandilands made specific reference to this in his interview with Denton, when he referred to tension between his practice and what station management wanted:I like to cut the rubbish out of what everyone else thinks people want. So radio to me in Sydney was for example very boring. It was you know someone in another room would write out a joke, then someone would execute it and then you would hit the button and everyone would laugh and I just thought you know to me this isn’t, this isn’t real. I want to deal with real life stuff. The real life dramas that are going on in people's lives and a lot of the times radio station management will hate that cause they say no one wants to go to work in the morning and hear a woman crying her eyes out cause her husband’s cheated on her. But I do. I, I’d like to hear it. (Sandilands)Sandilands’s defence for his actions is based on wanting to be real and deal with “real” issues:this is the real society that we live in so you know I don’t and my interest is to let everyone know you know that yes, sometimes men do cheat; sometimes women cheat, sometimes kids are bad; sometimes kids get expelled. Sometimes a girl’s addicted to ice. (Sandilands)In one sense, his practice is consistent with what is expected of a radio host, but he pushes the limits when it comes to transgression. I would argue that this is part of the game, and it is one of the reasons people listen and engage with this particular format. However, what it is to be transgressive is very locally specific. What might be offensive to one person might not be to someone else. Humour is culturally specific, and while we don’t know whether listeners are laughing, the popularity of Kyle and Jackie O as a radio host team suggests that there is some attraction to their style—Sandilands’s antics included.The relationship between Sandilands and his audience and co-host is important to this discussion. Close analysis of anyKyle and Jackie O transcript can be revealing because it often highlights Sandilands’s overall deference and a self-effacing approach to his listeners. He makes excuses, and acknowledges he is wrong in a way that almost sets himself up as a “punching bag” for his co-host and listeners. He isdoing “being real.” We can see this in the interaction at the beginning of this paper, whereby his excuse was that the talk was “just radio banter.” The interaction between Sandilands and his co-host, and their listeners, serves to define the listening community of which they are a part (Ames, Host/Host). This community can be seen as “extraordinary”—based on “privatized isolation” that is a prerequisite for membership:The sense of universality of this condition, reflected in the lyrics of the music, the chatter of the DJs and the similarity of the concerns expressed by callers on phone-ins, ensures that solitary listening grants radio listeners membership to a unique type of club: a club where the members never meet or communicate directly. The club, of course, has its rules, its rituals, its codes of conduct and its abiding principles, beliefs and values. Club membership entails conformity to a consensual view. (Shingler and Wieringa 128)If you are not a listener of a particular listening community, then you’re not privy to those rules and rituals. The problem for Sandilands is that what is acceptable to his listening community can also be overheard by others. To his club, he might be acceptable—they know him for who he really is. As a host operating in chat-based formatting which relies on the possibility for transgression as a principle, he is expected to push boundaries as a performer. His persona is accepted by the station’s listeners who tune in every evening/afternoon (or whenever the program is broadcast across the network). His views and approach might be controversial, but they are normalised within the confines of the listening community:Radio presenters therefore do not construct a consensual view and impose it on their listeners. What they do is present what they perceive to be the views shared by the station and the listening community in general, and then make it as easy as possible for individual listeners to comply with these views (despite whatever specific reservations they may have). (Shingler and Wieringa 130)But to those who are not members of the listening community, his actions might be untenable. They do not hear the times when Sandilands takes on the role of “deviant host”, a host who will become an ally with a listener in a discussion if there is disagreement in talk which is a feature of this type of programming (Ames, Community). In picking out single elements of Sandilands’s awfulness, as happens when he oversteps the boundaries (and thus transgresses), there is potential to lose the sense of context that makes Sandilands acceptable to his program’s listeners. What we don’t hear, in the debates about whether his behaviour is or isn’t acceptable within the mediasphere, are the snippets of conversation where he demonstrates empathy, or is admonished by or defers to his co-host. The only time a non-listener hears about Kyle Sandilands is when he oversteps the boundary and his actions are questioned within the wider mediasphere. These questions are based on a broader sense of moral order than the moral order specifically applicable to the Kyle and Jackie O program.The debate about a listening community’s moral order that accepts Sandilands’s antics as normal is not one for this paper; the purpose of the paper is to explain the success of Sandilands’s approach in an environment where questions are raised about why he remains successful. Here we return to discussions of authenticity. Sandilands’s performance orients to being “real” in accordance with the “laws of one’s own being” (Erickson 124). The laws in this case are set by the genre being chat-based radio programming, and the moral order created within the program of which is a co-host.ConclusionRadio hosts have always “performed authenticity” as part of their role as a link between an audience and a station. Most research into the performance of radio hosts has been conducted within the talkback genre. Talkback is different, however, to chat-based programming which is increasingly popular, and the chat-based format in Australia is currently dominated by the host team known as Kyle and Jackie O. Kyle Sandilands’s performance is based on “being real”, and this is encouraged and suited to chat-based programming’s orientation to the personal, reliance on wit and humour, and the risk of transgression. While he is controversial, Sandliands’s style is an ideal fit for the genre, and his ability to perform to meet the genre provides some explanation for his success.ReferencesAmes, Kate. “Community Membership When ‘Telling Stories’ in Radio Talk: A Regional Case Study.” PhD Thesis. 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London, UK: Routledge, 1994.Douglas, Susan. “Talk Radio: Letting Boys Be Boys.” El Dorado Sun 27 Jun. 2000.Erickson, Rebecca J. “The Importance of Authenticity for Self and Society.” Symbolic Interaction 18.2 (1995): 121–44.Flew, Terry. “Down by Laws: Commercial Talkback Radio and the ABA 'Cash for Comment' Inquiry.” Australian Screen Education 24 (Spring 2000): 10–15.Galvin, Nick. “Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Finish Year in Top Radio Ratings Spot.” Sydney Morning Herald 16 Dec. 2014. ‹http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/kyle-sandilands-and-jackie-o-finish-year-in-top-radio-ratings-spot-20141216-127zyd.html›.———. “Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Kiss and Make Up.”Sydney Morning Herald 12 Aug. 2014. ‹http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/kyle-sandilands-and-jackie-o-kiss-and-make-up-20140812-102zyh.html›.Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. U of E Social Sciences Research Centre Edinburgh: Open Library, 1956.Hutchby, Ian. Confrontation Talk: Arguments, Asymmetries, and Power on Talk Radio. Marwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996.Masters, Chris. Jonestown: The Power and the Myth of Alan Jones. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2006.Montgomery, Martin. “Our Tune: A Study of a Discourse Genre.” Broadcast Talk. Ed. Scannell, Paddy. London: Sage Publications, 1991. 138–77.O'Sullivan, Sara. “‘The Whole Nation Is Listening to You’: The Presentation of the Self on a Tabloid Talk Radio Show.” Media Culture Society 27.5 (2005): 719–38.Overington, Caroline. “The Trouble with Kyle Sandilands.” The Weekend Australian Magazine 28 Jan. 2012. ‹http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/me-and-my-big-mouth/story-e6frg8h6-1226254068599?nk=3d9abe800533fc9a7e841eaee6a922da›.Razer, Helen. “Kyle Sandilands, You Are a Big Fake Fake.” Crikey 22 Aug. 2007.“Ronan Keating & Kyle Sandilands Fight on-Air”. YouTube, 2014. (12 Feb. 2014.) 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Ce travail porte sur la tenue dielectrique dans les cables haute tension a isolation gazeuse (cig), susceptibles de suppleer aux lignes aeriennes. Dans ces cables, l'emploi d'isolateurs solides, inevitable pour le maintien des conducteurs, cree une interface gaz - solide, dont la tenue dielectrique conditionne celle de l'ensemble du systeme. Effectuee dans une configuration tres proche de la pratique industrielle, l'etude experimentale montre que l'azote gazeux ne permet pas d'assurer le transport des tres hautes tensions sans atteindre des pressions assez elevees (20 bars). Quant a l'utilisation du sf#6 pur dans les cig, elle est discutable surtout du point de vue economique et ecologique. L'etude realisee, laisse cependant apparaitre, qu'il est necessaire d'adjoindre une faible proportion de sf#6 dans l'azote afin d'assurer une tenue dielectrique correcte tout en restant a des niveaux de pression acceptables. Pour une pression de melange de 12 bars absolus, la proportion de sf#6 doit etre de 10 % pour obtenir une tenue en tension equivalente a celle de 4 bars de sf#6. En dehors de son aspect industriel, ce travail analyse aussi certaines differences observees entre le comportement dielectrique de l'azote et du sf#6 : l'efficacite de l'isolateur, les marques laissees par la decharge, le courant de predecharge et la geometrie de l'isolateur.

Ce travail s'inscrit dans le cadre de la recherche d'une alternative à l'utilisation du gaz hexafluorure de soufre (SF6) dans l'appareillage électrique Haute Tension et plus particulièrement les postes à isolation gazeuse. Ce gaz possède de bonnes propriétés diélectriques mais son potentiel de réchauffement global (GWP) est estimé à 23900 fois celui du dioxyde de carbone (CO2). Malheureusement, les gaz dits simples tels que l'azote (N2) présentent une tenue diélectrique deux à trois fois plus faible que celle du SF6. Dans le but d'améliorer la tenue diélectrique du système, on se propose d'appliquer sur les conducteurs un revêtement isolant à base de silicone constitué d'une sous-couche semi-conductrice d'épaisseur 0.5 mm et d'une couche isolante d'épaisseur 1.5 mm, afin de limiter ou supprimer le rôle des électrons du métal. Les essais diélectriques réalisés sous une tension de choc de foudre dans des conditions expérimentales proches de la pratique industrielle montrent qu'en présence de N2 la tenue diélectrique du système avec revêtement est régie par le gaz. Par conséquent, l'application du revêtement sur les conducteurs diminue la tenue diélectrique du système (effet capacitif). Ces essais montrent, cependant, qu'il est possible d'améliorer la tenue diélectrique du système avec le revêtement, en présence de SF6 en polarité négative. Les paramètres importants semblent être la propreté du gaz, le degré d'ionisation du gaz et surtout les charges qui se déposent à l'interface gaz-revêtement qui, dans certaines conditions, ont un effet bénéfique : ce dernier résultat donne une piste aux travaux futurs.

En électronique de puissance, un des principaux axes de recherche, concerne la montée en température. L'encapsulation et la passivation du module de puissance constituent, sous cette contrainte, des verrous technologiques. En effet, les matériaux polymères habituellement utilisés ne peuvent plus satisfaire des exigences en température fixée dans notre étude à 350°C sans pertes importantes de leurs propriétés diélectriques. L'isolation gazeuse a été alors envisagée et quelques résultats encourageants ont été dégagés. Le seuil d'apparition des décharges dans des gaz est étudié en vue de leur utilisation dans des modules de puissance à haute température. Deux gaz ont été sélectionnés pour leurs propriétés diélectriques et leurs GWP faibles : l'octafluoropropane (C3F8) et l'octafluorocyclobutane (c-C4F8), l'azote (N2) faisant référence pour comparaison. Au préalable, une étude sur les céramiques les plus utilisées à haute température est réalisée. Cette étude montre un changement du mécanisme de conduction de l'alumine et de l'AlN passant d'un régime capacitif à un régime résistif et modifiant au passage les propriétés de surface en facilitant l'écoulement des charges dans le volume du matériau tandis que le Si3N4 conserve un comportement capacitif et les charges en surface même à haute température. L'échauffement local des gaz met en évidence une diminution du seuil d'apparition des décharges avec la température et ce quel que soit le gaz étudié. La modification de la distance inter-électrodes permet de diminuer la variation du seuil d'apparition avec la température pour de faibles distances. Des expériences complémentaires ont été menées afin de comparer ces résultats à ceux obtenus lors d'un chauffage global. L'utilisation de gaz dans des packaging de puissance s'avère donc prometteuse mais demande une meilleure compréhension et maîtrise des mécanismes en jeu
In power electronics, one of the main research topics concerns high temperature operation of the components. Under such a constraint, the encapsulation and the passivation of the semiconductors devices in power module appear as physical and technological bottleneck. As a matter of fact, usual polymeric materials are unable to endure the temperature requirements set out in our study (350 °C) without significant loss of their dielectric properties. Therefore, gas insulation is considered and encouraging results have been obtained. The Discharges Inception Voltage is studied for different gases that could be used in high temperature power modules. Thanks to their dielectric properties and their low GWP, two gases have been selected: octafluoropropane (C3F8) and octafluorocyclobutane (c-C4F8), nitrogen (N2) being used as reference in this study. In a first step, the high temperature behaviors of the most widely used substrate materials (ceramics) are studied. A change of the conduction mechanism from a pure capacitive behavior (at low temperature) to a pure resistive one (at high temperature) is observed for both alumina and AlN samples. On the contrary, Si3N4 remains capacitive whatever the temperature. Such a behavior has an impact on the charges located at the surface. They disappear quickly for the two formers while they slowly decrease for the later. The field reinforcement associated to their existence and its impact on the DIV will not be the same. Whatever the gas under study, a local heating leads to a decrease in the DIV with temperature. A decrease of the distance between the two electrodes, leads to a decrease of the DIV changes vs Temperature. These results are compared to the measurements performed when the samples were uniformly heated. The use of gas in power packaging seems to be promising but it still needs a better understanding of the mechanisms involved

Dans la plupart des disjoncteurs haute tension à isolation gazeuse (DIG), les conducteurs électriques sont maintenus par des supports isolants à base de résine époxyde. En raison de problèmes à la fois économiques et écologiques (recyclage difficile), ces matériaux tendent à être remplacés par des polymères thermoplastiques. Ce travail porte sur l'analyse des propriétés diélectriques et du comportement du polyéthylène téréphtalate, censé remplacer les époxydes dans les DIG et dans d'autres applications haute tension. Les différentes propriétés diélectriques du PET en couches épaisses à l'état initial (rigidité diélectrique, résistivité, constante diélectrique, facteur de pertes, tenue aux décharges partielles, propriétés de conduction) sont déterminées et étudiées à différentes températures. Dans le but d'appréhender les limites d'utilisation du matériau et son comportement dans le temps, une étude de vieillissement électrothermique accéléré sous fort champ alternatif (50 Hz) est présentée
In most high voltage gas insulated switchgears (GIS), electrical conductors are maintained by insulating materials based on epoxy resin. Due to economical and environmental problems (difficulties to recycle), these materials are subject to be replaced by thermoplastic polymers. This study focuses on the analysis of dielectric properties and behaviour of polyethylene terephtalate, intended to be used in GIS and other high voltage applications. Several properties of thick PET layers at initial state (breakdown strength, resistivity, dielectric constant, loss factor, resistance to partial discharges, conduction properties) are studied at different temperatures. An accelerated electrothermal ageing study undertaken under ac field (50 Hz) is presented in order to approach the limits of use of the materials and to evaluate its long term behaviour

La methode de l'onde thermique est une methode nouvelle de determination des densites de charges d'espace dans les isolants solides. Appliquee aux cables, elle est basee sur la diffusion radiale d'un front de chaleur a partir de la face externe de l'eprouvette, et sur la dilatation non uniforme qui en resulte. Le modele theorique adopte pour de telles structures cylindriques permet d'etablir une relation simple entre le courant mesure et les densites de charges. La validation du modele thermique a deux sources de chaleur a ete verifiee dans le cas des structures plane et cylindrique. Les parametres thermiques propres du materiau et de la cellule de mesure ont ete determines. Cette nouvelle methode a ete appliquee a la mesure des charges d'espace dans cables haute tension a forte epaisseur d'isolant

Après sa production dans des centrales, l'électricité est acheminée sur de longues distances à travers le réseau électrique qui comporte des appareils haute tension destinés à la protection des installations. Parmi ces dispositifs, le GIS (Gaz Insulated Switchgear), dans lequel l'isolation électrique est assurée par le gaz SF6, est très utilisé. Il est soumis à des normes de sécurité imposant, notamment, des seuils de température à ne pas dépasser durant son fonctionnement. La connaissance et la maîtrise des phénomènes électromagnétiques et thermiques à l'origine des augmentations de température dans le GIS sont des enjeux cruciaux. Elles permettent un dimensionnement plus rapide et plus précis des appareils, aboutissant à un unique essai de validation des critères fixés par les normes. Elles fourniront également des solutions visant à réduire les échauffements des GIS. Cette réduction est importante car elle permet la circulation d'un courant plus élevé dans le GIS, ce qui aboutit à une amélioration des performances de l'appareil. Les travaux effectués dans le cadre de cette thèse présentent une analyse des phénomènes électro-thermiques dans le GIS et plus précisément dans les jeux de barres. Ils permettent la détermination des paramètres influençant l'augmentation de température dans cette géométrie. La contribution de chaque mode de transfert de chaleur (convection, rayonnement) est estimée et discutée. Une modélisation numérique du champ de température induite par la circulation du courant dans les jeux de barres est également proposée, en tenant compte du couplage avec le champ de vitesse induit
Electricity is produced by power stations and is transported throughout the electric-power transmission at long distances with high voltage apparatus. The GIS (Gas Insulated Switchgear) is widely used switchgear. The electric insulation is ensured by the gas SF6. Security IEC norms impose temperature rises not to be exceeded during GIS operating. It is important to know and control the electromagnetic and thermal phenomenons which generate temperature rises. The switchgear design could then be faster and more precise, leading to only one successful temperature rise test. Solutions to reduce temperatures could also be found. The temperature rise reduction is crucial as it allow a higher current flowing through the GIS and an increase of its efficiency. The word achieved during this thesis presents an analysis of electro-thermal phenomenons in GIS and, more precisely, in busbars. It leads to the determination of the parameters influencing temperature rises and of the heat transfers proportion which is assessed and discussed. A numerical modelization is carried out to examine the temperature rises induced by the current flow in busbars

La faisabilite d'une filiere technologique a isolation dielectrique basee sur la technique de soudure directe sur silicium est ici etudiee et demontree, pour les applications de puissance intelligente dans la gamme des hautes tensions (1000-1500 v, 1-20 a), ou une configuration verticale du composant de puissance est necessaire. L'isolation statique et dynamique du circuit basse tension, integre a cote de ce composant de puissance vertical, est le point critique de cette famille de circuits integres. L'isolation par dielectrique offre une meilleure protection pour le caisson basse tension, car elle elimine les composants bipolaires parasites presents dans une technologie a isolation par jonction. L'utilisation de la soudure directe sur silicium permet d'obtenir a un cout modere une couche d'oxyde d'isolation enterree. En outre, notre application necessite la presence d'une zone de soudure si/si dans la partie active du composant de puissance vertical. L'influence du nettoyage avant soudure sur les caracteristiques electriques de l'interface si/si est mise en evidence, et la presence de defauts cristallins dans cette zone est consideree comme la principale cause de possibles dysfonctionnements. Les solutions apportees aux problemes de compatibilite de procede de la soudure sur silicium avec un procede standard ont permis de valider une filiere complete comportant l'integration simultanee d'un transistor bipolaire de puissance vertical avec une circuiterie de controle bipolaire. Une terminaison haute tension pour le circuit integre de puissance, d'optimisation simple, basee sur le concept d'anneaux polarises, et ne necessitant pas d'etape technologique supplementaire, est enfin proposee pour completer la filiere technologique mise en place. Cette structure d'anneaux est etudiee a l'aide de simulations electriques bidimensionnelles (logiciel bidim2) ainsi que d'un modele analytique simplifie

Les récentes avancées dans la technologie du courant continu, du côté du transport à haute tension et de la consommation à basse tension, ont propulsé le courant continu de moyenne tension (MVDC) au premier plan. Cette thèse explore les propriétés isolantes en courant continu de deux matériaux couramment utilisés dans l'équipement de distribution : de l'époxy chargé en micro-silice et le silicone elastomère.Dans une configuration monocouche, chaque matériau a fait l'objet d'une enquête approfondie, mettant l'accent sur les caractéristiques de sorption d'eau et la conduction électrique. Des mesures de courant ont été effectuées pour analyser la conduction dans divers niveaux de champs, à différentes températures et conditions d'absorption d'eau. De plus, la méthode Laser Pressure Pulse (LIPP) a été utilisée pour des mesures de charge d'espace en tant que technique complémentaire. L'étude s'est étendue à une configuration bicouche, combinant les deux matériaux, nous permettant ainsi de confirmer un modèle prédisant les propriétés du multicouche et sa distribution de champs en fonction des valeurs des monocouches.La conduction en courant continu dans l'époxy a montré une forte dépendance à l'absorption d'eau, l'humidité influençant la non-linéarité et modifiant le mécanisme de conduction. À l'inverse, le silicone a démontré une conduction limitée par l'électrode, avec des variations de courant liées à la sorption d'eau par le biais d'un mécanisme limité par saturation. Dans une configuration bicouche hypothétique, où l'époxy représente un manchon et le silicone sert de terminaison de câble, le champ est censé se concentrer dans l'époxy dans des environnements secs, passant au silicone à mesure que l'humidité augmente. La thèse se conclut par des discussions sur les stratégies de sélection des matériaux et la conception de configurations multicouches
Recent advancements in direct-current technology from the high-voltage transport and low-voltage consumption have brought medium-voltage DC (MVDC) to the forefront. This thesis delves into the insulating DC properties of two commonly used materials in distribution equipment: epoxy filled with silica and silicone rubber.In a monolayer configuration, each material underwent extensive investigation, focusing on water sorption characteristics and electrical conduction. Current measurements were conducted to analyze conduction under various fields, temperatures, and water uptake conditions. Additionally, the Laser Pressure Pulse (LIPP) method was employed for space charge measurements as a complementary technique. The study extended to a bilayer configuration, combining both materials, with insights from monolayer experiments informing the properties of the bilayer and predicting field distribution.The DC conduction in epoxy exhibited high dependence on water absorption, with moisture influencing non-linearity and altering the conduction mechanism. Conversely, silicone demonstrated electrode-limited conduction, with current variations tied to water sorption through a saturation-limited mechanism. In a hypothetical bilayer configuration, where epoxy represents a type-C bushing and silicone serves as the cable termination, the field is expected to concentrate in the epoxy in dry environments, shifting to silicone as humidity increases. The thesis concludes with discussions on material selection strategies and the design of multi-layer configurations

Le but de cette etude est de mettre en evidence l'effet de la pression hydrostatique sur le vieillissement electrique en courant continu des polyethylenes utilises dans les cables de transport d'energie sous-marins. Le memoire comporte quatre chapitres dont le premier est consacre a la synthese bibliographique des modeles de duree de vie d'isolants solides en fonction de la contrainte electrique et de la temperature. La description des dispositifs experimentaux de mesure de la duree de vie a pression atmospherique et sous pression hydrostatique est donnee au deuxieme chapitre. Dans le troisieme chapitre, on presente les resultats experimentaux obtenus a 1 et 300 bar, a la temperature de 70c dans une gamme de champ allant de 1,1 a 4,5 mv/cm jusqu'a des temps de mesure de 1500 heures. Les resultats experimentaux montrent une augmentation de la duree de vie avec la pression. L'utilisation de la statistique de weibull et la determination des intervalles de confiance confirment cette augmentation. Dans le quatrieme chapitre, on essaye d'expliquer les resultats avec le modele de puissance inverse, le modele de crine base sur l'energie de gibbs et l'existence de submicrocavites dans le materiau et le modele de claquage thermique. L'hypothese finale est l'existence des phenomenes de charge d'espace, influences par le parametre pression, que l'on a pu verifier par une premiere serie de mesure basee sur l'onde thermique