Mark Burgess - Building Careers

Mark Burgess –Final

Transcription by Alice Bell

VISUAL: Building Careers. PhD candidate Mark Burgess is working with the CSIRO to map the decision-making process behind building regulations. He talks about his research and how further study changed his life. RMIT University logo.

AUDIO: Electronic music plays quietly in the background through the duration of the video.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark Burgess sitting in a modern lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK: My name’s Mark Burgess. My work at the moment is around the area of building regulation, …

VISUAL: Video of external high-rise building under contrustction comes into focus, cuts to wider angle shot of external lift going down the outside of the building, cuts to shot of several cranes working atop of buildings in the distance surrounded by a number of built high-rises.

MARK: …primarily looking at the decision-making processes that set Australia’s building regulations.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a modern lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: I actually work for CSIRO…

VISUAL: Wide-angle video still of outside CSIRO building, fades into still shot of Mark wearing a white

CSIRO-branded laboratory coat in a white room. In the background a printed A4 sign reads: Incoming Samples Area.

MARK: …They very kindly support this work through giving me the time to do the study and the research.

VISUAL: Close up video of Mark looking closely at a wooden model mock-up of a building, the camera pans across the wooden model.

MARK: I saw a presentation from another research candidate and made an introduction…

VISUAL: Video close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK:…and her supervisors contacted me and said…

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK:…hey how can we get a link with CSIRO on this work.

VISUAL: Video close up of wooden building model as shown prior, camera tilts up to show Mark standing in the background, smiling.

MARK: So it’s really pleasing that these relationships, these collaborations…

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: ...very quickly spread out and build more collaboration under stronger ties.

VISUAL: Video medium close up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre browsing through a book publication.

MARK: CSIRO, like RMIT, publishing is what we do. We do look for publications…

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: …So during this journey I’ve very much been encouraged by my supervisor and by the School

VISUAL: Video still of Mark bent down over a different building model, peering into a model house.

MARK:…to publish and that benefits both organisations…

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: …And lifts the profile in this area of research.

VISUAL: Video close up of the covers of two books overlapping, face up on a table. The top book is entitled: National Construction Code Series 2013 Volume Two –Building Code of Australia Class 1 and Class 10 Buildings. The book underneath is Volume One.

MARK: Industry on the whole is very helpful. You make a few phone calls…

VISUAL: Video close up of small cardboard landscape model construction on a table against a window, camera refocuses to reveal external building bearing RMIT University logo is under construction with people working on the roof.

MARK:…you ask a few questions, it’s very easy to get meetings, it’s very easy to get solid responses...

VISUAL: Video wide shot of waterside building under construction, workers walking across the floors. The bottom of the screen shows a boat moored.

MARK: …and it’s very easy to get good feedback.

VISUAL: Video wide shot of outside a building under construction, a sole worker is channelling rope between platforms.

MARK: Something I did very early…

VISUAL: Video wide shot in the midst of the Melbourne CBD with the Melbourne Central dome in the near distance, a worker fastens cables on another building is under construction.

MARK:…in this whole process…

VISUAL: A surveyor looks through a building instrument affixed to a tripod.

MARK:…is I wrote my research proposal.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: I made sure that the proposal had some clear deliverables and I made sure that those deliverables…

VISUAL: Video wide shot of workers pouring concrete into the floor of a building under construction, cuts to another images of several workers walking around the same building site.

MARK: …were of benefit to the industries I was approaching.

VISUAL: Video close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK: Because you need to walk in the door with a bargaining chip. You can’t walk in with a very fluffy idea and expect industry to see the merit in your idea. You need to spell that out.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in a lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: The journey of education is just…

VISUAL: Mark riding up escalators.

MARK: …a gift that we need to grab with both hands.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK: I heard a line the other day which was the…

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking at an angle just off camera.

MARK: …Chief Financial Officer having a complain that ‘Oh what if we trained all these people and they leave the organisation’ and the Chief Executive countered with ‘Yeah but what if we don’t train them and they stay.’

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK: The real learnings, the learnings that really changed me the most are the learnings that changed my behaviours….

VISUAL: Video close up tilts down still image of Mark peering through two large yellow steel beams, cuts to still image of Mark holding a numbered binder standing next to shelving with various binders, boxes and paper.

MARK: …which is my approach to problem solving, my approach to decision-making, my approach to the analysis of information, and that spreads across…

VISUAL: Video close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK: …the way I make my private decisions, the way I make my decisions at work, and the way I approach my research as well.

VISUAL: Mark walking down Swanston St, Melbourne, looking up at the RMIT buildings then heading into one of the buildings.

MARK: ‘A desk is a very dangerous place from which to view the world’ which is John le Carre…

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking direct to camera.

MARK: …And it’s such a great quote because it applies both in industry, in management, and in research…

VISUAL: Video close up of Mark’s hand resting on the side of the escalator as he rides up, cuts to close up of his legs walking across the concrete floor.

MARK:…where you need to get out from behind that desk to get a much better view of what’s going on in your life and what’s going on in the world.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking at an angle off camera.

MARK: Yes, there’s the literature search, yes, there’s all the academics…

VISUAL: Video close up still of Mark holding onto a vertically placed wooden plank, looking down the plank, cut to video close up still of Mark pressing a button on an electrical panel mounted to a wall.

MARK: …even the most theoretical research that may not be applied at this stage. It will be applied one day.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking at an angle off camera.

MARK: So I think you always need to look at the outside world. Especially industry, for how that research…

VISUAL: Mark walks up to a fire extinguisher and reviews it’s records tag.

MARK: …even if it’s not ready to be applied yet, but how it might be applied.

VISUAL: Video medium close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking at an angle off camera.

MARK: I’ve received a lot of great help from the University. I think at the end of this process, I’ll go back to CSIRO and continue with my career and my role…

VISUAL: Video close-up of Mark sitting in lecture theatre, talking to camera.

MARK: …But I think I will continue to make myself available to RMIT for students who are coming into the process, for assistance with that industry connection…

VISUAL: Video close up of wooden building model as shown earlier, camera tilts up to show Mark reading a document, Mark looks up from document and smiles at the camera.

MARK:…I think it’ll be a two-way street. I think RMIT helped me but I think I will then go on and put a lot back into the academic community here.

VISUAL: RMIT University logo. www.rmit.edu.au Additional images courtesy of Mark Burgess and CSIRO.

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