Browsing by Author "Passchier, Shmerah"

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    Constructing the Afrocyborg in VR 360 Cinema: A Critical Investigation into how Two African Women Filmmakers Collaborate to Construct Prosocial African Science Fiction in Virtual Reality Filmmaking
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Passchier, Shmerah; Koba, Yolo; Sakota, Tanja
    The Afrocyborg semiotic construct is a neologism inspired by cyborg scholarship, beginning with Donna Haraway’s 1985, A Cyborg Manifesto, which materialised at the zenith of the Third Industrial Revolution (3IR), and the appearance of the domestic personal computer (PC) in the late twentieth century. This contribution to cyborg discourse re-focuses the Western science/fiction gaze of “cyborgology” by foregrounding African cyborg realities at the centre of the new zeitgeist of 4IR-driven XR technologies, specifically the VR HMD as an immersive computing device, which is a cyborg prosthetic extension of human ocular abilities (Gray 1995: 1). Moratiwa Molema and I formed the Afrocyborg VR Collective as an Afro-technofeminist coalition, and solidarity support group for collective womanist filmmaking. This methodology foregrounds the technological empowerment of women in relation to VR as a medium while focusing on prosocial subject matter in the domains of eco-justice and racial-gender-justice (Ogunyemi 2006: 21). For this reason, the Afrocyborg VR Collective make Prosocial VR films in the genre of African Science Fiction, which is a counter-hegemonic narrative lens through which to generate “cyborg consciousness” about “oppositional consciousness” (Sandoval 2020: 408; hooks 1992: 264). Cyborg oppositional consciousness is expressed as “Fourth VR” (Wallis & Ross 2020: 1). An Afro-technofeminist, technopolitical framework advances filmmaking discourse and praxis by autodidactic online learning of how to operate VR equipment, thereby overcoming our tech-inferiority complex with a thought experiment we call the “Dora Milaje mind trick” (Coogler 2018). As we learn, we also teach VR skills to our students and communities of youth to share knowledge of 4IR tools, specifically with women, to empower them with 4IR STEAM skills as a technopolitical, educational and future-proofing empowerment strategy. The Afrocyborg Collective has made two VR films in the genre of Prosocial VR as part of the creative praxis of Quantum Botho/Ubuntu in the making of The Cosmic Egg, which is a call to elevated environmental consciousness, and The Eye of Rre Mutwa, which confronts “white fragility” about the technological developments of the 4IR (DiAngelo 2018). By experimenting with new gaze regimes offered by the exponential medium of VR, with its multiple lenses that create 360-degree spherical story worlds, we demonstrate how the “medium is the muthi” when used in the mode of Prosocial VR. Therefore, the construction of an expanded prosocial gaze in VR, in the genre of African futurism, contributes to the decolonial undoing of oppressive power structures by generating representations of Africa that seek to apprehend the stereotypes of Hegelian racial prejudice and “poverty porn” that persist in global media representations (Kahiu 2017).
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    Lessons from new Nollywood : a theory from the global South.
    (2014-08-18) Passchier, Shmerah
    New Nollywood is eclipsing old Nollywood as first wave films are supplanted by second wave films characterized by improved narrative complexity and aesthetic nuance reflected in advanced overall production values. Nollywood is showing signs of far reaching impact as the films mature significantly after two decades of production. The explosion of Nollywood films consumed across Africa and exported to the diaspora as packaged popular culture from Anglophone Africa has accelerated a major turning point in the history of Nollywood as this mode of filmmaking is now considered a transnational practice. Nollywood films are mimetically reproduced in the pan-African context as well as globally. This explosion of popular cinema has been facilitated by digital innovation. As filmmaking technology evolves to be more cost-effective and user-friendly, it erases the barrier to entry for new filmmakers. Likewise, as the digital revolution transmogrifies filmmaking, „Global North‟ cinema cultures of celluloid and the silver screen are in decline (Economist 2013). But even as the old film model is atrophying, democratization of filmmaking technology means that anyone with imagination, aptitude and meagre resources can now make a feature film. No one understands this better than Nigerians who release up to 50 new films each week, more than Bollywood (15 films/week) and Hollywood (10 films/week) (Economist 2006, UNESCO 2009). Nollywood filmmakers have harnessed the tools of the digital revolution to redefine the terms of popular culture production, consumption and distribution. Nollywood films are not only inexpensive to make but also offer good returns on a minimal investment – lessons of enormous significance for filmmakers elsewhere in the „Global South‟, especially in an era where media convergence and global competition implies a trend towards consumers expecting online entertainment to be „Free‟ (Anderson 2009: 137). In this research the filmmakers themselves and their revisionist practices are the voices of vernacular theory in constructing Lessons from New Nollywood: A Theory 6 from the Global South. In the constantly changing landscape of the digital revolution, theory tries to stay abreast of ubiquitous transformation and thus theory: „will be understood here as any attempt to make meaningful generalizations for interpreting or evaluating local experiences and practices (Jenkins 1999: 234).‟ Jenkins intertwines theory and practice as co-dependent concepts that are inextricable. In digital filmmaking as in the domain of digital media, practice precedes theory and theory hypothesises practice.
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    (2014-03-26) Passchier, Shmerah
    New Nollywood is eclipsing old Nollywood as first wave films are supplanted by second wave films characterized by improved narrative complexity and aesthetic nuance reflected in advanced overall production values. Nollywood is showing signs of far reaching impact as the films mature significantly after two decades of production. The explosion of Nollywood films consumed across Africa and exported to the diaspora as packaged popular culture from Anglophone Africa has accelerated a major turning point in the history of Nollywood as this mode of filmmaking is now considered a transnational practice. Nollywood films are mimetically reproduced in the pan-African context as well as globally. This explosion of popular cinema has been facilitated by digital innovation. As filmmaking technology evolves to be more cost-effective and user-friendly, it erases the barrier to entry for new filmmakers. Likewise, as the digital revolution transmogrifies filmmaking, „Global North‟ cinema cultures of celluloid and the silver screen are in decline (Economist 2013). But even as the old film model is atrophying, democratization of filmmaking technology means that anyone with imagination, aptitude and meagre resources can now make a feature film. No one understands this better than Nigerians who release up to 50 new films each week, more than Bollywood (15 films/week) and Hollywood (10 films/week) (Economist 2006, UNESCO 2009). Nollywood filmmakers have harnessed the tools of the digital revolution to redefine the terms of popular culture production, consumption and distribution. Nollywood films are not only inexpensive to make but also offer good returns on a minimal investment – lessons of enormous significance for filmmakers elsewhere in the „Global South‟, especially in an era where media convergence and global competition implies a trend towards consumers expecting online entertainment to be „Free‟ (Anderson 2009: 137). In this research the filmmakers themselves and their revisionist practices are the voices of vernacular theory in constructing Lessons from New Nollywood: A Theory 6 from the Global South. In the constantly changing landscape of the digital revolution, theory tries to stay abreast of ubiquitous transformation and thus theory: „will be understood here as any attempt to make meaningful generalizations for interpreting or evaluating local experiences and practices (Jenkins 1999: 234).‟ Jenkins intertwines theory and practice as co-dependent concepts that are inextricable. In digital filmmaking as in the domain of digital media, practice precedes theory and theory hypothesises practice.