School of Arts

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"You don't get to sing a song when you have nothing to say" : Oliver Mtukudzi's music as a vehicle for socio-political commentary.
(2004) Sibanda, Silindiwe
This paper analyses the music of Oliver Mtukudzi in order to ascertain how he uses his music as a means of addressing the socio-political issues in Zimbabwe. Mtukudzi's music has, for decades now, been thought to reflect and voice the realities of life in Zimbabwe. Particular emphasis has been placed on the lyrics because they contain the messages of the songs. An evaluation of the music and its addressivity in conjunction with the lyrics is also examined to determine how Mtukudzi uses them both as ways of enhancing the message in the songs. Using the theory of addressivity the paper looks at the nature of this address within the songs chosen for evaluation within the paper. Similarly the virtual audience, as distinguishable from real audiences, of Mtukudzi' s address is taken cognisance of in order to, not only verify the addressivity already discussed, but also to assess how extensive the audience's influence is in determining the songs that the artist writes. Using songs from recordings from the last five years I look specifically at how he deals with themes about women, children, HIV/AIDS and politics in his music and how this is used to address and reflect the social realities of Zimbabwe.
Confronting The Museum: The Function Of Parody In The Work Of Illya Kabakov and Marcel Broodthaers.
(2006-11-02T11:02:24Z) Kearney, Alison
This study investigates the ways in which museums are understood as texts, and how artists challenge those assumptions within their work. The extent to which parody, a central tenet of post- modern art, can be used as an effective means to challenge the hegemony of the art museum, is investigated through an analyses of artworks by Illya Kabakov and Marcel Broodthaers. The first part of the study interrogates the hegemonic function of museums, through a discussion of the central tenets of museological discourse, in order to contextualise the discussion of the artworks in question. The second part of this study includes an analysis of specific artworks by Illya Kabakov and Marcel Broodthaers, detailing the ways in which these artists parody aspects of museum practice. The concluding chapter interrogates my own artistic production in relation to this research.
Balancing act: An investigation of the in-between space used by selected contemporary artists in South Africa
(2006-11-17T10:46:41Z) Watson, Deirdre
After endless contemplation on the idea of ‘word and image’, the following expression of J.W.T Mitchell in Word and Image (1996: 56) brought insight: ‘[W]ord and image’… a pair of terms whose relations open a space of intellectual struggle, historical investigation, and artistic/critical practice. Our only choice is to explore this space (own emphasis). I shifted my position from the forlorn act of peeling to one of creative exploration. Not necessarily exploring the specific space between word and image, but rummaging ‘the space between’; always hovering amid opposites. This space provides an opportunity to confront and debate the many issues that stem from the relations formed in its fluidity. It is a space that informs my thinking. It is a space of conversation. I see not only my writing, but also the art that I scrutinize as conversation. My conversation is captured in the linear structure of this thesis, but the conversation of art is dynamic. It is informal and flexible – following not one path, offering no answer, giving the potential at each moment for surprises and transformation. The idea is to ponder contemporary art’s dialogue, the manipulators thereof and the indispensable factors constituting this notion: space, grammar, medium, criticism. The notion of dialogue assumes a listener, a participant, an audience. But who is this audience with whom ideas are conversed, and what language do you (presumably) use to communicate the necessary? I have chosen to investigate these questions, the purpose and plan of art, with relation to a selected group of artists: an individual, Terry Kurgan and a collective – Stephen Hobbs, Marcus Neustetter and Kathryn Smith, known as The Trinity Session.
"Troll": dissertation on sexual identity comprising three components
(2008-03-07T09:20:14Z) Lotriet, Brett
ABSTRACT This dissertation explores identity as its central theme. There are three components to the dissertation. The first is the academic essay which explores identity through the perspective of queer theory and proposes a three-dimensional conception of an “identity cloud”. The second component is the creative essay which consists of ten chapters towards a final novella entitled “troll”. The creative component’s central theme is the lead protagonist’s struggle in assimilating the identities of “gay” and “addict” after receiving a liver transplant. The third and final component is an essay detailing the manner in which the creative and academic created and informed one another.
"100 papers": an anthology of flash fiction and prose poetry with a theoretical postscript
(2008-05-30T07:24:40Z) Jobson, Liesl Karen
[NO ABSTRACT PRESENT]
"Distinctly African ": the representation of Africans in City Press.
(2008-06-10T12:13:33Z) Gongo, Kuselwa
This study examines the representation of Africans by fellow Africans in a South African Sunday paper, City Press, after the paper changed its motto from ‘The People's Paper’ to ‘Distinctly African’ in October 2004. This editorial repositioning of City Press coincided with some of the tenets of the African Renaissance and African nationalism. The representation of Africa in the media, both outside and inside the continent, has been problematic for centuries. This study examines whether the claim by City Press, of a representation that is “Distinctly African” is achieved or refuted. This is done through analysing the way in which Africa, Africans, and African issues are framed and represented over a period of two years. In analysing these representations of Africa, Africans and African issues, the study looks at whether or not the way in which City Press represents Africa conforms to the ideals of the African Renaissance and African nationalism.
"Director of audiences": a study of Alfred Hitchcock's manipulation of his audiences.
(2008-06-30T08:56:30Z) Webber, Rebecca
Abstract This Master’s thesis identifies and elucidates upon the motifs/themes/images, which Hitchcock utilized in his films to ultimately manipulate and thereby direct his audience’s perception and understanding of his films’ narratives. The devices that are described and investigated in detail in this thesis are found to be recurrent in most of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. That highlights the question: why are they recurrent? What purpose do they serve? I believe that the answer to these questions is that these devices were used by Hitchcock to serve the end of manipulating the audience. The efficacy of these devices as used by Alfred Hitchcock is elaborated on in each chapter that addresses each motif in turn. Each chapter which deals with one of the motifs Alfred Hitchcock used in his manipulation of his audience contains examples from films and investigates how the motifs are used within each film to manipulate audience comprehension. These examples are strengthened with theory from academics, theorists and critics who have made a life-long study of Hitchcock. My theoretical framework includes audience research and Metz’s theory of ‘suturing’ which addresses the meaning of camera position and the different point of view that the audience take up. By means of this research I aim to explain the way in which Hitchcock consummately manages to manipulate the audience to follow ‘red herrings’ and ultimately surprise the audience. This thesis acknowledges the premise that all film directors manipulate the audience and does not attempt to persuade the reader that Hitchcock was unique in this. It does aim to explore and explain how Hitchcock’s unique use of specific motifs was utilized in order to manipulate audiences. This thesis resulted in my understanding Hitchcock’s method of directing his audiences as much as his films and I think that in a broader context explains the use and need (both Hitchcock’s and the films narrative’s) for the repetitive devices for which Hitchcock is renowned, rather than merely investigating them as isolated pieces in Hitchcock’s films. I would suggest that there is evidence in these films of a repetition compulsion, as if the films are attempting to solve a conundrum very much in the way that academics have attempted to solve the conundrum that is the work of Alfred Hitchcock. Search words: Hitchcock, director, film, thriller, manipulation, audience, double, Psycho, scatology, voyeurism, auteur, spectator theory, Truffaut, narrative, scopohilia. Abstract This Master’s thesis identifies and elucidates upon the motifs/themes/images, which Hitchcock utilized in his films to ultimately manipulate and thereby direct his audience’s perception and understanding of his films’ narratives. The devices that are described and investigated in detail in this thesis are found to be recurrent in most of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. That highlights the question: why are they recurrent? What purpose do they serve? I believe that the answer to these questions is that these devices were used by Hitchcock to serve the end of manipulating the audience. The efficacy of these devices as used by Alfred Hitchcock is elaborated on in each chapter that addresses each motif in turn. Each chapter which deals with one of the motifs Alfred Hitchcock used in his manipulation of his audience contains examples from films and investigates how the motifs are used within each film to manipulate audience comprehension. These examples are strengthened with theory from academics, theorists and critics who have made a life-long study of Hitchcock. My theoretical framework includes audience research and Metz’s theory of ‘suturing’ which addresses the meaning of camera position and the different point of view that the audience take up. By means of this research I aim to explain the way in which Hitchcock consummately manages to manipulate the audience to follow ‘red herrings’ and ultimately surprise the audience. This thesis acknowledges the premise that all film directors manipulate the audience and does not attempt to persuade the reader that Hitchcock was unique in this. It does aim to explore and explain how Hitchcock’s unique use of specific motifs was utilized in order to manipulate audiences. This thesis resulted in my understanding Hitchcock’s method of directing his audiences as much as his films and I think that in a broader context explains the use and need (both Hitchcock’s and the films narrative’s) for the repetitive devices for which Hitchcock is renowned, rather than merely investigating them as isolated pieces in Hitchcock’s films. I would suggest that there is evidence in these films of a repetition compulsion, as if the films are attempting to solve a conundrum very much in the way that academics have attempted to solve the conundrum that is the work of Alfred Hitchcock. Search words: Hitchcock, director, film, thriller, manipulation, audience, double, Psycho, scatology, voyeurism, auteur, spectator theory, Truffaut, narrative, scopohilia.
'African discourses' : the old and the new in post-apartheid isiZulu literature and South African black television dramas
(2009-02-02T11:38:06Z) Mhlambi, Innocentia Jabulisile
ABSTARCT This thesis sets out to explore the problematic perceptions regarding African indigenous language literature. The general view regarding this literature is that it is immature, irrelevant school-market driven and shows no artistic complexities and ingenuity.1 These disparaging remarks resonated persistently after the first democratic elections in 1994. Both local and international critics expected marked shifts in post-apartheid isiZulu literary productions because factors that hampered its development have been removed. The dominant Western and postcolonial critical approaches from which these critics articulated their views, operated on assumptions that failed to look at the role and centrality of the broader concerns usually covered by this literature. Barber (1994: 3) points out that these Western and postcolonial critical approaches, block a properly historical localized understanding of any scene of colonial and postindependence literary production in Africa. Instead it selects and overemphasized one sliver of literary and cultural production…and this is experience’. Furthermore it is the contention of this thesis that these critics used critical tools that are fundamentally mismatched for the types of narratives with which isiZulu literature and African-language literatures in general are engaged. It is the view of the author of this thesis that if a new set of critical tools are used, a paradigm shift may result which allows for revisiting creative conceptualisations involved in the production of these literatures. The primary aim of this thesis is to read post-apartheid isiZulu novels and the black television dramas using theoretical tenets postulated by Karin Barber. Barber’s research on African everyday culture is the key epistemological and cosmological framework with which to study post-apartheid literary and film productions that narrate the everyday life experiences of ordinary South Africans. The basic assumption is that orality which is the maximal point of reference for 1 See Mpahlele, 1992; Kunene, D. P. 1992 and 1994; Kunene, M. 1976 and 1991; and Chapman, 1996 any African work of imagination continues to thrive in black everyday popular culture as manifest in both print and broadcast media. The first part of this thesis deals with the use of oral genres in print media. Six novels are selected to explore the uses of proverbs, folktale motifs and naming as strategies for reading post-apartheid contemporary South African society. The thesis proceeds from an analysis of what these oral forms aim to achieve in the post-apartheid context. It is argued that through these oral verbal art forms the narratives transpose the traditional episteme and re-inscribe it for modern contemporary African society, where traditional morality is made to continue to shape and animate contemporary morality. The second section deals with the implications of some of these traditional epistemologies in broadcast media texts. Four post-apartheid black television dramas are selected. With Ifa LakwaMthethwa and Hlala Kwabafileyo, the thesis, demonstrates how these films position the middle-class as a solution to post-apartheid leadership challenges. The discussion of Gaz’ Lam and Yizo Yizo demonstrates the nature of orality, where oral texts are seen to be endlessly recycling similar themes in different media forms. The emphasis is on how renditions of texts always bring in new elements and topical issues, fresh and precise photographic capturing of key moments in society. In view of the nature of Barber’s theoretical model and that of isiZulu fiction and film, this thesis argues that it is the most appropriate to use for the analysis of Africanlanguages literatures. Barber’s theoretical model has intertextual links with the Black Film theoretical traditions in the Diaspora and the Third Cinema in Africa. These black film traditions, like Barber’s model, centralise the black experience, everyday culture and orality as the basic reference for African work of imagination and aesthetics.
The sublime in interactive digital installation: an analysis of three artworks: Listening Post, Translator II: Grower and The Cloud Harp
(2009-02-27T10:28:32Z) Bristow, Tegan
This examines the notion of the sublime in interactive digital installation art, with the primary aim of showing the methods and devices used to evoke the sublime through interactive digital installation. The evocation of the sublime which is largely associated with nature is an appealing aesthetic in these technology driven artworks. This paper follows the history of the notion of the sublime in the arts and philosophy from Dioynisus Longinus to Jean-François Lyotard, with an emphasis on Romanticism and Postmodernism. Three case studies of interactive digital installations art are presented and addressed: Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen’s Listening Post (2001-2003), Sabrina Raaf’s Translator II: Grower (2004) and the NXIO GESTATIO Design Lab’s The Cloud Harp (1997). These are addressed not only in regards to the histories of the notion but to a contemporary adaptation of the notion, influenced by the technology age and the Postmodern sentiments of Jean Francois Lyotard.
A defamiliarisation of the naturalised usability of the Photoshop graphical user interface
(2009-09-15T10:06:01Z) Lekuntwane, Onica
ABSTRACT The graphical user interface of the ubiquitous Photoshop image manipulation software has naturalised image production as selection from a menu of pre-defined options. Before the birth of Adobe Photoshop in 1990, creative arts production was a specialised and predominantly time consuming craft. Today image production has been automated through a system that has democratised previously specialised production skills. New media theorists and practitioners have argued that the GUI has been designed as an environment to be looked through, instead of being looked at, critically. As a dominant postmodern cultural tool, Photoshop has consequently influenced the design of subversive artworks such as HeritageGold and Autoshop, which provide a platform for challenging the presumed universal appeal of the graphical user interface (GUI). Although much research has been conducted around the design of the GUI, and the user experience, there is a lack of critical writing around Photoshop as a cultural tool which has naturalised its usability for a presumably universal target audience. As an African user of technology that is based on graphical interfaces I use Photoshop to defamiliarise this naturalised interpretation and usability of software.
"Bakwena Arts": a case study of arts and culture policy and implementation in the Limpopo Province
(2009-10-13T12:08:16Z) Franks, Daniel Zachariah
Abstract: In this research I examine the legacy of Arts and Culture Administration in the Limpopo Province, specifically with the intention of bringing to light the ways in which the evolution of this administrative structure has been largely framed by a history of domination by manifold colonial states. This fact of history has been shown to have given life to unique phenomena that are the seeming birth right of the new dispensation: corruption, inequality, apologism, blamelessness and rural contempt. The research makes special reference to the difficulties encountered by the emergent Northern Transvaal / Northern Province / Limpopo Province in establishing arts infrastructure and basic delivery. These difficulties are shown to be due to the former Transvaal’s policy of centralized cultural structures, and further compounded by the implications of the transformation of Pretoria’s State Theatre. This specific instance will inform an examination of the disparities between rural and urban realities in postcolony SA. My own practical work is discussed in relation to the above as far as it deals with the everyday production of culture, represented by the intrusion of global modern media into highly disparate social contexts.
"Mine is but a sincere narrative of a melancholy situation": Sol Plaatje, orality and the politics of culture
(2009-11-16T13:24:56Z) Mpe, Phaswane
"The Hopeless Continent?" A critical comparative analysis of 2007/2008 representations of Africa in Time, The Economist and Financial Mail
(2010-03-29T11:07:38Z) Botes, Janeske
Abstract This study investigates the representations of Africa in three magazines; Time, The Economist and Financial Mail. Time and The Economist are American and European publications, whereas Financial Mail is South African, enabling a comparison of their coverage to be undertaken. The study focuses on representations of politics, economics and HIV/AIDS. A multi-faceted, complementary theoretical framework of critical political economy of the media, theories of news production and cultural studies is utilised. This study triangulates quantitative and qualitative content analysis as a methodological approach. The findings of this study reveal that representations of Africa fall within three typologies: negative, positive and mixed. Negative and stereotypical representations dominate, with very few positive representations detected. Many mixed representations of Africa are presented, which offer both a negative and positive view of the continent and its countries. Overall, local media perpetuate a majority of negative frames of meaning around Africa and so support traditional and current foreign representations of the continent. As much of the language and images used in African stories focus on negative issues, Africa is consequently presented as a largely hopeless continent.
'Suddenly the film scene is becoming our scene'! the making and public lives of black-centred films in South Africa (1959-2001)
(2010-06-23T11:18:08Z) Modisane, Litheko
ABSTRACT Through an examination of the making and public lives of a selection of apartheid and post-apartheid black-centred films in South Africa: Come Back, Africa (1959), u’Deliwe (1975), Mapantsula (1988), and Fools (1997), their contexts of production, circulation, appropriation and engagement, I investigate the role of film in the public life of ideas. While my focus is chiefly on film, I introduce a brief comparator with the television series Yizo Yizo (1999-2001), where I deploy the same methodology. To this end, I ask how these films relate to ongoing contemporary discourses about black identity. To explain the making and extended public lives of the films, I combine elements of public sphere theory, literary theory and film analysis to develop a theoretical model that treats film as a circulating text open to appropriation and engagement over time. The results indicate that in ways that shifted throughout the films’ public lives, their genres, modes of circulation as well as contexts of their appropriation, mediate the manner and extent of their relations to critical public engagements of black identity. I argue that through the combination of its nature as a modern form and its specific generic attributes, with the conditions and circumstances of its circulation and engagement, film stimulates critical public engagements of certain types. Film achieves what I have called public critical potency, when its content directly or otherwise, resonates with contemporary social and political struggles. Through its public critical potency, which is the capacity of film to stimulate critical public engagements, film demonstrates its importance in the public life of ideas. However, film also has the potential to fail in that respect. As a result, the margin between its success and potential for failure to achieve public critical potency, makes precarious, the role and status of film in the public life of ideas. In examining film as a circulating text over time, the thesis challenges approaches that investigate the public sphere of film solely in terms of genre and cinematic spectatorship. In the process, it has engaged the concepts of ‘film’ and ‘public’ within film studies in a way that recognizes its wide reach and extensive role in the public sphere. In the final analysis, the thesis is instructive with regard to the ways in which film may or may not relate to the public sphere in repressive and post-repressive societies in particular, and in modernity in general.
A comparative analysis of the contemporary documentary films Ryan and Waltz with Bashir as animated representations of autobiographical reality
(2010-07-30T08:51:15Z) Mills, Robert
Abstract This research paper aims to explore the nature and implications of two animated films where graphic depiction is used to document the complexities of an individual’s account of non-fictional events and situations. Within this position of animation and actuality, a “reality”1 is represented2 by the unreal3 in the form of created (not captured) moving picture images, and therefore the elements found in the live action dominated documentary genre are significantly affected. Animation has become a more acceptable form of documentary filmmaking in the context of postmodernist scepticism about the traditional claims of representation. However, its uniqueness in this situation has led to further developments in the dominant mode of discourse creation within this genre. These developments will be explored in relation to contemporary scholarship in the field of animation. Certain theoretical postulates will then be invoked to set up a comparison between the two films chosen for case study, seen as examples of the subjective4 in animated representations of individuals’ realities, so as to identify and describe their contribution to the contemporary documentary genre. The essential research question may thus be posed as follows: how do these two animated films contribute towards the present notion of actuality representation, through a postmodern autobiographical style, within the developing contemporary documentary genre? 1 What we know, understand and share with each other about the external world. 2 A creation that is a visual or tangible rendering of someone or something. 3 Man-made and invented, not merely captured from reality on a medium like film. 4 Indicating a dependence on personal taste or view. More specifically, the use made of verbal audio interviews within the animation processes in the case studies will be compared in order to address this question, because it is the particular use of interviews (and through them, the contributions to collective memory made by the interviewees) that really sets these two films apart from other autobiographical accounts within animation.
"Oral traditions not for archives: the case of lobolo": reflections on the draft Heritage Transformation Charter
(2010-08-17) Mohale, Gabriele
ABSTRACT The orally transmitted tradition of Lobolo is a common and widely practiced cultural tradition and an established marriage institution within African societies in Southern Africa, differing only in terms and minor variations of practice. Lobolo therefore has the status of being an intangible heritage and is acknowledged as such by South Africa’s National Heritage Resource Act of 1999. Its role in society today on the one hand and its oral way of transmission on the other has placed it in the center of an ongoing post-colonial discourse, particularly around the standing of the African intangible heritage in post-1994 South Africa. The Heritage Transformation Charter, following its mandate by the National Heritage Council, intended to attend to and correct existing imbalances in the Heritage sector and its institutions. It also aimed to identify and establish ways for the preservation and continuation of African heritage. The study reviews the literature on Lobolo, highlighting the ways in which it has been described as a multifaceted cultural and social institution. In consideration of these findings it critically engages in a discussion of the Draft Heritage Transformation Charter, to assess its acknowledgement of the characteristics of living heritage. In doing so the study probes the ability of a policy guiding document such as the Heritage Transformation Charter, to accommodate and guide the survival of oral traditions such as Lobolo, as part of the intangible heritage of South Africa.
A monkey's wedding: carnival impulses in the work of emerging South African artists: Michael MacGarry, Nandipha Mntambo, Themba Shibase, Nina Barnett and Robyn Nesbitt
(2010-09-03) Rayner, Lucy
Abstract by Lucy Rayner This research relates directly to a practical component that takes the form of a curated exhibition of works by a selected group of emerging South African artists. The New Spell, held at David Krut Projects, New York from 5 June to 30 July 2008 explores, as its main premise, the appearance of a carnival impulse identifiable within works by participating artists, Nandipha Mntambo (b. 1982), Michael MacGarry (b. 1978), Themba Shibase (b. 1980), Nina Barnett (b. 1983) and Robyn Nesbitt (b. 1984). I contend that these artists deploy the carnivalesque as a critical strategy to problematise the construction of social and political identities in South Africa. In response to Achille Mbembe’s contentious redeployment of Mikhail Bakhtin’s conception of a critical carnivalesque, my intention is to explore the various ways in which their works, ranging from painting and photography to sculpture and video, can be understood in terms of contemplating this subject of contemporary cultural identity in South Africa and also reflect on it as a contested arena for negotiation. I explore the various ways in which these artists employ the carnival’s subversive and transgressive features in order to satirize and parody notions of cultural idealism contained in the homogenizing concept of a ‘Rainbow Nation’ (a term commonly applied to the miracle of post-apartheid South Africa and its reinvention as a multicultural, multiracial society), effectively replacing it with the more ambiguous idea of ‘A Monkey’s Wedding’. Notions of subversive agency are brought to bear here, with the implications for critique of the kind of catharsis and reinvention often implied by carnivalesque theory. A critical analysis of my curatorial selection and the resultant installation is extended beyond the works chosen or commissioned for the exhibition, to include other works by each artist. My intention is not to define their often multidisciplinary practices exclusively in terms of the carnivalesque, but more accurately to operationalise its theory as a useful and relevant means to better articulate and examine their work.
3D animation as a medium of cultural representation and education : a case study of Magic Cellar part 1.
(2011-05-03) Kangong, Roland N.
Post-apartheid South African children are exposed to modern technological entertainment – television, cell phones, video games, TV animations and many other forms of popular art and media. This research report analyzes how well Magic Cellar (hereafter referred to as MC) both represents cultural diversity to a mixed audience of South African children from different ethnic backgrounds and cultures, and educates them more generally. A historical perspective on animation is provided, including animation in South Africa, as well as the technical processes of animation, and how these apply to MC. In so doing, answers to two main questions are sought: can 3D animation be used as an alternative or support to the school classroom in educating children through popular media forms? To what extent can 3D digital art technology in the form of animation be used in representing cultural diversity to children of different cultural backgrounds? Drawing on theoretical concepts, as well as comparing MC to successful programming for children that uses animation to educate, this research report argues that 3D animation, a medium that “seems to attract learners’ attention and increase their motivation to learn”(Khairezan 2), can be used to represent cultural diversity and to educate children.
"Patriotic blackness" and "liberal/anti-patriotic" whiteness: charting the emergence and character of an articulation of black/white racial subjectivity peculiar to post apartheid South Africa
(2011-07-27) Ramphalile, Molemo
This research report offers a perspective in which to understand the emergence of two particular racialised subjectivities namely, the “patriotic black’’ subject and the “liberal/anti-patriotic” white subject, in post-apartheid South Africa. The argument is that the dislocatory experience of the country’s first democratically held elections in 1994 introduces the opportunity for different discourses of race to come forth. Particular racial discourses are then said to be productive of distinctly post-apartheid black and white subjects whose emergence, development and character are fundamentally connected to, and reliant on, each other. The “patriotic black’’ subject has the “liberal/anti-patriotic” white subject as its constitutive other and vice-versa, resulting in the existence of two oppositional subjectivities which threaten the realisation of post-apartheid South Africa’s ideals of non-racialism
"To a land of priests and petrol-heads": the Jeppestown motor ministry
(2011-10-19) Duarte, Sergio Fernando
The new motor-car has acquired systems that give it memory, intelligence and senses. Modern motorcars are taking on human attributes and have a religion and following all to themselves. In parallel, Jules Street, in Johannesburg’s original motor district is the place where the motor car goes to, post motor-plan. It is far departed from the glistening showrooms that are scattered over the rest of JHB- it is a place of vacant lots, workshops and passionate petrol-heads. Jules Street is however not a place of the past, the industry of this place is the future of every brand new car being built today. It is a place of necessary after-market vehicle service, although it is struggling to adapt to the evolving technology of the modern motorcar. Jules Street is also the home of a diverse, growing community. This new public has inspired the refurbishment of disused workshops into religious institutions, 11 on the Jules Street motor strip alone. These adapted places of worship provide an opportunity to view this fragile industry from a new perspective; that of a soul. The motor car, from a pristine assembly line to a filthy scrap-yard, has one continuing relationship, with people. This becomes the point of inquiry for this thesis, the life long relationship between cars and drivers, machines and people, industry and culture, beyond the assembly line and showrooms that it is often associated with. The people who design, build, drive, fix, recycle, pimp, admire and inspire cars over their lifespan are the basis for designing the architecture of the ever-enduring motorcar. The conflict between the hi-tech and low-tech, the sophisticated and the raw, define the challenges associated with automobility today, and the opportunities in investigating the auto-tecture that it requires.

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