School of Arts

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A Musical History Through Vocal Expressions at the Abbey Cindi Cosmology Concert
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Moshugi, Kgomotso
This paper reports on a research project that culminated in a concert honoring South African musician and activist Bra Abbey Cindi. The project involved reissuing Cindi’s album, forming a band of young musicians to perform his music, and creating a vocal group called No Limits to reinterpret Cindi’s earlier South African choral works. The paper proposes the use of music to explore the past, present, and future, linking generations and addressing social issues. It discusses specific compositions, their lyrical and musical merits, and the process of arranging them for vocal performance. The paper also highlights the role of community engagement and the value of reimagining historical musical works.
A Return to Practices and Pedagogies: Artistic Research as Untethering and Foraging
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Barry, Hedwig; Andrew, David
This paper reflects on the intertwining of artistic research and pedagogies within the context of a collaborative project conducted at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The authors explore the concepts of proximities, grids and flows, confrontations, and time as entry points into the space of artistic research. They emphasize the importance of untethering and foraging, challenging established boundaries and embracing discomfort as a catalyst for creative growth. The paper also highlights the significance of proximities and the relational aspect of artistic research, inviting a communal and interdisciplinary approach. The authors reflect on their experiences during the pandemic and the evolving nature of teaching and learning in relation to time.
African Spiritual Healing in Drama Therapy: An Exploration of Movement and Sound as a means of Facilitating Healing
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Siko, Zanele
Can African spirituality in African dance be used as a means of facilitating the healing of women’s trauma? This performance explores the possibilities of fusing Credo Mtwa’s notion of African spirituality with the ritualistic elements of the Senegalese Ndeup dance healing method. The notion of embodiment of trauma is the entry point into this consideration of the embodiment of African dance as a healing tool.
Applied Improvisation in Africa: Facilitating Embodiment Work in Online Rooms
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Apotieri-Abdulai, Oluwadamilola; Janse Van Vuuren, Petro
An important aspect of Applied Improvisation is using and perceiving the body and those of others in the room. Can adaptations be made to enable embodied work online without jeopardising impact? In this workshop, we present different improvisation methods that can be used in online settings.
Archiving as Artistic Practice
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Batzofin, Jayne
This paper looks at the development of an online showcase repository for the ReTAGS (Reimagining Tragedy from Africa and the Global South) practice-as-research artistic productions, Antigone (not quite/quiet) and iKrele leChiza, and the methodology behind documenting and digitally archiving their processes. The paper reflects on the author’s involvement as the digital archivist for the ReTAGS research and the choices made and implemented on the online showcase repository. It considers the strengths and challenges of these archival choices and explores the possibilities of understanding the archive as a means of artistic engagement in its own right.
Art in Action Research (AIAR): Integrating Tacit Knowledge Into Research
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Lammli, Dominique
This paper introduces the concept of Art in Action Research (AiAR) as an alternative paradigm for art practitioners working in sociocultural settings. AiAR aims to accommodate diverse notions of art, theories, and knowledge bases, integrating tacit knowledge into research frameworks. The paradigm is grounded in the issues emerging from the work environment, focusing on real-life challenges to co-create a liveable future. The paper addresses the need for methodological guides in researching art practitioner perspectives and discusses the concepts of knowledge and tacit knowledge. It explores the problem of non-groundedness in art practitioner research and highlights the global turn and the need for retooling disciplinary perspectives. In sum, the paper argues that AiAR provides an alternative paradigm for methodology crafting that considers the global turn and acknowledges diverse notions of art and knowledge bases.
Articulating a Movement Pedagogy in Retrograde: Mapping an Embodied Research Process
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Johnstone, Kristina
This paper discusses an artistic research project that challenges representationalism in South African contemporary dance. The author argues against the use of discursive methodologies that reinforce colonial scripts and instead proposes an alternative approach based on embodied practices. The paper explores the concept of choreography as embodied research and its potential to align with a decolonial praxis. The research project involves tracing embodied practices and creating a digital cartography to capture and explore these practices. The author also discusses the emergence of a movement pedagogy that unfolds in retrograde and disrupts conventional understandings of time and pedagogical continuity.
Creating New, Previously Unknown Outcomes: Joy by and by Remade
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Moshugi, Kgomotso
How can new knowledge be produced through processes of musical arrangement that have not traditionally been canonised? Through analysis of the versions of the hymn Joy By and By, which local arrangers have created since the 1980s, the process of re-imagination and defamiliarisation will be explained.
Creative Curatorial Practice as a Means of Reorientating Display Tropes in Museums of Natural History
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Langerman, Fritha
This paper provides a critical analysis of natural history museums and their display practices. It explores the contradictions inherent in the concept of “natural history” and the dominance over nature it implies. The paper argues that museums still promote authoritative classification and knowledge systems that reinforce hierarchical structures and colonial ideologies. The author, an artist-curator and printmaker, shares her experiences with three exhibitions that challenge traditional display methods. By disrupting linear progression, introducing complex interconnections, and emphasizing sensory experiences, the exhibitions aim to create alternative models of display that reflect the entangled and web-like nature of speciation. The goal is to move beyond colonial narratives and imagine new ways of representing and understanding the natural world within museum spaces.
Cultural Kasi’preneur
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Motholo, Dimakatso
How are a new generation of South African cultural entrepreneurs decolonising the perception of what education/knowledge means as they produce other forms of learning, success and survival in the township? This hybrid presentation will be a performance of the reality of the township experience through a monologue from the play titled Ekasi Lam together with the selling of Retrofontein garments.
Darkness after Light: A Visual Portrait of Lefifi Tladi
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Senong, Kolodi
Can the politics, art, and ideas of a complex figure such as the thinker, poet, and painter, Lefifi Tladi, be explored through a series of portrait studies? Through a series of mixed media and graphic portraits, I seek to show how portraiture can function as a source of information gathering in relation to this seminal figure in the development of Black Consciousness in South Africa.
Dear Irreducibility’ … Approximating Uncertainty as a Queer Ethics of Relations
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Athene, Nico
This performance-lecture explored embodied, relational practice as an experiential site of queer, non-exploitative modalities.
Developing a Healing Arts Pedagogy and Practices (HAPPy) Training: An Arts-Based Curriculum for Trauma Stabilisation and Stress Alleviation in the South African Educational System
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) De Beer, Welma; Draper-Clarke, Lucy
This paper discusses the theoretical foundations and pedagogical principles underlying the “Mas’phefumle” project, which explores healing arts practices and pedagogy as a response to trauma in South Africa. The authors propose that artistic research has transformed and advanced arts-based pedagogies in the country, offering impactful healing practices that can help communities during challenging times and regulate individuals after traumatic incidents. The curriculum developed, called Healing Arts Pedagogy and Practices (HAPPy), aims to establish culturally sensitive activities that promote resilience and create safe learning environments. The foundations of the curriculum are based on healing, the arts, pedagogies, and practices, integrating elements of polyvagal theory, psychotraumatology, and the African philosophy of Ubuntu. The paper describes the action research method used and presents the initial cycle of the curriculum’s development.
Dream Translation and African Artistic Research
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Jacobs, Jason
Can dreams provide new ways of representing the postcolonial brown male body in contemporary theatre? When devising the performance, Ek was in die skemer, my body (and the memories contained within the body) became the locus of intersecting and generating memories and dreams as material for the stage.
Educational Emcees in the Academy: Spoken Word Poetry as Scholarly Praxis
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Endsley, Crystal; Keith, Antony
This new form of scholarship explores the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological possibilities for spoken word poetry to function as a social justice pedagogy and leadership praxis. Collectively, this research situates critical race theory, Black feminism, participatory action research, Hip-Hop, and artivism as epistemological positions that decolonize White, American, patriarchal ways of knowing and empirical methods of discovery.
Epistemic Disobedience: Institution-Building as Artistic Practice
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Gurney, Kim
This paper posits the Nafasi Art Space in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as a paradigmatic example of independent art spaces in Africa. These spaces, known as offspaces, challenge the status quo by creating divergent infrastructures through creative refusals and re-imaginations. The author conducted a prior study called Platform/Plotform, which identified key working principles of offspaces, such as horizontality, performativity, elasticity, convergence, and second chance. The study visited five African cities to examine the correlations between artistic strategies and urban life. The paper focuses on the Nafasi Academy for Contemporary Art, Expression, and Inclusion, launched in 2020, and explores its curriculum and pedagogical domains that may, like the institution itself, build cultural infrastructures while functioning like a work of art.
Exploring the Transformative Potential of Practice-based Design Research (PBDR) Methods in Architectural Design Pedagogy
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Felix, Sandra
This paper discusses the application of practice-based design research (PbDR) methods in transforming the design practice of architecture students. It explores how reflection and diffraction, two PbDR methods, can be used to shape students’ design practice and challenge institutional biases. The author shares the experience of implementing these methods in a third-year architecture design studio at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Changes were made to the curriculum, including the introduction of reflection and the use of diffractive methods, to foster personal and institutional transformation. The paper highlights the importance of collaborative dialogue, social reflection, and engaged pedagogy in this transformative process.
Exposure to the Unknown: Artistic Research in the European Sphere
(Arts Research Africa, The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 2020-07) Winter, Stefan
What are the core competencies that be unfolded by artistic research? What are its interfaces with science and technological development? What can artistic research contribute to the transformation of societies? This paper outlines the history of artistic research in Europe as a counterpart to developments in Africa, inviting both sides to articulate axes of difference, similarity, contrast, and accordance.
From Cosmopolitanism to Cosmology and Back Again: Co-Curating a Practice-Centred South African Jazz Collective, 2020-2022
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Pyper, Brett; Moshugi, Kgomotso
Since 2005 as a researcher, and since the early 1990s as an organiser who worked in Pretoria as South Africa transitioned towards democracy, Brett Pyper has had the privilege of knowing a community of practice that occupies a distinct, under-recognised position in the country’s internationally famous jazz culture. Known variously as jazz appreciation societies, social clubs or stokvels (mutual aid associations), these township-based collectives played no small part, during the long night of apartheid, in preserving and developing the vibrant, cosmopolitan African cultures that were suppressed and dispersed under racial and ethnic segregation policies. They did so in spite of restrictions on public gatherings, and in communities with hardly any civic or cultural amenities. After the formal end of apartheid and the lifting of cultural boycotts in the 1990s, the country’s reintegration into circuits of international cultural exchange resulted in the establishment of several globally benchmarked festivals. Meanwhile, these community-based jazz societies underwent their own efflorescence, though in relative isolation from the festivals that take place in downtown convention centres for a globally mobile, relatively elite clientele. These developments emblematise the promise as well as the limitations of the post-apartheid transition: while the existence of platforms for international jazz luminaries serves as a powerful symbol of change and a vehicle for the assertion of transnational cultural and political ties, the audience for jazz music in South Africa remains largely excluded from participating in these celebrations of avowedly post-apartheid culture.
"Ghostly Imprints": Revisiting the Tradition of the Death Mask in Digital Clay
(Arts Research Africa, 2022-09-16) Stewart, Michelle
This paper explores the representation of the dead through a creative project that involves 3D digital sculptures inspired by forensic facial photographs of unclaimed deceased in government morgues as well as posthumous photographs of the author’s mother-in-law. The project draws on the tradition of death masks and aims to create final portraits that commemorate the individuals and acknowledge the transcendental aspects of death masks. The author’s work is situated within the discourse of art theory and history, rather than forensic art, and emphasises the artistic and conceptual nature of the sculptures. The project is associated with the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Missing and Deceased Migrant Project and explores the humanitarian implications of migrant deaths in South Africa. The paper also delves into the history and evolution of death masks in Western culture, highlighting their significance as representations of true faces and their use in phrenology.

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