Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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A Beginner’s Guide to Puzzle Design: Creating an applied guide for effective puzzle design in videogames
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Prinz, Erik; Flusk, Timothy; Reid, Kieran
While a vast collection of information exploring effective puzzle design exists, it is riddled with conflicting opinions and inconsistent formats, making it arduous to engage with. This research aims to curate this collection, organizing its knowledge into an applied guide for puzzle design in videogames. This will be accomplished through an amalgamation of design principles offered by selected works of oundational literature, and the insights contained within the design philosophies of three industry professionals (Jonathan Blow, Kim Swift, and Arvi ‘Hempuli’ Teikari). The synthesis of these two families of information will be aided by the simultaneous development of a puzzle platforming videogame. Through a process of iteration and playtesting, this game will be used to assess the value and accuracy of the developing guide. With careful consideration of useful structures present in the foundational literature, the plethora of existing information can be reformatted to be user-friendly and appliable by novel puzzle designers.
A Deep Divide in South African Art Music: Locating the Voice of the Performer
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-07) Nay, Malcom; Olwage, Grant
This essay traces the origins of a “deep divide” (Fokkens 2014: 8) that developed between two central figures in the South African compositional world, originally in the 1980s around accusations of the cultural appropriation of African music. The conflict became entrenched amongst composers, musicologists and performers and has pervaded much of the research and dialogue that has taken place in the intervening years. This came to a head when a selection of South African composers was selected to present works to be performed at a concert at the Juilliard School in New York in 2014. The ensuing fallout characterised the vicious nature of the musical aspersions that eventually degenerated into direct personal conflict. My role as a performer, during this time, had to take into account this unpleasant environment as I had direct interactions with many of the figures involved, often working towards performances and recordings of their music. In more recent times, support for the arts in South Africa has declined significantly serving to intensify the struggle for access to funding, resources, and performance opportunities, exacerbated by a diminishing government mandate for general arts support and the devastating impact of Covid-19. The essay recounts an in-depth personal narrative and performance analysis of my experience when preparing Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Pendulum for Piano and Orchestra (2010). It finds that while an ideal philosophical approach to preparing a performance is commendable, it is not always achievable when confronted with the practical realities of a musical performance.
A Happier Life Through Sad Mode - Designing Automated Players for Single Player Games
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Chola, Saili; Reid, Kieran; Du Preez, Kirsten
Solo games are a keystone of tabletop board gaming for players and designers alike. While they are numerous and enjoyed by many members of the community, there is a noticeable lack of clarity and exploration of what principles make these games uniquely interactive and enjoyable experiences for players. This project responds to this inadequacy through the development of a playable game and a research report. The game demonstrates and tests the virtues of solo game play mechanics while the report expands and discusses the interpretable results and qualities of said solo game mechanics.
A pandemic shakes our pedagogy: Attempts to honour the integrity of a South African tertiary institution’s Applied Drama and Theatre curriculum in online learning platforms as a result of COVID-19
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Mokoena, Moratoa Trinity; Janse van Vuuren, Petro
A pandemic shook our pedagogy. The arrival of COVID-19 changed the face of higher education in South Africa and in many parts of the world. As an Applied Drama and Theatre department whose work is predominantly embodied and experiential, we were faced with the question: How do we migrate our kind of work online and honour its fundamental objectives? A characteristic Applied Drama and Theatre practice is embedded in principles of participation and collaboration, reflection through praxis and immersion in social contexts. All of these are largely experienced with physically present bodies in a common space for the purposes of social transformation and education. Due to the pandemic, the effects of the digital divide were rapidly exposed and its limitations on access, connectivity and synchronicity delayed the progress of teaching and learning. Can we honour the integrity of the complete Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy online and remotely, especially when the digital divide impacts connection with students and the marginalised communities that the pedagogy is suited for? While we acknowledged that digitising our educational practices had become a progressive necessity, would online learning alone be sufficient for the teaching and learning of embodied curricula? Through ethnographic case study and as teaching assistant, I observed University of the Witwatersrand’s Drama for Life department and their Applied Drama and Theatre educators during their encounter of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown periods of 2020 and 2021. By use of interviews, field notes and documentation, this study inquired how we reacted to the pandemic and its anticipated implications on the pedagogy and the academic programme. Furthermore, I established the evident threats that online learning poses to the pedagogy and investigated the disconcerting effects of the digital divide on student access and content delivery. Central to the study is the exploration of these educators’ practical strategies and collective approaches in maintaining the integrity of the Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy. Through a journey of trial and error, the department and its educators were tasked to re-envision the pedagogy and negotiate appropriate multimodal online modes of delivery, in efforts to save the academic programme and achieve its pedagogical intentions. Even though the data and literature demonstrate the possibilities of migrating similar pedagogies online, remote learning has certainly compromised the practical and physical demands of a conventional Applied Drama and Theatre experience. Additionally, even though the theoretical components could be negotiated online, the findings highlighted that the pedagogical objectives as a whole were fragmented. Thus, in the case of the professionalisation of students and the provision of the full Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy – the educators’ efforts fell short. The pedagogy, though shaken, still stands. The study concludes that the pedagogy is highly dependent on uninterrupted physical presence and even if the digital divide is managed its integrity remains tainted without connection. The findings emphasise that we cannot do away with contact teaching post-pandemic and any idea of a pedagogical utopia requires a carefully negotiated balance of appropriately designed online and offline approaches. The discussions and findings in this study do not only impact the Applied Drama and Theatre fraternity, departments and practitioners alike, but also shed light on the available possibilities for other multidimensional pedagogies. Institutions are encouraged to take the full repertoire of the pedagogy into account when designing their Learning Management Systems, to provide adequate support for staff and student training and their digital affordances. Moreover, it is noteworthy to address the feasibility and equity of online learning within a particular South African context as a whole.
A practice based inquiry into materiality, minimalism, fantasy and actuality in animated documentary
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Pater, Dominik Łukasz
This thesis is part of a creative practice PhD that explores the creative possibilities of using animation as a documentary medium through the making of a half-hour animated documentary, titled Polonia, that takes as its subject a historical narrative focusing on the emigration of two Polish families from Poland in the early 1980s, set within the context of broader geopolitical events of that time. This written thesis contextualizes the making of the film by outlining a brief history of animated documentary and through a discussion of the key theoretical concepts that inform the discourse around this subgenre of documentary filmmaking. The thesis provides the historical context for the film’s narrative, outlines its production processes and unpacks its creative choices and iconography. The final part of the thesis discusses key theoretical insights that have emerged from the creative process and how they point towards a ways in which animation can be conceptualised as a legitimate documentary medium. The concept of constructedness as a means of self-reflexivity is identified as the key factor that grants animation this legitimacy. This leads to a discussion of the film as a spatial construct, resulting from the dual process of reconstruction and construction, and comprising both archival and cinematic spaces, as well as the liminal space that exists between fantasy and actuality. There is also a discussion of the film’s performance in and of animation, identifying the avatar as a distinct category of animated character that is granted documentary legitimacy, substance and interiority through its relationship to a real-world referent. Finally, the role of sound is addressed, as relating to the film’s self-reflexive constructedness.
A visual-temporal excavation of Schaapplaats rock shelter: unearthing a trace fossil
(2021) Yorke, Naudia
In this research report, I set out to provide information about Schaapplaats rock shelter through a multi-sensory, ekphrastic approach as set out by the artist William Kentridge1 to guide the process of looking. As such this project presents an experience of space and time compressed within a single landscape. The research foregrounds the different ways of looking and different ways of perceiving the elements in the landscape. Schaapplaats is a farm located in the eastern Free State. A rock shelter at Schaapplaats which I examine contains a number of objects and traces that relate to various moments in time. The site is an event-loaded spatial nexus which I unpack, closely examining each object to expose the complex layering of objects and traces of events over time. My aim in examining the site in this way is to interrogate the variety of elements in the rock shelter to understand the complicated nature of time and the reading of it in objects. My methodology involves the slow process of describing and pulling-apart the objects, fieldwork that is primarily comprised of being in the space, and visually constructing and reconstructing the space and the elements within it – with a particular focus on the trace fossil (a dinosaur footprint) present in the space. The result is a reflective paper that considers meanings that could be drawn from a singular item, in conjunction with a number of other items within a space that is complex in its variety of traces and temporally layered.
Africanfuturism, placing Africa in the future: an analysis of Pumzi (2009) and Afronauts (2014)
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Shirinde, Karabelo
Taking into consideration Africa’s long historical relationship with colonialism, alienation and currently neo-colonialism, ‘africanfuturism’ a sub-genre of science fiction and the focus of this study, brings forward the necessity of rooting African science fiction films in the continent of Africa, created by Black people of African descent and ensuring that narratives are driven by the histories, daily social-political and cultural experiences of the people within the continent. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how the African science fiction films Pumzi (2009) directed by Wanuri Kahiu, and Afronauts (2014) directed by Nuotama Frances Bodumo portray africanfuturism. This study used a developed africanfuturist framework inspired by the description of africanfuturism by author Nnedi Okorafor (2019) and Masego Mashigo (2018). The chosen case study films were analysed according to africanfuturist components, namely: iconography, ideology, geopolitical and socio-cultural background, semiotics and symbolism, and the filmmaker’s profile to determine the extent to which they portray africanfuturism. Further research objectives of this study included the discussion on how Western science fiction films present colonial conventions and the difference between afrofuturism and africanfuturism within the literature review. With the application of the developed africanfuturist framework, this study concludes that both Pumzi (2009) and Afronauts (2014) successfully portray africanfuturism in the capacity of their geological settings, ideological viewpoints, socio-economic and political representations and local cultural symbolisms within the continent. Finally, both films present a nuanced understanding and portrayal of science and technology as it relates to the African continent, and further dismantles preconceived notions about the African continent as described by the West. These representations essentially redefine the relationship between Africa and the science fiction genre by clearly demonstrating, transforming and representing the continent within an imaginative and realist space, coupled with scientific, technological and globalist expressions.
Analysing the player's involvement in video game character animation
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Ponde, Rugare; Whitcher, Ray
This dissertation investigates the impact of animation on player interest in an existing video game character. There is high demand and expectation regarding character animation quality, yet understanding and achieving this standard is complex and challenging. The quality of a character’s animation is often derived from its direct appeal to the audience and how its representation informs their impression. However, there is a gap in the literature where there is little on how style representation plays a role in character perception and identification in video games. A practice-led approach was used to understand the relationship between player involvement and the player-character's appeal. The process involved the creation of an animation reel to demonstrate how a popular video game character's acceptance can change based on a player's perception of style in the character's animation. I used Link from the video game Super Smash Brothers Ultimate (Nintendo, 2018). The reel was presented to adults between 18 and 35 to review the animations. Using the process of creative exegesis, the theories and concepts about character appeal, animation design, and player involvement were combined to analyse and critique the contributing factors that inform the perception of the creative work. The results from this study indicate that a change in movement style impacted the perception of Link and the participant's demonstrated interest to play him. This study confirms that style representations are an important design consideration to improve a character’s appeal. This topic may benefit the art and technique of character design and how to improve on it.
Articulating Embedded Choreographies: Implicit Knowledges As/And Choreographic Strategies
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Snyman, Johannes Hendrik Bailey; Ravengai, Samuel
This thesis ‘looks back’ to ‘look forward’. I start with the assertion that there is a deficiency of choreographers documenting their processes that emerge in the laboratory. Using mixed methods this thesis focuses on embodied autoethnography to find a means to document and articulate my research and creative process. The first part of this research contextualises choreographic research in South Africa, choreography and embodiment and finally a conceptualisation of my understanding of choreographic strategies. The second part focuses on the embodiment philosophy of Michael Polanyi and articulates a third dimension of knowledge that exists in the gap between tacit and explicit knowledge: embedded-implicit knowledge. A clear correlation is established between embedded-implicit knowledge or ‘knowing’ and intuition. I then crafted Harald Grimen’s (1991) four interpretations of Michael Polanyi’s (1958) ‘tacit knowledge’ into choreographic strategies and used each as an approach in the development of specific creative tasks for the creation of an original choreography: L.I.F.E a history of distance (2017). My inspirations and musings became an invaluable part of this research through articulating my own interpretations of Grimen and my personal history as a source in developing a narrative structure for the work. Finally using a multi-modal reflection framework, developed from various reflexive practices, I reflected on the research and processes to answer the research question: How can Harald Grimen’s four interpretations of Michael Polanyi’s philosophy of tacit knowledge be interpreted as choreographic strategies to articulate the embedded-implicit knowledge within the process of documenting an embedded choreographic practice?
Barriers to protection: gender-related persecution and asylum in South Africa
(2009-10-12T12:24:42Z) Middleton, Julie
In 1998, South Africa became the first country to explicitly state within its refugee law that gender related persecution is a binding basis for asylum, further distinguishing South Africa as a state with outstanding legal commitments to gender equality. Creating further visibility within the law, however, is only one step in the process. How the law is implemented determines its real worth and effectiveness. This study assesses the manner in which asylum decisions are made, particularly in cases of gendered harm, questioning readily accepted and essentialised notions of women and gender. It looks at how the South African asylum system defines legitimate refugees, and the interplay of fluid interpretations of gender, culture, violence and the political within these constructions. Through interviews with officials and asylum seekers, the study identifies trends in the refugee system, and interrogates the reliance on narrow understandings of the political and personal, as well as the nature of conflict and culture.
Beneath the violence: a performance as a research inquiry into the use of performance as a rite of passage to better understand black masculinity
(2021) Johnson, Jermain
The purpose of this Performance as Research project was to gain a better understanding of black masculinity in urban Johannesburg, and the underlying different narratives of young black men in contemporary South Africa. This Performance as Research project made use of Applied Theatre techniques, Drama Therapy techniques and auto-ethnography as methods of inquiry to facilitate data collection and the creation of performances. It also included, specifically, autobiographical work, Invisible Theatre, and Self-Revelatory performance. The research locates itself within the Creative Research framework, as the dialogue on black masculinity was largely articulated through a creative process (a series of applied drama social inquiries) and a performance (pre, during and post). The researcher made use of movement as the medium to argue for the use of performance as a rite of passage to potentially transform held narratives on black masculinity, and to question the extent of the transformation
Black Writings: The Modal Mixtape Sampling and Remixing the Ethos of South African Poor Theatre with the Film Medium
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-03) Sono, Sipho Alex; Jansen van Veuren, Mocke
Let’s imagine I’m standing in a record store aisle, with all these nostalgic “records” of film and theatre that I’m too young and perhaps too black to be drawn to, but still somehow feel connected to. Not only that, but I can’t shake the feeling that these records have informed me as a South African and could form new work in a strong way. I'm trying to make a “song”, a cohesive language for my practice as a filmmaker, with an underpinning interest, ethos and an understanding of South African Poor Theatre. In my hand I have a Grotowski “record”, called Towards Poor Theatre (1976), that is the main sample for my track. I’m also “digging through crates”, looking at the Theatre of the Oppressed by Augasto Boal (1974) and other theories of theatre in film, to mix together to make the song. I’ve been listening to tracks by Athol Fugard and Barney Simon, as sources of inspiration. As Pharrell Williams describes chords as “coordinates pointing us to emotion” (2019) , I have begun to think that maybe plays such Woza Albert (1971) and Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972 ) and their recordings for BBC (1982 and 1983) can serve as chords and indicators to the direction for my filmic practice. Although you might not find a section entitled “methodology” in this paper, what you will find is that it is underpinned by practice based research methodologies, in the interest of Walter Mignolo’s epistemology disobedience. In this paper, I employ DJ Lyneé Denise’s concept of The DJ Scholarship (2013) as a research methodology, which sees the paralleling between the roles of the research to those of a DJ, borrowing ideas and recontextualising them . I sample theatre concepts, ideas and theories to mix and remix them and eventually form my own knowledge around my filmic practice. This notion of deejaying also exists in the research question itself, as it seeks to attempt a blending of two artistic disciplines. It is further carried in the way I approach film and storytelling, through the editing process, cutting, scratching, loop and rewinding for further indentation. This research further makes use of auto-ethnographic methods for meaning making and epistemic disobedience. These methods are employed through personal anecdotes and reflexivity as additive interrogators and informers to the research exploration. This research project also makes use of the personal, in the research film as a means to explore therapeutic processes for film as well as an exploration of the personal as a political enquiry. Auto-Ethnography functions in the crux of this research, it is an inquiry of the self, as a black “born free” South African and my relationship with Poor and Protest Theatre as an inherited artistic voice. As I stand in the middle of this record-store of theoretical frameworks and literature, I am also analysing the “records” which pick and sample. I am studying them and thinking about what they represent and what they indicate about me and the ethos of my filmmaking practice in a traumatised, post-apartheid South Africa . So let’s get to mixing.
Bridging the Digital Divide: Afrocentric Approaches in the 2021 My Body My Space Online Arts Festival for Rural Emakhazeni, Mpumalanga
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Khathi, Nomfundo Linami; Ntombela, Nontobeko
The attempt at online arts festival for a rural community seems to be executed in ways that do not consider issues of digital dissemination in historically marginalised spaces. Those organising events requiring internet access in rural communities overlook that rural areas are not very ‘well’ developed. The study does not reject online arts festivals for historically marginalised areas but suggests that the approach taken should take into account rural issues related to resources. The hindrances with online access for rural communities have not been adequately addressed. The theory of Afrocentrism emphasises that Africans need to make Africa the centre of their own problems and solutions, by advocating that Africans need to locate themselves historically and culturally. They need to acknowledge their context and situation so that they can provide solutions aligned with their problems. The study notices a paradigm shift in South Africa, as the MBMS festival is now being held in the rural Emakhazeni community, moving away from the ‘traditionally known’ urban festival locations. This shift includes moving from an in-person MBMS festival to an online format in 2021, which has been affected by data and internet coverage issues in rural Emakhazeni. While the festival is accessible online by anyone, its original intention was to serve the Emakhazeni rural community. Through a predominantly qualitative research approach, primary and secondary data were examined, exploring the 2021 MBMS online arts festival hosted on WhatsApp for rural Emakhazeni. The stakeholders in this study include the organisers of the MBMS festival, the Department of Arts and Culture, the Emakhazeni community members, and the performers of the festival. I engage d with multiple sources, to explore how these paradigm shifts could be envisioned or executed differently with an Afrocentric perspective. Although the MBMS online festival is curated in a way that appears to respond to the modern discourses on accessibility and audience development, it simultaneously forgets that rural areas are not very well developed in many parts of South Africa. Through an exploration of the 2021MBMS festival, I unpack the way it established online accessibility and address the implications of this for the rural Emakhazeni. This research contributes to the investigation of what was silenced during the colonial and apartheid eras in South Africa, when many individuals were marginalised and denied access. Both practical steps and policy-oriented approaches are suggested by the study.
Causal analysis between unedited and edited translation text: Biko’s non-fiction prose
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Gumede, Thokozani
A research report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree in Translation Studies from the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 2022
Challenging the Representation of Masculinity & Themes Pertaining to Rape Culture in Film & Televisual Media
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-06) Gondo, Jackson Onai; Heatlie, Damon; Dladla, Tiisetso
This dissertation raises questions around the representation of masculinity and in turn the notion of ‘toxic masculinity’ in film and televisual media, and will result in a project in the form of a screenplay and animated scene that subverts these representations and makes the audience, through viewing the film, question their relationship to toxic masculinity and ‘rape culture.’ The dissertation looks at the narrative and visual conventions pertaining to masculinity that have existed throughout the history of film and television and how they still manifest themselves today. It looks at attempts to subvert these conventions and where these attempts failed. It also looks at literary scholars who have theorized these notions of masculinity and how those ideas have indeed manifested throughout film and television.
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).
Entangled Intimacies: An Experimental Curatorial Project of Transdisciplinary Becoming-With
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Thomas, Rory Lee Stewart; Twalo, Sinethemba
Employing strategic modes of textual and curatorial “opacity” (Glissant 1997: 189), this project endeavours to consider how arts-based research methodologies may be uniquely positioned to explore the chaotic embodied implications of the so-called Anthropocene. This work of arts-based knowledge production and explorative enquiry is centred around an exhibition I have curated entitled Entangled Intimacies: art, more-than-human embodiment, and the climate catastrophe, which constitutes this project’s practical component. The exhibition is being held from 10 February to 6 May 2023 at the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg gallery and features newly commissioned artworks by local practitioners Tzung-Hui Lauren Lee, Io Makandal, and Natalie Paneng. This research report considers the ongoing process of curating this exhibition via a varied textual pathway that follows through a number of different considerations and references. These include an assessment of individual and collective grief, the potential of utilising curatorial opacity as a means of relating to the chaos of ecological degradation, and a discussion of a selection of previous curatorial projects from the last two decades which have engaged this reality through contemporary art. These projects include DON’T/PANIC (2011), Sex Ecologies (2021-2022), and the ongoing work of Johannesburg based not-for-profit arts organisation POOL (founded in 2015). The diverse, and at times perhaps disorientating, form of this research report is a curatorial and written reflection on the chaotic implications of more-than-human embodiment in the Anthropocene. This is conceived as an actualisation of curator Stefanie Hessler’s (2020: 249) assertion that “[t]he uneven, uncontainable climate crisis obligates curators to rethink ways of working. Exhibition making in times of ecological disaster … needs to differ from previous curatorial modes.” This project works to remain aware of the city of Johannesburg as its site of emergence while also engaging with the globally interconnected reality of the Anthropocene. It thus offers a propositional, mutable, and exploratory gesture towards what contemporary curatorial practice within this uncertain time and place marked by ecological violence may entail.
Lil_ith- A love story for South Africa’s queer, misfit youth
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) de Jager, Robin Claude; Wessels, Christopher
This project takes the form of an explorative filmic investigation into and reflection on the archetype of the queer misfit in South African cinema. The film and research take the standpoint of the South African misfit archetype being a post-queer-theory subject in relation to the country’s historical, socio-economic, sexual, traditional and technological landscape. I will compare the appearance of the queer misfit through the arrival of the neon and caustic characters of the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s to South Africa’s contemporary emergence of this archetype, positioning Queer Theory and the New Queer Cinema movement of the early as the primary emergence of a ‘true’ queer voice. I will engage with the influence of socio-economic, political and technological stimuli as well as the emergence of post-Queer Theory in the West and South Africa and its contribution to the evolution of the queer and misfit in post-colonial South African cinema. Through a practice-led, autoethnographic approach I combined these findings with core theoretical frameworks on post-modern sexuality by Queen and Schimel to inform and fuel the development of the film Lil_ith. The film stands as a creative execution expanding on the South African Misfit archetype in relation to the global history of Queer Misfit representation as well as its relationship with South Africa as a nation in the process of de-lonialisation within a digitised and globalised world.
Man-The-Shaman is it the Whole Story? A Feminist Perspective on the San Rock Art of Southern Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995-06) Stevenson, Judith S.
Ethnographic accounts show that both shamanic and gender rituals play a critical role in San culture. Although 30% of the women and 50% of the men become shamans, the literature investigating San rock art frequently defines 'Man-the-Shaman' and minimizes the feasibility of female depictions of this important social role. Prior rock art research has tended to separate shamanic and gender processes to the impoverishment of both. This dissertation investigates the symbolic connections between these two social spheres, and argues that they are inseparable. Through this examination of gender and shamanic roles in San society this dissertation argues that metaphors reflect these two social spheres. It also argues that metaphors are a way of life which are expressed both in reality and non-reality. With these points in mind, it investigates the role of men and women as related to San rock art through social roles.
Mapping the Ethnographic Expedition: A Re-Configuration of the Frobenius Archive
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Boshoff, Janus Jacobus; Wintjes, Justine
This dissertation considers the building and dwelling (archiving) activities of researchers working within archive spaces as intrinsically connected to the treatment of pictorial material as a primary archive source. The report focusses on the cumulative work of a group of researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand, called the Frobenius Working Group (FWG), in relation to the historic activities of and archive material produced by a German archaeological and ethnographic expedition group under the direction of Professor Leo Frobenius that visited southern Africa between 1928 and 1930 (known as the 9th Expedition). By exploring past and present tensions and connections between the landscape and archive, and the activities and working practices of the FWG and the Frobenius expedition, and by closely studying pictorial archive material, the aim of this research is to interrogate whether the archive can be re-configured as a space where active participation can lead to new and alternative interpretations and understandings. The paper is written in a theoretical, reflective, first person narrative and processual style which reflects the researcher’s personal journey and the thinking processes inherent in the work of research, and explores the contents of and access to the physical and online Frobenius archive, the geography of the landscape and the archive, and the modes of research of the 9th Expedition and the FWG. The research project is thus situated within a physical and a conceptual landscape which suggests that research activities can be considered dwelling practices. The application of theoretical frameworks of landscape, place and space, dwelling and building, provides insight into the complexities and possibilities of generating new interpretations of and additions to the archive, and makes a case for archives as spaces of dwelling where activity bridges time and space, and the researcher can become both active viewer and contributor. The dissertation postulates that the archive can be a field of discovery where active participation can generate new material and insights which deepen our connection to landscape and social activity. The archive as dwelling place is considered not just as an external entity but also as dwelling in us. The emphasis is on configuration and dialogue as the mode of dwelling through which we not only make the archive a dwelling place, but ourselves a dwelling place for the archive. Archiving is a dynamic process in which the sources are considered in order to be configured into new orders. This dynamism requires the bridging and fusing of horizons into productive and co creative partners. This research report finds that the archive does not require re-configuring for it is already a re-configured space. The archive marks the beginning of the researcher’s journey which does not only look at history but, through the research activity, contributes to the constant and continual re-configuration of the archive. This journey conforms to processes of living which are temporal and shaped by social interaction and the continual formation of the landscape. In turn, these life processes contribute to the constant re-configuration of the landscape and archive space. By contributing new material, knowledge and understandings, the researcher forms part of the making of history, thereby ensuring the continued growth, life, and relevancy of the archive.

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