School of Arts - Arts Research Africa Project (Conference Proceedings)
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The Arts Research Africa (ARA) project at the Wits School of Arts, Wits University, is an initiative that explores the notion of artistic research in a decolonizing, Global South context. The project aims to advance the recognition of creative practice as a valid research modality in the South African context, while raising the banner for "artistic research" as an emerging field of study and inquiry in Africa. To achieve this goal the project is pioneering the exploration of artistic research approaches that challenge traditional academic boundaries and center African perspectives and methodologies.
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Item Addressing artistic research at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute in Mauritius: challenges for a Small Island Developing State in Africa(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Ramduth, HansCan small island contexts, through the extreme simplification of more complex processes that occur on the continents (e.g., ecocide), provide unique insights into binaries such as artist versus researcher, fiction versus non-fiction, and art-making versus writing?Item Artistic research and African musical performance: listening beyond Euro-American canons(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Pyper, BrettAre certain forms of African music-making inherently advantaged or disadvantaged through engagement with artistic research? How does the quest to advance decoloniality factor into such efforts? What does such belated recognition mean for African musics and more general African arts practice outside academia?Item Artistic Research and the City Space: New Orientations and Collaborations(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2022-09-16) Winter, StefanThis paper explores the evolving relationship between artistic research, architecture, and urban design in the context of shifting paradigms in the understanding of architecture and urban development. It highlights the transition from top-down planning to inclusive bottom-up processes and emphasises the importance of perceiving the city as a habitat rather than just a built environment. The historical precedents of artistic avantgarde movements, such as dérive and psychogeography, are examined, and their limitations in the contemporary context are discussed. The potential of artistic research to contribute to sustainability in ecological, economic, and societal dimensions is explored through various examples. Overall, the paper argues for the transformative power of artistic research in shaping future city spaces.Item Artistic Research and the Institution: a cautionary tale(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Fleishman, MarkWhat impact do the specific institutional contexts in which we produce research have on the artwork? What would an ethical approach to the work of art-making entail with reference to these institutional pressures/distortions?Item Artistic Research as African Epistemology(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Stolp, MareliCan artistic research be understood as an African epistemology? Through a mapping of the field of African epistemology together with the key notions of artistic research, this paper argues for the decolonising potential of artistic research in Africa.Item Artistic research in Africa with specific reference to South Africa and Zimbabwe: formulating the theory of Afroscenology(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020) Ravengai, SamuelHow can artistic research offer the opportunity to create knowledge based on African practice and produced from the African context? This presentation will delineate seven approaches to artistic research and argue for decolonial imperatives.Item Artistic research in music as Doctoral Study: challenges and opportunities for Universities in South Africa(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Sandmeier, RebekkaWhat are the opportunities and challenges of doctoral studies in South Africa, in music, through artistic research? What are the definitions of research— specifically artistic research—in the existing educational policies, and how can research and creative practice become one in a doctoral thesis?Item Arts Research Africa 2022 Conference - Introduction(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2022) Doherty, ChristoIn the two years which have elapsed between the first and second Arts Research Africa conferences, the recognition of creative practice as a research modality in South Africa has increased in leaps and bounds. The question of what to call this research modality, be it practise-based, or practice-led, or artistic research remains unresolved, but these two conferences have gathered together a stimulating array of approaches to this new mode of research, while raising the banner for ‘artistic research’. This second conference, with its focus on how artistic research has transformed pedagogy as well as art practice in Africa, recognises that many academic practitioners, who have themselves completed advanced degrees with a creative practice component, are now looking to pass these learnings to their students through a transformed pedagogy. The 2022 conference thus provides an opportunity to assess the pattern of this development, still largely limited in Africa to the South African arts and education environment. The first ARA Conference was held as a live event on Wits campus in February 2020.1 Unknown to the organisers or any of the participants, the world was on the brink of the Covid-19 epidemic, and the draconian responses to the crisis by national governments, which locked down most of the world for the rest of 2020 and 2021. As a live event, however, the 2020 conference gave the ARA organisers the opportunity to experiment with different formats of presentation, breaking with the conventional mode of paper presentations and instead offering space for workshops and what we called ‘lecture-performances’ or ‘lecture-demonstrations’. The second conference, planned during the uncertainty that followed the waning of the pandemic in 2021/22, was initially envisaged as an entirely online event; but as the effects of the pandemic began to subside, we chose to offer the first two days as a purely online event to facilitate international engagement, and a third, final day, again on Wits campus, as a live face-to-face event. Sadly, as a result of this structure, the bulk of the 2022 conference presentations were conventional textual outputs, albeit often reporting on creative research that was embodied or performative in nature.Item Arts Research Africa 2022 Conference Proceedings - Full(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2022) Doherty, ChristoIn the two years which have elapsed between the first and second Arts Research Africa conferences, the recognition of creative practice as a research modality in South Africa has increased in leaps and bounds. The question of what to call this research modality, be it practice-based, or practice-led, or artistic research remains unresolved, but these two conferences have gathered together a stimulating array of approaches to this new mode of research, while raising the banner for ‘artistic research’. This second conference, with its focus on how artistic research has transformed pedagogy as well as art practice in Africa, recognises that many academic practitioners, who have themselves completed advanced degrees with a creative practice component, are now looking to pass these learnings to their students through a transformed pedagogy. The 2022 conference thus provides an opportunity to assess the pattern of this development, still largely limited in Africa to the South African arts and education environment.Item Closing address: Artistic Research in Africa - rethinking the "avant-garde"(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Deribew, Berhanu AshagrieIn order to implement artistic research in Africa need to recognize the different contexts - cultural, political and institutional – on our continent; and that artistic research is a subject not yet full clear in its function. The colonial model of the university has had the effect of “epistemicide” on indigenous knowledge. This aggravated by Western refusal to recognize traditions understand nature as Mother Earth with her own rights. Argues for a “rearguard” approach to art activism to learn from sources of embodied knowledge in communities.Item Creative practice and research: an artist-scholar perspective(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020) Stewart, MichelleHow do measurable methods of research move between theoretical critique, technical reporting and creative practice? This question is explored with reference to her own practice-based PhD, the experimental animation, Big Man.Item Cultural Integration for State Identity in Nasarawa State's Choreographic Approach to Nafest "Danceturgey"(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2022-09-16) Tume, Tosin KoshimaThis paper discusses the concept of “danceturgy” and its role in the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) in Nigeria. NAFEST aims to promote national unity and identity through the performance of Nigerian cultural heritage. The guidelines for participation in the festival emphasize the reflection of cultural peculiarities and the use of authentic dance stories. The danceturgy at NAFEST involves stage and DVD presentations, with specific criteria for judging. The text highlights the creative process of the Nasarawa State Performing Troupe (NSPT) in developing their dance entry for NAFEST 2009, including the study of the festival syllabus, conception of the story idea, assembling choreographic devices, rehearsals, and the final performance. It is suggested that the NSPT choreographic approach be adopted and modified to suit NAFEST danceturgy.Item Decolonial AestheSis Parcours(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Khan, Sharlene; Asfour, FouadThe Decolonial AestheSis Parcours is made up of exercises informed not only by recent theories around decolonial aestheSis, but by Black and African Feminist creativities, Critical Race Theories, postcolonial histories, liberal arts pedagogies, and anti-hegemonial cultural movements. The workshop invites participants to reflect on non-hierarchical relationships, embodied knowledges, creative theorisation, the African Feminist concept of theorising from the epicentres of our agency, the use of imagination as a tool of freedom and experimentation, the need for interrogation of capitalist modes of artistic production, interconnectivities, as well as the need for critical pleasure.Item Editor's Introduction - Arts Research Africa 2020 Conference Proceedings(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Doherty, ChristoEditor’s overview of the ARA2020 Conference. Explanation for the strategic emphasis on pan-African outreach, and the conference theme of “How does artistic research decolonise knowledge and practice in Africa?” Justification provided for the experimental format-architecture of the conference, and the use of “performance-lectures” as a new genre of conference presentation.Item Engaging with sound writing(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Liebenberg, VisserHow can forms of sound writing be used for a project in artistic research? Based on the author’s own experimentation with sound writing for the clarinet, this paper argues that sound writing is a manner of engaging with sound that strengthens the link between practice and theory in artistic research.Item Finding My Voice Through Practice-Based Research: A Critical Look at My Film Shattered Reflection(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2022-09-16) Sakota, TanjaThis paper presents the author’s exploration of memory and autoethnography in her film “Shattered Reflection.” The author, an artistic researcher, delves into her personal experiences, lineage, and ancestral memories to answer research questions related to memory and its depiction in film. The paper reflects on the complexities of the author’s identity and how this influences her approach to research. The paper focuses on using the self as a tool for answering research questions through remembering and autoethnography. The author explores topics such as accessing memory without archives, using film to depict fragmented memories, and uncovering invisible memory through visuals and sound. The paper also mentions the author’s limited budget and her guerrilla filmmaking approach. The film is presented as part of a larger book project and is analyzed in the context of practice-based research.Item Finding the lost fishermen: a study in recovery and performance as preservation(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Nii-Dortey, MosesThis paper engages what strategic/ethical research options can be deployed for preserving, performing and documenting artworks such as The Lost Fishermen, a dying folk opera, which is arguably one of Ghana’s most successful musical artworks, created by Saka Acquaye in the immediate aftermath of Ghana’s political independence.Item Full Proceedings - Arts Research Africa Conference 2020(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020) Doherty, ChristoThe full proceedings of the Arts Research Africa Conference 2020, held at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, from 22 - 24 January 2020. Description: An international conference organised by the Arts Research Africa project in the Wits School of Arts. The conference featured a wide variety of inputs, from traditional conference paper presentations and panels, to performances, interactive engagements and workshops. The conference brought together artists, scholars, and artistic researchers to collectively address the question of artistic research in Africa in the 21st century.Item Inganekwane, folktale, Anansi Story: recognising indigenous knowledge in the performing arts(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Foli, JessicaWhat happens when the source of knowledge is part of a unique oral history passed down from generation to generation? How do we frame such knowledge? How do we nurture the development of knowledge based on African folktale, superstition, or myth?Item The Norwegian Artistic Research School: structure and content(Arts Research Africa (ARA), 2020-07) Strøm, GeirHow has the structure and content of the new Norwegian Artistic Research School built on the two-decades-long experience of artistic research in Norwegian universities and university colleges?