Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37948
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Item Playing with Music (Investigating Emergent Music Composition for Games)(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Malinga, RodwinAs video games have become more dynamic and complex, their individual components have become more emergent in nature. By increasing the potential for emergence in each component medium, the composite video game is likely to become more emergent, resulting in more meaningful play. Therefore, developing a responsive music system that can change based on the emotional state of the player is critical in building deeper video game experiences. The importance of music in video games cannot be overstated, as it plays a crucial role in creating more engaging and immersive experiences for players. This study aims to explore the development of a different type of emergent music for video games, that not only has the ability to invoke behavioural responses in players but can also complement and enhance the player's emotional journey within the game. The ultimate goal is to create a musical experience that elicits a more engaging and immersive experience for players, thereby contributing to the development of more affective and dynamic video games.Item Transformation challenges in the interpretation of cultural heritage collections at post- apartheid Mapungubwe(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Muroyi, Roy; Valley, GreerThe research investigated the reasons why heritage interpretations have not changed in the post-apartheid Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre. The main argument presented through this research is that indigenous knowledge systems are neither prioritised when managing nor interpreting heritage in post-apartheid South Africa; hence the need to explore transformation challenges in interpretation at Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre. The challenges include exclusive heritage interpretations that do not consider the Vhembe, Leokwe and Nyindi indigenous communities as legitimate archives and failure to ensure that hired authorities and practitioners know African stories. The main objective of the study was to highlight evidence that the foundations of the South African heritage industry are deeply embedded in colonial practice. The study acknowledges that there have been some positive changes in heritage interpretations over the years since the country’s democratisation in 1994. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of work to be done. The research revolves around ongoing discourses surrounding the global, local and transnational dynamics of heritage interpretation and their intersections with (neo) colonialism. The theoretical framework used in the study is the decolonial theory which aided the researcher in understanding the power dynamics influencing heritage interpretations at the centre. The location of power was central in this research as highlighted by the research findings which illustrated why the term archive is a contested term. In addition, the study highlighted the significance of oral tradition in interpreting tangible artefacts. The Vhembe community, Leokwe and Nyindi communities residing less than ten kilometres from the interpretation centre were used in the research as case studies. The research suggests that authorities at the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre should pay attention to the stories and perspectives of the local people to make the site relevant to African communities. Recommendations are made to address these challenges in the thesis.Item Lamenting the End of Time: Living, Dying and Grief in the Shadow of the Sixth Extinction(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2020-07) Nativel, Chantal Elizabeth; Schulz, TamaraThis creative research enquiry was framed as a response to my singular personal existential struggle, eco-anxiety and grief in the face of the Sixth Extinction. The enquiry produced a mindful performative offering firstly in the form of a zine (digital and printed) entitled ACT-i-ON: my random actions upon living, dying and grief in the 6th extinction, a collection of narrative writings, photos and sketches as a lament. The zine was then transformed into a gallery of posters, and used as a script and background for an embodied lectern-lamentation. I used the methodologies of performance as research with auto-ethnography. The content gained form via journaling and documenting lived experience in a creatively expressive mode, including but not limited to narrative, poetic language, embodied practice and photography. My reflections drew on past trauma and grief as well as present anxiety in relation to the current milieu. I then shaped this documented experience into a ‗ritual of lamentation‘ for the global suffering caused by humans to ourselves, and to all other sentient life on Earth, as well as my own personal grief. In this essay, I reflect on what this process meant. As a ‗creative thought randomiser‘ or an empathetic chameleon who dashes off on anecdotal tangents, was I able to synthesise my lived experiences of wandering and wonderings into a narrative form and structure which was able to be shared with an audience? Was I able to lift or shift my own sense of unease and ‗creative drought‘, to forge meaning while seeking my own place and significance in the world? The ‗random anecdotes‘, and representations of mindful actions, have been an antidote, or healing balm for the malaise of this possible end of time. These performative rituals are offered as my own coping mechanisms to calibrate and re-calibrate myself, manage my general life anxiety, my eco-anxiety and grief. By seeking peace through centering is it possible to find commonality – a conscious embodied-practice combined with mindful engagement and self-activism, which others may use to soothe themselves?Item A Visual Mapping: Uncovering the Silencing and Secrecy of Abuse in the Lives of South African Indian Women’s Love Narratives(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Madhi, Saajidah; Khan, SharleneUsing Autoethnography as a research approach, this dissertation explores how storytelling and poetry can be used to unveil South African Indian women’s lived experiences of Indian culture and generational teachings. This is explored in conjunction with how love and secrecy/silencing (which is the aftermath of abuse) co-exist in heterosexual relationships. In this context, unveiling refers to the uncovering of women’s narratives, the stories that have been silenced, erased, or overlooked, due to women often being judged and shamed for expressing their suffering. Throughout this dissertation, my poetry is utilized to address these issues. Furthermore, this dissertation analyses South African Indian women’s narratives using qualitative research (interviews) that questions the notions of how love, patriarchy, Indian cultural beliefs, and identity influence relationships. To achieve this, Chapter One outlines the key concepts of love, patriarchy, Indian identity, and generational beliefs, through literature that is interwoven with South African Indian women’s experiences. This is followed by Chapter Two, which engages in gendered roles, silencing, secrecy, and the impact that media has on romance and love in relationships. Lastly, Chapter Three proposes the model of unlearning as a practice. In this context, unlearning refers to a transformation of learned knowledge to build safer and non-violent relationships. To critically examine the practice of veiling in South African Indian women's lives, my artwork actively explores various methods of veiling. These methods include covering, layering, uncovering, and recovering, and they act as tools to voice a subjective position on women’s silencing through weaving, stitching, and beading.Item Critiquing TikTok as a stage: Investigating Confessional Performance on TikTok and its capacity to cultivate feelings of intimacy and communitas within a community of young adult users(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Buckland, Sarah; DaCosta, NekaThe presence of loneliness, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, is a persistent issue facing young adults in South Africa and abroad. Social media platforms, specifically TikTok, afford a sense of social interaction for those socially and geographically separated. One avenue for this interaction is through the production of increasingly confessional content on the social media platform. In this paper, I identify this presence of confessional content on TikTok and trace its roots to Confessional Performance traditions. I then interrogate the potential of Confessional Performance on TikTok to establish intimacy and elements of communitas. Irem Sot’s article entitled Fostering Intimacy on TikTok: A platform that listens and creates a safe space (2022) provides beneficial insight into the role TikTok’s algorithm has in establishing a sense of intimacy and community amongst its dedicated users and is used as a vital point of reference throughout the paper. Through the addition of an autoethnographic creative research approach, supported by thorough desktop research, I can outline the initiation of intimacy and community on TikTok, which begins with a moment of confession and continues when a second party validates this moment. Furthermore, I create and analyse my confessional TikTok series, ‘I want to talk to you, I want you to talk to me’, paying close attention to audience interaction experienced during this series as a means to a) reflect on the interpretation of intimacy and communitas through the lens of both a TikTok creator and viewer and b) determine the capacity of this kind of confessional performance on Tik Tok to successfully (or unsuccessfully) cultivate intimacy and communitas.Item The Monster in Disney’s Closet: Critiquing Queer Representation and Narrative in Luca(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Wessels, Sasha Lyn Dominique; Wittstock, GillianQueer bodies in animation have been a topic for discussion in many academic papers – particularly in their portrayal in children’s films. They are either considered problematic in their portrayal or made to be invisible to the eye by being pushed into the background (Tieszen 2017:2). In particular, queer characters are typically found in two situations in the history of Disney’s animated feature films: Either a character is queercoded and made the villain of the story – linking villainy to queer bodies, or is found in an interaction where same-sex desire is hinted at or shown, but is quickly shut down by a joke of disgust or awkwardness (Tieszen 2017:7). This dissertation will analyse to what extent the recent Disney Pixar film Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021) can be considered a progressive and/or regressive feature film regarding queer representation within the history of the Disney franchise. Since the release of Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021), there have been multiple discussions about how this film has been queercoded and is potentially queerbait – as noted by scholar Kodi Maier (2021). This dissertation will discuss firstly, how Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021) has improved the representation of the villain through not queercoding Ercole Visconti (the antagonist). Following this, how they portray male-on-male relationships and whether or not Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021) can be perceived as a step forward. Thirdly, I will dive deep into the narrative’s plot points, highlighting how Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021) has a clear underlying queer narrative, and how certain characters can be perceived as queer bodies, thus making it a queer film. Finally, I will discuss whether or not Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021) can be labelled as queerbait, and highlighting the outcry that came from Luca (Enrico Casarosa: 2021) and how it showed the need for more queer representation. This paper will make use of a multimodal qualitative analysis in order to achieve the aim of this paper due to its many unique components: a discourse analysis will be used to discuss the broader prospects of this paper such as the history and current socialization of imagery and narratives alongside its influence on the public, whilst a semiotic analysis will help dive deeper into characters and how they are projected and/or represented.Item Towards a theatre of the fabulous - informed by a performative queer autoethnography on the stage of an all-boys’ school(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Kotze, SophoclesAs a queer teacher who felt discomfort in the homogeneousness of a traditional heteronormative space of an all-boys’ school, in this research, I explore the extent to which a performative queer autoethnography can inform the creation of a Theatre of the Fabulous (an embodied queer pedagogy), what it could look like and how it could be used as a queer pedagogical tool in the classroom through which to identify heteronormative practices and, ultimately, move towards a space which is safe for queerness. My strategy was to draw on queer theory and thinking about queer pedagogical writing. I hypothesised that heteronormativity, patriarchal and colonial practices are evident in all- boys’ schools (Connell, 2000; Pollack, 2006; Sullivan, 1995) and that, as a queer teacher, my movements are made queer. I used performance as research (PaR) as a methodology, with performative writing, in this work. Deeply exploring the personal, theoretical and practitioner’s journey, and understanding the narration itself as performance as research, this research is structured through six acts and different scenes rather than the traditional chapters and sections. As a Dramatic Arts teacher, I am programmed to see “all the [world as] a stage, and all the men and women [sic] merely players”3 and my queer reality as a linear theatre text filled with plot and intrigue. This format allowed me to express myself, stylistically and typographically, through not only academic/scholarly reading and writing, but also through the inclusion of interesting quotes I came across in my journey towards a Theatre of the Fabulous, musings and asides about myItem Towards a theatre of the fabulous - informed by a performative queer autoethnography on the stage of an all-boys’ school(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Kotze, Sophocles; Kumarswamy, Manola-GayatriAs a queer teacher who felt discomfort in the homogeneousness of a traditional heteronormative space of an all-boys’ school, in this research, I explore the extent to which a performative queer autoethnography can inform the creation of a Theatre of the Fabulous (an embodied queer pedagogy), what it could look like and how it could be used as a queer pedagogical tool in the classroom through which to identify heteronormative practices and, ultimately, move towards a space which is safe for queerness. My strategy was to draw on queer theory and thinking about queer pedagogical writing. I hypothesised that heteronormativity, patriarchal and colonial practices are evident in all- boys’ schools (Connell, 2000; Pollack, 2006; Sullivan, 1995) and that, as a queer teacher, my movements are made queer. I used performance as research (PaR) as a methodology, with performative writing, in this work. Deeply exploring the personal, theoretical and practitioner’s journey, and understanding the narration itself as performance as research, this research is structured through six acts and different scenes rather than the traditional chapters and sections. As a Dramatic Arts teacher, I am programmed to see “all the [world as] a stage, and all the men and women [sic] merely players”3 and my queer reality as a linear theatre text filled with plot and intrigue. This format allowed me to express myself, stylistically and typographically, through not only academic/scholarly reading and writing, but also through the inclusion of interesting quotes I came across in my journey towards a Theatre of the Fabulous, musings and asides about myItem A Qualitative Exploration of People Living with Chronic Pain in Rural South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ramoshai, Tebatso; Wadley, Antonia; Mulaudzi, MamakiriChronic pain is a highly prevalent global health concern. While much research has been conducted on the prevalence, treatment, and management of chronic pain, few studies have explored the experiences of people living with chronic pain, particularly in the South African context. This study aimed to explore and interpret how HIV-negative people living with chronic pain perceive their personal experiences with chronic pain and the impact it has on their lives. Part of a larger study that investigated the factors that influence the experience, daily activity, and disclosure of pain in people living with and without HIV in rural South Africa, this study conducted a qualitative exploration and interpretation of pre-collected interview data on a purposively selected sample of 16 HIV-negative individuals living with chronic pain from the Limpopo province of South Africa. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Seven main themes emerged from the data: The nature of pain, participants’ typical physical activity, pain interference, disclosure of chronic pain, reactions to pain disclosure, benefits of disclosing pain, and social support. The findings suggest that for HIV-negative people living with chronic pain, the impact of pain is multidimensional. All participants experienced pain interferences; however, there was little to no difference in participants' physical activity levels regardless of interferences. The findings suggest that economic stressors may be an influential factor in how pain is experienced between any two pain cohorts, determining whether there will be a change in physical activity levels or not. Furthermore, contrary to previous concerns in a South African cohort with chronic pain, pain disclosure was high in this cohort; therefore, participants were able to recruit different types of social support from close others. This research, therefore, contributes to the qualitative knowledge of the relationships between pain, physical activity, and the seeking of social support by people living with chronic pain in a South African contextItem Machine Learning applied to Computational Creativity: The use of AI in Authoring Film Screenplays(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Serapelo, Thuto; Whitcher, RaymondArtificial Intelligence, from the inception of the field in the 1950s, supported the notion of having computer software or programs that are capable of exhibiting creativity or applications that can execute tasks that are deemed to be creative. This research addresses the question: To what extent can Artificial Intelligence exhibit creativity in authoring film screenplays, as evaluated through a comparative analysis using the 90-point screenplay guideline? - This study delves into the nuances of film structure, plot, dialogue, character, emotion and narratology. The results revealed that although Artificial Intelligence is on par with human creativity when analysing some aspects of narratives/screenplays. It still lags in the other elements examined, and where AI produced superior work is when it worked in collaboration with a human screenwriter and did far worse when working entirely alone and unaided. This research offers insights into the broader implications of AI in the creative arts, indicating a promising yet complex future.