Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37948
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Item Is There a Moral Right for Civilian Gun Ownership?(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Lowe, Graham MarkThe topic of firearm ownership is a current and topical one, with compelling arguments both for and against. In this paper, I set out to prove the existence of a moral right to civilian firearm ownership. In order to achieve this, I selected the strongest (and only) rights based argument for the complete banning of firearms as put forward by Jeff McMahan, and proceeded to analyse and critique his arguments, with the intention of presenting flaws in the arguments, and thus proving the existence of a moral right for firearm ownership through discounting the strongest argument against it.Item Womedy and its women: How female comedians confront and perform gender within dress and costume, in their stand-up performances(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Florentino, Gabriella; Ramsay, FionaThis research is grounded in gender, comedy and costume and investigates links that weave through humour and gender. Is costume the link? This research grew from the perception that ‘men are funnier than women’ or that ‘women aren’t funny’, as mentioned by Jerry Lewis and Christopher Hitchens. This perception held female comedians out of the comedy industry. However, this is changing as more female comedians are rising to fame. This study examines this perception and stereotypes to explore how female comedians are changing this perception. The research uses the theoretical framework of a semiotic analysis of ten signs and a gender performativity lens inspired by Judith Butler to determine their role in sanctioning these perceptions. Through three case studies, this research examines gender inequalities and differences. I explore the practice of women’s stand-up comedy and its space by comparing three female comedian’s performances to determine whether female comedians perform genderItem Unheard Narratives: theatre-making that celebrates Coloured stories(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Claasen, Estee LaurenIn South Africa, the Coloured ethnic group is considered as either as a creation of apartheid or as an indistinguishable group (Mills, 2018). This research challenges these concepts and intends to adopt the principles that guide Playback Theatre, such as fluid sculpture and sharing stories with an audience present. Playback Theatre aims to honour each teller by providing a space for multiple viewpoints and voices to be heard (Rivers and Chung, 2017). This research report presents a creative research process with a group of elderly Coloured women from Belhar, Cape Town. During the creative process, principles of Playback Theatre were used to enable the women to share their personal stories, transforming these into a public performance with the larger community. The performance became a celebratory moment for the participants as well as the audience members. It was a moment to witness the stories of the older generation in the community and for the women, it was a moment to be witnessed and heard by the younger members and males of the community. By researching and undergoing this creative process, it became evident that storytelling and story sharing not only allows people to be heard and seen, but challenges preconceived assumptions of a homogenous group. This research report presents concepts of Coloured Identity, The Culture of Silence and Storytelling in an attempt to celebrate unheard narratives. According to narrative identity theory, stories often convey a sense of purpose and furthermore internalized family narratives can influence one’s sense of individuality (Clemons, 2018).Item 2D Animation: The Key to Growth and Adaptation of the South African Animation Ecosystem(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Gardiner, Eric; Cloete, StephenThis paper examines South African animation with a focus on unveiling how local animators have adapted to overcome the challenges existing in their local circumstances. This research investigates the history of different techniques used by animators in South Africa and how they have evolved or died out. The data from a collection of over 170 locally produced animations is combined with opinion data from industry professionals to paint a clearer picture of current attitudes, trends and future trajectories. The cultural significance of localised animation is emphasised, and the core rhetoric of this paper is to stimulate the creation of more such media. This paper provides the most value to startup animators in South Africa who can leverage this collection of resources and information to bridge their gap in knowledge on South African industry processes such as financing one’s first animation project and developing a low-cost pipeline. The research in this paper uncovered that 2D animation plays the most significant role out of all techniques used in South Africa. It also reveals three differing business strategies that have been employed by South African animators to successfully fund locally themed animation productions.Item Bubblewrapped: (Queered) Exhibition Making as a Means of Creating Spaces in Johannesburg Which Balance Intimacy, Safety and Access(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Nyathi, Denzel; Twalo, SinethembaWhile the exhibition, as perhaps the main tool of curating, is an excellent space for symbolic generation, I venture to draw close parallels to the internet, as a possible exhibition site of its own, to question how better the traditional art exhibition can be configured to make room for intimacy in the face of capitalism and its subsequent implications on how it is the contemporary Johannesburg art ecosystem operates and dictates professional interaction. It maintains the ever-relational position of contemporary curatorial practice, while complicating the issue of proximity (between disciplines and between people) even further by looking into what role controlling access plays in ensuring an intimate experience feels safe, and doesn’t border on being an experience which makes one feel unnecessarily vulnerable. The affective fine-tuning of this venture becomes a precarious task, which I undertake collaboratively with the interviewee respondents of this research. In consideration of these people and the overdetermination of the commercial sector in the Johannesburg art scene, the research report below asks the question of how it is that exhibition making can be reconfigured by the curator to work in more intimate ways to therefore make space for the various members involved in exhibition-making to feel a sense of safety and belonging in their work. bubblewrapped, as a queered exhibition, takes further this research and continues to think with the various practitioners in a public exhibition format, and thus continues to experiment with means of preserving intimacyItem Curating African Identity in Postcolonial & Digital Spaces(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Lipshitz, Danya; Randle, OluwarotimiThis research interrogates the notion of "Authenticity" in the context of African art, both within the continent and the diaspora, particularly in digital platforms. Using Artspace.Africa—a reimagined version of the exhibition Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent—as a focal point, the study explores the complexities of African identity, spirituality, and spatial representation. I adapt Simon Njami's original thematic divisions— Identity & History, Body & Soul, and City & Land—while integrating Henri Lefebvre's layered concept of 'space,' involving physical, planned, and lived spaces. This curatorial approach aims to challenge monolithic perceptions of Africa, illuminating its diversity through an exploration of different types of space as theorised by Lefebvre. The methodology is qualitative, using my own curation as the primary lens for investigation. I consider the implications of digital platforms on the perceived "Authenticity" of artworks and the transformative role of the digital realm in archiving and exhibiting African art. The study also acknowledges its limitations, particularly concerning the digital divide and the limited access to the internet within a South African context. This research aims to contribute to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of African art and its multi-dimensional representations in the digital age.Item Sustainability of the KwaZulu-Natal creative sector: The KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts as a case study(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Shaw, Angela; Ntombela, NontobekoThis dissertation explores factors impacting sustainability in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) visual arts and crafts domain of the creative sector – and how these have played out in the case study, the KwaZulu- Natal Society of Arts (KZNSA), since its formation in 1905 and especially since 2000. The study asks how collaboration and refusal could contribute to the sustainability of the KZNSA. The theoretical framework of the study is grounded in sustainability theory and, using systems theory, explores modes of participation, whether collaboration or refusal and the resulting energy or inertia. It looks at how these could build on the latent talent and the tendency towards innovation found in KZN, and how they may contribute towards sustainability in the creative sector. The ecosystem of the case study, the KZNSA, contains the operating divisions of the organisation – the gallery, the shop and the café. Initiatives undertaken by these divisions such as forays into artist incubation projects, the Members’ Exhibition, education programming, gallery retail, online retail and art fairs are used to exemplify how collaboration and/or refusal impact the sustainability of the organisation. The operating divisions and their projects are themselves contained within a system of member-based governance with the KZNSA members, the Council and the Constitution as constituent elements in play. Broad themes describe the activities and context of the organisation – the environment, programming and commerce – and frame the interactions between entities in the KZNSA system. The focus of the study is to examine the dynamics between these entities, how they interact with each other and the resulting energy or inertia generated. This in turn provides clues to sustainable practice for the organisation that could be applied to the KZN creative sector.Item An integrated literature review investigating how significant elements of drama therapy, namely role method and narradrama, can support the congruent identity formation of teenagers influenced by contemporary social media(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Maddams, Amy Charlotte; Hill, MoniqueSocial media, which is widely used by teenagers world-wide, can have both a positive and/or negative impact on their developing self-identities. Extensive research has been conducted on the impact of social media on the mental health of teenagers but has failed to address the impact on their developing identities. This research aims to fill that gap by ascertaining how Drama Therapy informed Role Method and Narradrama can support the congruent identity formation of teenagers impacted by social media usage. It also aims to identify tools for drama therapists to use when addressing these issues. An integrative literature review was conducted in which diverse perspectives from existing literature were reviewed, critiqued, and integrated. Grounded theory was then applied to identify and categorise themes that emerged from the literature. There was strong evidence to support the use of Narradrama to help teenagers reauthor their problem-saturated stories and strengthen their congruent identity formation. Role Method was also shown to greatly benefit congruent identity formation through the expansion of an individual’s role repertoire. The results demonstrated that both Narradrama and Role Method provide appropriate tools for drama therapists to use to address the issue of congruent identity formation and are well placed to support the congruent identity development of teenagers who have been impacted by social media usage.Item Always looking’: visual and artistic explorations of the living legacies of enslavement in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Soudien, Amie Lindiwe Hanan; Cloete, NicolaIn the context of marginalised slave histories in South Africa, I explore the poetic and artistic strategies of artists and cultural organisations in evoking slave memory in the present. I examine how the work of contemporary artists such as Gabrielle Goliath, Bronwyn Katz and Berni Searle, among others, eschew colonially-informed practices of commemoration in favour of artistic methodologies that centre care, recuperation and repair. I look to the work of independent, activist cultural organisations such as the District Six Museum and the Prestwich Place Committee that evoke the memory of enslavement in the present through collective, public-oriented acts of remembrance. I draw direct correlations between historic, VOC-era Cape of Good Hope and contemporary Cape Town, to elucidate how the living legacies of enslavement shape urban space, aesthetics, and social stratification. I employ an interdisciplinary, Black feminist-informed research methodology to centre the life stories of enslaved women and to reappraise narratives concerning the VOC settler-colony. Through engagements with the speculative, as proposed by scholars such as Saidiya Hartman (2008), Yvette Abrahams (1996) and others, and Jennifer Nash’s theorisation on “beautiful writing” as a reparative tool (2019b), I engage with the political underpinnings of historiography and interrogate the ethics of knowledge production. My analysis demonstrates that in content and methodology, the artistic, speculative and commemorative work explored provides new insight into the legacies of enslavement and the implications of these legacies for those living in Cape Town today.Item Teaching at Sir Alba Tutoring and Arts Academy: Investigating Theatre of the Oppressed as a teaching approach to After Care Centre Classrooms in Etwatwa Township in Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Zitha, Albert Shangu; Bhebhe, SibongileAfter care centre has become alternative spaces where teaching and learning happens, parents enroll their children in these centre not only to keep their children safe but they have become spaces where supplementary learning happens. Covid-19 has affected education and its systems, schools are still in a ‘catching up’ phases, the schools and teachers are in need of assistance in terms of teaching and learning and making education more interactive and experiential to the learners. Alternative teaching approaches are in high demand. This study’s primary aim is to investigate to investigate the use of Theatre of the Oppressed as a teaching approach to various topics covered in an after care tutoring centre and to answer how Theatre of the Oppressed can be used as a teaching approach to various topics covered in an after care tutoring centre and school curriculum. This study uses a Practice as Research design. In this Practice as Research there where Theatre of the Oppressed workshops conducted. The data was collected through these research instruments: picture and videos were recorded and notes were documented through journaling. Some of the findings are; tutors explored self expression through image Theatre and engaged in discourse during and after forum theatre however tutors still need thorough training in an application of Theatre of the Oppressed. This study adds to knowledge development, practice and advocacy by liberating teaching and learning spaces. This study shows the value of expressive learning and how applied drama and theatre can be a useful mediator to decaying South African education system to promote quality, effective and give learners agency of their own learning and develop responsible citizens.