3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The pet in contemporary art(2011-06-23) Pretorius, ElmarieThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the figure of the pet in contemporary art. I will argue that the pet offers rich potential for creative exploration that challenges the conventional binaries of self/other, human/animal, and tame/wild in a way that tries to speak of a different subjectivity. I take as a starting point that the pet is seen as not other enough and this explains its relative absence in contemporary visual art practice and discourse. Currently there is a lot of interest in the animal within this field, but the animal is usually cast as wild or untamed – all too often functioning as a signifier of difference from the human (through this difference, of course, we define what is human). For all that the pet is an animal it does not serve as a signifier in the same way. It straddles binaries/boundaries of human/animal and even self/other in a manner that is often interpreted as ‘uncomfortable’. I will argue that the widespread prejudice against pets is based on a very deep seated and problematic formulation of the wild, and if the binary opposition of the wild and the domestic is discarded (as the binary opposition of the human and the animal was/is) the pet is more than equal to the same theoretical, and consequently practical, burden as the wild animal. With special attention to the concept of becoming-animal, outlined by Deleuze and Guattari, I look at the artists Jo Ractliffe, Carolee Schneemann, and William Wegman whose pets play a pivotal role in the production of their artworks, and in some cases, the trajectory of their careers. I contend that within this cross-species relationship/experience/void/communication (or any other description one might hazard to apply) something happens, an event, something meaningful, worth consideration. The very nature of a cross-species phenomenological, libidinal relating is, for me, laden with creative possibility. I argue that the pet has the potential to open up a creative space within which important and topical issues, anxieties and subject fractures can be visually manifestedItem Salience strategy: connectivity, aesthetics and the learning mind(2009-05-29T10:23:41Z) Burnett, Richard Leslie GeorgeThis dissertation adds to the many arguments already made for the value of art (cultural artifact) in teaching and learning. The special approach developed here concludes with the articulation of Salience Strategy. The argument firstly questions the value of seeing intelligence as a problem-solving faculty. It continues by examining consciousness, memory and the imagination as both the ground and substance of intellection. It argues that, amongst other things, interconnectedness, reiterative pathways and networks are central to the operation of consciousness and therefore, are central to its epiphenomenal attributes like intelligence. As education should strive for greater intellectual functioning so it should, therefore, strive to harness the paradigms of interconnectedness, reiterative pathways and networks. The art object, (device, gesture, statement), it is proposed, is valuable when deployed as hubs in networks of ideas allowing learners to form patterns of unexpected and creative linkages enhancing both memory, curiosity and a capacity for imaginative and associative thinking. Learning becomes movement through a landscape of complex objects and outgrowths. Two salience itineraries are explored in this dissertation. The first in relation to concepts overheard during learner conversations over the duration of a school week, and a second, exploiting my own work as an artist, selected work by the British artist Richard Long, and some of the issues raised in the theoretical discussion of consciousness and networks.Item Identity engraved: artistic endeavour and ethnic entities in Central South Africa(2009-02-12T10:32:12Z) Rifkin, Riaan FABSTRACT Ethnicity has been a focus of socio-scientific research for at least three decades, but for the greater part of that period it has been virtually ignored by archaeologists. As a result, many researchers remain committed to an essentialist approach to ethnicity. The reluctance to respond to such views by taking up more explicitly the dynamic and situational approaches to identity, as is currently underway in anthropology and sociology, arise from several sources, which undeniably also include the political. Ultimately, though, the essential reason is practical. The literature demonstrates that ethnicity and ethnic identity are slippery concerns in contemporary societies, let alone in pre-historic social contexts. Rock art presents an opportunity for assessing assumptions about identityconsciousness. It provides a category of material culture for the establishment of historical and chronological records of multi-cultural interaction and ensuing episodes of adaptation and change. Engraved art is a source of information on past societies, subsistence strategies and, most importantly, on the development of cohesive social systems and social consciousness. Artwork is the most obvious example of symbolic storage outside the human mind, yet it is not universally practised by huntergatherers and it cannot therefore be used as the sole criterion for recognising modern symbolism, modern behaviour, and ethnicity. Given this ambiguity with regards the function of rock art in the demarcation of territorial boundaries and in the construction of social and ethnic identities, an exploration of additional spheres of ethnic conception and assertion may illuminate the question of how San huntergatherers conceived and conveyed their respective identities. This investigation into the association between art and ethnicity is founded upon the conviction that the complexity of social identity must be explored on a dynamic continuum that allows for interface between varied social factors. Notions concerning the ethnic orientation of social groups are represented, either unconsciously or purposefully, in socio-cultural spheres as diverse as territoriality, subsistence economy, language, religion, and also aesthetic and artistic cultural patterns. This study of the relationship between conceptions of identity and engraved art aspires to augment the existing understanding of the origins of processes of identity-formation, how such processes operate, and how they may be manifest in material cultural contexts.Item Painting poems: A volume of Ekphrastic poetry and a theoretical reflection(2007-02-15T13:37:17Z) Frankel, HazelThis component comprises a volume of ekphrastic poems followed by a theoretical postscript. The poems were influenced either by individual works of art or by a particular artist’s work in general. The postscript examines the nature of ekphrasis. It also discusses the connection between my poems and the artworks that inspired them relating this to existing ekphrastic theory and to my writing process. The poems appear in a separate collection followed by reproductions of the relevant works.Item Gaming in art: A case study of two examples of the artistic appropriation of computer games and the mapping of historical trajectories of "Art Games" versus mainstream computer games(2006-11-15T13:46:12Z) Stalker, Phillipa JaneThis essay will explore the existing definitions of art games that are currently being used in the art game/art mod genre. It will identify the leading theorists within the field, and take into account their definitions whilst at the same time establishing a set of categories within which can be defined the dominant trends in the development of the field. It will also situate art games within an historical context, both within the commercial computer game field as well as the digital art field and attempt to establish some sort of timeline within which we can see the development and emergence of art games in relation to these two disciplines. Two examples of art games, both from different categories will be examined and critiqued in the context of Artistic Computer Game Modification – A 3D game called Escape From Woomera and an art mod or patch called SOD. The art game as an entity will be examined in relation to ideas of the ‘interactive’ and ‘play’, and the implications and potential for fine art practice will be investigated.Item The influence of HIV status on woman of advanced maternal age presenting for generic counselling(2006-10-25T08:06:18Z) Bee, JustineIncreasing numbers of pregnant women of advanced maternal age (AMA) counselled in the prenatal genetic counselling clinics in Johannesburg are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive. This has altered the information these women must consider when deciding about amniocentesis for prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities. Antiretroviral treatment (ART) is advised for HIV positive women prior to the procedure, to minimise vertical transmission from mother to child. The risk of mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV also necessitates counselling regarding termination of pregnancy (TOP). A study over two 6-month periods in 2003 and 2004 documented the HIV status of the advanced maternal age women attending genetic counselling clinics at three academic hospitals in Johannesburg, and the choices these women made regarding testing for possible chromosome abnormalities. An interview schedule, conducted over 6 months in 2004, investigated the HIV positive women’s perceptions of HIV in pregnancy, and their thoughts on termination of pregnancy based on HIV transmission risk. Of 169 women seen over six months, February to July 2003, 83 (49%) were HIV negative, 15 (9%) were HIV positive and 71 (42%) were of unknown status. Forty (48%) HIV negative patients had amniocenteses compared to 2 (13%) HIV positive women. In 2004, 181 patients were seen; 100 (55%) were HIV negative, 29 (16%) were HIV positive and 52 (29%) were of unknown status. Thirty-nine (39%) HIV negative patients had amniocenteses compared to 4 (14%) HIV positive women. Data from fifteen completed questionnaires indicated that most women understood the severity of HIV infection, 12/15 (80%), five (33%) considered termination of pregnancy based on the HIV transmission risk, and four (27%) would have had amniocentesis if they had been HIV negative. A significant percentage of AMA women attending the genetic counselling clinics are HIV positive, and they are faced with difficult issues, including the risk of chromosome abnormalities in the fetus, the risk of transmission of HIV during pregnancy and amniocentesis, and the option of TOP up to 20 weeks gestation based on the risk of vertical HIV transmission. It is vital that cogent policies are developed to provide optimum care for these women. Ideally, the access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) throughout pregnancy, to reduce the risk of MTCT of HIV to about 1%, would make the option of prenatal diagnosis a safer one for AMA women to consider.