Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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Start date: 2000Subject: search.filters.subject.SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Encountering apartheid publics: an essay film on Hendrik Verwoerd as public symbol 1958-1966 and implications for counter-publics today
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Effendi, Karima; Louw , Lieza
    The policies of separate development under Verwoerd created the material conditions for apartheid and capitalism to thrive, but it's the hypothesis of this project that the pomp and ceremony, the suit, his speeches and performative statecraft, created the affective conditions for his thinking to make its way from the past into our present-time. This is a discursive inquiry that draws on political theory, psychoanalysis, feminist theory and essayistic film theory to explore how the slipperiness of apartheid discourse makes it impossible to counter it on its own terms. Verwoerd symbolised a pernicious ‘covering over’ of irreconcilable ambiguities in apartheid discourse that was used to construct and stabilise whiteness against ‘other’ constitutive subject formations. The second part of the creative project is an essay film, Verwoerd’s Smile, that uses an ‘apartheid’ and colonial archive to attempt to show up its own discriminatory logic. The film’s failure in doing this has a productive value that is instructive for understanding how the cloak of invisibility that shrouds whiteness from being seen doing its work, also protects it from being dismantled. Understanding this has implications for radical projects concerned with undoing apartheid.
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    Is There a Moral Right for Civilian Gun Ownership?
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Lowe, Graham Mark
    The 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.
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    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, Sinethemba
    While 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 intimacy
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    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, Nicola
    In 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.
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    (Il)legitimacy of Freelance Artists: Exploring Current Government Legislation and Policies that Influence Economic Exclusion and Inclusion of South African Freelance Artists
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-03) Mmeti, Lehlohonolo Tebalelo Rudy Matome; Chatikobo, Munyaradzi
    The prevailing descriptors—such as "illegitimate," "non-compliant," "unprofessional," and "informal"—resonate globally, attributing a lack of structure to freelance artistry. This characterization places these artists in precarious legal and economic positions, hindering access to fundamental employment benefits, credit, loans, and housing. Therefore, it is imperative to answer the central questions, Which legislative measures and policies currently influence the economic integration, compliance and legitimacy of freelance profession within Cultural Creative Industry and Economy in South Africa? The scarcity of literature on the subject prompts an exploration into the legislative landscape, framed by the notion that policy acts as a guiding roadmap. The central argument is that existing policies failure to adequately address the unique challenges faced by South African freelance artists, leaving a critical void in understanding their economic participation. Focused on a qualitative methodology, the research examines documents and policies to unravel the impact on freelance artists' economic standing, employing lenses that navigate the intersections of formality and informality within the Cultural Creative Industries. The research underscores the imperative to bridge this knowledge gap, arguing for targeted interventions to rectify the economic disparities and (il)legitimacy associated with freelance artists in South Africa. It is through the aims and objectives of this research that I was be able to come with a concrete understating of the landscape so appropriate intervention measures can be suggested.
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    Men, Masculinity, Aggression and Dominance: An Exploration of How Young Men are Socialized to Deal with Situations of Man-on-Man Aggression and Dominance
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2019) Vilakazi, Zinhle; Davies, Nick
    There is a considerable body of research placing young South African men at the core of interpersonal violence. Within these studies they are frequently positioned as both perpetrators and victims of extreme and homicidal modes of aggression. In light of this gendered nature of interpersonal violence, this study was directed at exploring how young men’s responses to a situation of man-on-man aggression and dominance might be linked to how society encourages or expects a certain masculine performance from men in such situations. This study’s secondary goal was to offer some ideas about how young men might establish a masculine identity through aggression and dominance. In the pursuing research aims, a total of 14 young adult men attending university participated in this qualitative study. From the analysis what became evident was the continuous pressure that young adult men experience in society, through various social institutions, to somehow fit into dominant or hegemonic constructions of masculinity. Within the context of this study, the proximal cause of aggression and dominance was attributed to broader concerns regarding presentation of a masculine identity, self-worth and social status.
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    Encountering apartheid publics: an essay film on Hendrik Verwoerd as public symbol 1958-1966 and implications for counter-publics today.
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-11-10) Effendi, Karima; Louw, Lieza; Kenny, Bridget
    The policies of separate development under Verwoerd created the material conditions for apartheid and capitalism to thrive, but it's the hypothesis of this project that the pomp and ceremony, the suit, his speeches and performative statecraft, created the affective conditions for his thinking to make its way from the past into our present-time. This is a discursive inquiry that draws on political theory, psychoanalysis, feminist theory and essayistic film theory to explore how the slipperiness of apartheid discourse makes it impossible to counter it on its own terms. Verwoerd symbolised a pernicious ‘covering over’ of irreconcilable ambiguities in apartheid discourse that was used to construct and stabilise whiteness against ‘other’ constitutive subject formations. The second part of the creative project is an essay film, Verwoerd’s Smile, that uses an ‘apartheid’ and colonial archive to attempt to show up its own discriminatory logic. The film’s failure in doing this has a productive value that is instructive for understanding how the cloak of invisibility that shrouds whiteness from being seen doing its work, also protects it from being dismantled. Understanding this has implications for radical projects concerned with undoing apartheid.