Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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    Kusengenzeka noma yini: Wakithi singayibiza ngani lendawo?
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Chiliza, Mhlonishwa; Hlasane, Rangoato
    Kusengenzeka noma yini means ‘anything can still happen’, serving as a metaphorical phrase or a saying in isiZulu, which hints at the ambiguities of life within hostels. The phrase is interpretive, and multi-layered, reflecting the beauty, complexities, and systematic violence within the spheres of black social life in South Africa. Wakithi singayibiza ngani lendawo? means ‘what should we call this place?’ This is both a question and a double-sided statement, drawn from the everyday practice of yarning inside the hostel arena. South African hostels are congested and temporal, thus allowing for progress, failure, and the crafting of practices that include exploring life opportunities, self- determination, and recreation of freedom by the dwellers. Wakithi singayibiza ngani lendawo? is a critical question that encapsulate the feeling of yarning and provides a wide range of avenues to negotiate for a new image of hostels. For images that are real or authentic and challenge preconceived portrayal of black migrant residents in South African archives, see the exposé framework between the 1950s -1990s in the documentary series by Ernest Cole, Peter Magubane, Roger Meinjtes and Eli Weinberg. The practice of this resistance group of photographers exposed the injustices of the apartheid regime, while their approach is invasive and shows a violent gaze. It exposes the hostel residents as poor, needy, undignified, bitter and hopeless, and these negative elements overshadow the beautiful experiments that have always been practiced inside the hostel. The purpose of my praxis, through visual arts, is to explore these beautiful experiments inside the hostel by employing a wide range of mediums, such as drawing, sculpture installations, performance (video) and photography. It is a diverse approach that allows for new meanings and ideas to manifest, enabling a new image of hostels to emerge. The work or praxis serve to address the ‘missing narrative’ to reclaim the loss dignity of hostel communities. Inside the hostel engage with intimate objects, and interpreting different types of sounds within the conceptual frame of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval (2019) which is drawn from the work of Saidiya Hartman. The wayward framework and a mode of close narration, influences my philosophical as I navigate hostels to find a newly informed image that is far more human and comprehensive.
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    Superhero Narratives - Captain America vs Captain South Africa: Insight through the cultural lens
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ndwandwe, Nqobile Thobile; Dladla, Tiisetso
    This research was an unconventional academic and cultural analysis of the comic book and film medium using photo essays and text. A visual and textual discourse analysis was conducted to examine the narrative and images used in the films and comic books Captain America (1941) and the comic book Captain South Africa (2018). During the process of this research, the idea of comic book adaptations into film as the art of reinventing and revitalizing cultural heroes was realized. Mythic history and epistemologies were turned into creative services and were not exclusive to the popular medium of video films (Fasan, 2016). African narratives have often been characterized in terms of their oral origins which has led many critics into the literary misadventure of always seeking oral 'continuities' in African narratives of European expression. However, the point bears repeating that there are instances in which African writers have in their mythopoesis reinvented or recharged local superheroes (Fasan, 2016). In the research, there was an exploration of the battle between genres of Westernization and genres of De-Westernization (African) and what each suggested about the current state of identity in South Africa and America. Adding race, culture, and gender to superhero narratives was redefined and (re)imagined as an ideology regarding who or how superhero characters should be portrayed.
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    Playing with Music (Investigating Emergent Music Composition for Games)
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Malinga, Rodwin
    As 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.
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    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, Tamara
    This 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?
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    The Monster in Disney’s Closet: Critiquing Queer Representation and Narrative in Luca
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Wessels, Sasha Lyn Dominique; Wittstock, Gillian
    Queer 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.
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    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
    As 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 my
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    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-Gayatri
    As 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 my
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    Paradise Fallen Xenoepistemics: Stopgap Notes on Site-Specificity
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Marie, Zen
    Paradise Fallen, Xenoepistemics: Stopgap Notes on Site-Specificity, is a Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Art that critically engages with the concept of site-specificity through an extended period of practice-based research. Overall, the work is an interrogation of the multiple sites that inform the PhD, as the PhD is itself interrogated as a site of knowledge production. As a form of practice-based postgraduate research, the work consists of a creative component, which includes numerous iterations of performative practice. These installations and exhibitions are accumulated as documentation that is written into, and edited alongside, more fragmentary notes and speculations. There are passages of more conventional scholarship that are included, which are collected from published and unpublished writing across the period of doctoral study. The links to the practical work can be found within the PDF.
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    Uhambo Lwabo: A Narrative Study of Black Dramatherapists’ Perspectives on the South African Drama Therapy Field
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Shabangu, Nobantu
    The question of visibility as a representation gap in Drama Therapy underpins this research. Official department records show that approximately 80 percent of the total student cohort between 2014 to 2021 were women and of that percentage less than a third comprised of Black female students. According to Jones (2013), the “drama” part involves theatre, embodiment, and shamanistic qualities of performance, dance, ritual, and metaphor form part of the therapy process. As such, metaphor becomes a language for the exploration and expression of traumas, furthermore its power lies in interpretation for the means of psychoanalysis through psychodrama. Additionally, the practice is informed by classical psychology: the empirical scientific study of human cognition and behaviour. Linking back to metaphor, the research argues that despite the foundational underpinnings of the field, Drama Therapy relies on notions of the person that are still conditional to a universalising and standardized notion of the Human that make the practice of the field alienating. Similarly, Tamale (2020) articulates invisibilising as a present and exploitative by-product of colonialism still active in universities which are founded on coloniality and thus render Black bodies and their intellectual products invisible. Therefore, the research examines how dramatherapy is affected through invisibilisation and as such interrogates its complicity. Consequently, the research takes on an Afro-feminist onto-epistemological response. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with Black women dramatherapists. Chapter 1 outlines the background of research as an outsider to the dramatherapy field and learning of the discipline from dialogues outsides of the institution thus forming my rationale. Chapter 2 is the literature review which reveals the trend of invisibilising Black students within psychology, dramatherapy foundations and the post-colonial conditions of becoming a dramatherapist. Chapter 3 summarises the methodology of narrative, the analysis method, and the role of being an insider- researcher and reflexivity. Chapter 4 presents the narratives and themes that signal to invisibilisation. Chapter 5 provides Black women dramatherapists perspectives in response and resistance to being invisibilised. Chapter 6 is the conclusion which surmises the composite implications of this research. The research demonstrated an enduring practice of invisibilising Black dramatherapy students through the low annual student intake. Secondly, that invisibilising takes place within the master’s year through teaching material and the role of clinical supervision. Lastly, the invisibilisation of Black dramatherapists extends into the profession within professional representative bodies as well as through department cultures.
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    Hip hop and Narrative Therapy in Drama Therapy: An Exploration of the ways in which Hip hop in Narrative Form can be used to Address issues of Displacement, Foster Cohesion and Conscientize a Sense of Self in Urban Adolescents
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Sanelisiwe; Busika, Nonkululeko
    This research explored how Hip hop therapy and narrative therapy within the drama therapy frame can be integrated for the purposes of a psychosocial intervention for adolescents in urban Johannesburg. The research was conducted with adolescents from Organisation X, ranging between the ages of 14-18 years. This research addressed issues of displacement, violence, xenophobia, social cohesion and self-awareness in the intervention. The research methodology used a qualitative approach that is practice-based and arts-based. The design included semi- structured interviews with the four care workers at organisation X, questionnaires and creative focus groups with ten selected adolescents. This was an eight-week intervention to investigate the various ways in which Hip hop and narrative therapy can be used in the drama therapy context to address psychosocial issues affecting the adolescents. The findings of the study reflect that self-esteem of more than half the participants increased during the course of the intervention, they grew a friendlier perception towards outsiders and their sense of belonging improved during the intervention.