Theses and Dissertations (Visual Arts)

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An autoethnographic exploration of virtual worship : exploring religious experience in cyberspace
(University of Pretoria, 2024-02) Brittz, Karli; kudahschizy@gmail.com; Chizhande, Kudakwashe
Technology has revolutionised the traditional concept of worship and impacted the understanding of spirituality. The rise of the internet and digital technologies has revolutionised how individuals interact with each other and their surroundings, including religious spaces. This autoethnographic exploration delves into the experience of virtual worship and how the digital revolution is transforming spiritual experiences. Based on my personal experiences and observations, I have investigated the world of virtual worship and discovered the unique religious experiences it offers in cyberspace. It also reveals the potential for technology to facilitate religious experiences through virtual sacred spaces and discusses the possibility of these online experiences replacing worship in physical reality. I have discovered that virtual worship provides advantages such as connecting with a global community of believers and the convenience of participating in religious activities from the comfort of their own homes. However, there are also possible drawbacks, including a lack of intimacy and connection with the physical world. This exploration highlights the intricate and evolving relationship between technology and spirituality and how virtual worship shapes our religious experiences. The study contends that virtual worship cannot substitute offline gatherings, but that online and offline spiritual practices can be used since they are vital in their different capacities. Furthermore, the study emphasises that while virtual worship experiences hold immense value as they allow flexibility and accessibility, they may lack some embodied aspects of worship, such as physical presence and shared space. Overall, this autoethnographic exploration provides valuable insights into how virtual worship experiences impact religious practice and suggests that digital technologies could complement physical worship spaces rather than replace them entirely. Thus, the study expands on the scholarship of digital culture and virtual worship by considering an autoethnographic experience of the phenomenon.
The dancing body as living archive : preserving the Cecchetti method
(University of Pretoria, 2024-03) Johnstone, Kristina; Kriel, Lize; celeste.annandale@gmail.com; Annandale, Celeste Margaret
Dance is largely an intangible form of art and knowledge. The fleeting nature of its performance makes the circulation and archiving of this type of knowledge quite challenging. It is difficult to capture its essence in a mere text or photograph. The body, in this sense, might present itself as a fundamental form of dance knowledge preservation as it is able to embody knowledge in a way that material artefacts cannot. Despite many and continual changes that occur in the arts, the technique and traditions of classical ballet have therefore remained as dancers and teachers transfer this knowledge, through their bodies, from one generation to the next. The bodies of dancers and teachers, in this sense, become a dynamic archive of embodied knowledge. This involvement of the body in processes of knowledge acquisition, retention and transference manifests the agency of these bodies as they function both as object and subject, as instrument and agent, transgressing the boundaries between the material and immaterial worlds, the visible and invisible spaces of existence and experience, as well as the past and the present. This is the notion of the body which I use in my study; a dynamic entity, with boundary-crossing abilities, which holds great significance in knowledge transfer and preservation, hegemonic resistance, artistic expression, memory, transformation and evolution. The Cecchetti Method of classical ballet training and the Cecchetti Society, with its teachers and dancers actively participating in the learning, teaching and therefore preservation of the Method, epitomises how bodies become an archive. My study is more broadly involved in the larger academic enterprise that revisits and revises the institutional archive and questions our dependence on documentary and mnemonic practices.
We’re digging the future: Afro-future mining in Africa
(University of Pretoria, 2024-04-19) Du Plessis, Rory; o.kgongoane@gmail.com; Kgongoane, Obakeng Omolemo
Mining in Africa continues to be a relevant and important endeavour in building up the African economy, however, it is also a site that encapsulates the history, (re-)organisation, and on-going consequences of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and heteropatriarchy – a few of the key issues that continue to permeate Africa’s socio-political and economic struggles. While Afrofuturism provides pathways towards future-orientated, often technological, solutions for present-day concerns, little attention is given to the ways that Afrofuturistic representations can act as critical, cultural, and political frameworks, as well as aesthetic counterpoints, to Euro-dominated conceptions of mining within African contexts. This study, therefore, engages with literature on Afrofuturism in light of Afrofuturistic visual texts such the films Black Panther (Coogler 2018) and Neptune Frost (Uzeyman & Williams 2022), as well as the artwork of African contemporary artist, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, such texts are used to explore Afrofuturistic representations of mining and the miner – past, present, and future, in Africa. In doing so, the study hopes to demonstrate the relevance and power of Afrofuturism in working through and beyond issues of the black miner’s exploitation, subjugation, and continued marginalisation; a positioning of the miner that aids and abets black living as an impossibility. Additionally, this study seeks to establish that within African contexts that are increasingly technologised, there exists new ways to narrate the lives and identification of the black miner, new ways that are often free to emerge in Afrofuturistic representations. In critically analysing Afrofuturistic visual representations related to mining in Africa, this study further uncovers how Afrofuturism utilises the power of narrative through a strategic relation of images, that although contextualised in the future, are in constant dialogue with the past. Afrofuturism’s deliberate oscillation between the past and future in the images of African mining under analysis, make the past alive to the present contexts of the living. Consequently, this re-awakening of the past for the presently living allows for a more urgent and critical re-assessment, re-investigation, and a re-imagination of new and liberating possibilities for the future that actively centre, and therefore value, the marginalised voices of the black oppressed – the black miner.
Traces of interaction : a practice-led exploration of ‘makerspaces’ in South African art
(University of Pretoria, 2024-04) Grobler, NH; marika.dutoit@gmail.com; du Toit, Marika
Recent formulations of the artist-artwork-audience relationship have considered artists as context providers, artistic objects as repositories for ideas and a means to preserve tacit knowledge. Further, audiences have been reconsidered as creating meaning situationally within exhibition spaces. Although, artists are often inclined to present an artist statement, which can be perceived as a singular and ‘correct’ way to interpret art exhibitions, and which may prohibit viewers from trusting their own sense-making capabilities and interpretative skills. An overreliance on exhibition texts could discourage the formation of alternative forms of knowledge through embodied interactions with the work. This practice-led study explores these considerations of an entangled artist-artwork-audience relationship through a participatory approach. The artworks were created with public engagement in mind, and an emphasis placed on inviting physical interventions within the exhibition space. These works were exhibited as invitations for public participation in a series of two exhibitions. Installations of this nature aim to create a space for making, collaboration and creative expression, referred to in this practice-led study as “makerspaces”. After each installation, the artist reflected on and responded to the participants’ interventions as their actions left material residues of embodied participation. The role of the artist within this entangled artist-artwork-audience relationship can accordingly raise questions regarding artistic authority, meaning-making and knowledge production. Processes of creation, destruction, assimilation and erasure were documented and reflected on, following a practice-led methodology. By encouraging the audience to investigate the materials, the traces of others and their actions this creative research aims to provoke critical insights into embodied, material engagement in exhibitions that invite audience interaction without prescriptive instruction.
Muffled violations: a practice-based exploration of artworks embedded with the traumatic memory of acquaintance rape
(University of Pretoria, 2024-06-14) Grobler, Nicola; cazlynne.peffer@up.ac.za; Peffer, Cazlynne
Muffled violations is an artistic exploration of the trauma endured by a victim of acquaintance rape. Through qualitative and practice-based approaches, this study argues that viewers may encounter affects of sexual violation and respond empathetically with the artist-researcher through an assemblage of found objects and video works in an exhibition. The artworks offer an account of rape more attuned to the psychological impact experienced by victims, rather than that of reports on sexual brutality found in journalistic media. This study also reviews a selection of contemporary works made by female artists, to investigate how art implicitly, through its particular communicative strengths can be regarded as an affective means through which representations and perceptions of sexual violence can be reconfigured. Through the making of art, this study aims to bring attention to alternative narratives of rape that often go undocumented and to position these voices within a South African context of pervasive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Gut-wrenching : a phenomenological investigation of somatic responses to disgust in American Horror Story : Freak Show
(University of Pretoria, 2024-02-19) Lauwrens, Jennifer; Du Plessis, Rory; kellyn0203@gmail.com; Davies, Kellyn Leigh
The horror genre is very good at evoking an excess of heavy emotions and eliciting intense visceral responses in the viewer. The fourth season of the show titled American Horror Story: Freak Show (Murphy 2014–2015) follows the fall of one of the remaining freak show acts in 1942 in South Florida, focusing on the troupe of performers’ lives and the trials they face to survive. This dissertation presents a phenomenological analysis of Freak Show (Murphy 2014– 2015) to understand how this television show elicits somatic and affective responses from its viewers. It therefore focuses on the affective response of disgust as understood through the theoretical lenses of embodied perception and the abject. This study investigates how disgust plays a role in a viewer’s experience of Freak Show specifically concerning selected social issues explored in the series such as the social hierarchy, sex, homophobia, and the family unit. This study concludes by describing the transformative potential of the somatic encounter with Freak Show (Murphy 2014–2015).
A critical analysis of the representation of persons with disabilities and disfigurement in ballet
(University of Pretoria, 2023-12-05) Du Plessis, Rory; Lauwrens, Jenni; u17198519@tuks.co.za; Annandale, Alicia Elizabeth
Bodily difference has long been a social and cultural target of dominant ideologies. Misconceptions and myths regarding beauty, aesthetics and physical, cognitive, emotional and creative capabilities are in part responsible for this separation between the so-called normal/typical and abnormal/atypical body. While various contexts of difference exist and contribute to the marginalisation of many people, the disfigured and disabled body lies on the very margins of the self-other, ab/normal binaries. Ballet has been linked with countless harmful beliefs – such as intolerant and elitist principles, unattainable beauty standards and physical, cognitive and emotional health problems. Ballet therefore surfaces as another subject that predominantly receives criticism and condemnation in the academic world. Aiming to address and challenge these views, this dissertation seeks to consider three subjects – namely, disfigurement, disability and ballet – within a framework that relies on the notion of multidimensionality. This notion refers to both ballet and the body’s existence and significance beyond a merely visual, tangible and physical dimension. The intention of this study is to free these subjects from the discriminating, excluding and stigmatising ideologies that govern perspectives, understandings, interpretations and representations of them. Contesting popular ideological understandings of body and ballet, Michaela DePrince and Joe Powell-Main, two of many ballet dancers that have been labelled as disfigured and/or disabled, serve as commendable examples of the establishment 1) of a counter-narrative for those bodies that are excluded, stigmatised and marginalised, and 2) of the positive aspects and impact of ballet. Freefall Dance Company is a well-known integrated ballet organisation that celebrates the talent and identities of dancers with cognitive disabilities. By focusing on the personal experiences of these two dancers as well as the art of ballet, stripped from its ideological conventions and thus considered purely for its effects as an art form – as in Freefall Dance Company – I wish to formulate a multidimensional understanding and interpretation of body and dance. A multidimensional perspective in particular on disfigurement, disability and ballet paves a possible path towards restoring these subjects on a physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual level. Such a perspective on body and ballet allows individuals such as DePrince, Powell-Main and the Freefall dancers, who have been excluded, marginalised and stigmatised by dominant social belief systems, to freely engage in the art of dance and benefit from a multidimensional relationship with and experience of ballet. Furthermore, by demonstrating the benefits and restorative potential of this relationship and experience for the body through ballet, the art of ballet itself can also be restored.
Examining the representation of asexuality in select examples of visual culture
(University of Pretoria, 2023-11) Du Plessis, Rory; Lauwrens, Jenni; astirlingirl@gmail.com; Blunden, Stirling Julienne
This study explores the sexual orientation known as asexuality. Asexuality is defined as an identity that encompasses the little or lack of sexual attraction that some individuals experience. Asexuality is not understood to be a disorder, but is contextualised as an identifier that falls under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. Asexuality remains a marginalised sexual orientation: one that is often stereotyped, pathologised and stigmatised. The purpose of this study is critically to analyse the representation of asexuality in visual culture, such as in television characters and on social media platforms. This study offers a sex-critical (Downing 2013b) reading of asexuality. By means of a sex critical reading, the representations of asexuality are critiqued and analysed using queer theory and asexual theory. In this study I investigate a sample of television series, namely Shortland Street (Hollings, De Nave & Daniel 1992-), Faking It (Goodman & Wolov 2014-2016), The March Family Letters (Shelson 2014-2015), Sex Education (Nunn 2019-), Euphoria (Levinson 2019-) and BoJack Horseman (Bob-Waksberg 2014-2020). The television representations of asexuality are semiotically analysed by looking at both the visual characterisation and storylines of these characters. Further, these television representations are examined according to asexual theory to critique heteronormative perceptions of asexuality. In addition, this study examines alternative depictions of asexuality that differ from stereotyped representations. The analyses of these television characters provide insight into how asexuality is presented in contemporary media. Through the exploration of asexuality’s heterogeneity, this study disallows a fixed one-dimensional characterisation of asexuality. I maintain that through a large assortment of representations of asexuality, an increased visibility of asexuality on the small screen allows for the understanding and acceptance of asexuality as a unique sexual orientation. In this study I also conduct a comprehensive examination of user-generated representations of asexuality that are found on social media platforms. This study investigates visual representations of asexuality found on Twitter and Instagram, namely Yasmin Benoit (@theyasminbenoit on Twitter and Instagram) Venus Envy (on Twitter @VenusEnvyDrag and @venusenvydrag on Instagram), Michelle Lin (on @LGBT’s Instagram page) and Asexual Looks (@thisiswhatasexuallookslike on Instagram). By allowing users to form communities, visualise their asexual experience and create digital representations of asexuality, social media platforms offer asexual individuals the unique opportunity to curate their online representations iii according to their self-identified asexual identities. In addition, this study identifies and examines three recurrent tropes that are reiterated through the online self-representations of asexuality. I argue that these self-representations of asexuality, allow for a more diverse archive of representations of asexuality. Through social media platforms, asexual individuals are able to empower themselves through the establishment of their own personalised representations of asexuality. This enables individuals to find supportive communities, all the while validating their own asexual identities. These user-generated representations explore asexuality’s heterogeneity and seek to give insight into how the public, the asexual community as well as the LGBTQIA+ community perceive asexuality. Thus, these online representations of asexuality establish asexuality as a valid sexual orientation, one that exists amongst heterosexual and LGBTQIA+ orientations.
Metaphor and pathos : a rhetorical exploration of animated poetry in theory and practice
(University of Pretoria, 2023-06-30) Reyburn, Duncan; Fossey, Natalie; boikanyo@mweb.co.za; Matshana, Tebogo Boikanyo
This research explores the rhetorical strategies used in animated poetry to evoke pathos and create resonant viewing experiences. Drawing on the theory of visual rhetoric, the study focuses on the use of metaphor in animated poetry as a means of eliciting emotional responses to multimodal content. Through a close analysis of the 12 animated poems in the TED-Ed animated poetry series, the study examines how visual and verbal language work together to create meaning and effect within the medium of animated poetry. The study investigates how the hybrid medium of animated poetry facilitates understanding and critical reflection on social issues. This research contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the intersection of poetry and visual media and highlights the unique potential of animated poetry to engage and resonate with audiences. The study explores the ways in which the TED-Ed animated poetry series There’s a poem for that, makes use of visual metaphor as a visual rhetorical device in designing digital representations of information sets. The study advocates that the use of visual metaphors assists in conveying meaning and creating resonant engagements with visual information. Moreover, the appeal to pathos cultivates connection with visual information. This study has paired the theory of visual rhetoric with the visual analysis of all 12 animated poems in the series to arrive at an understanding of the best practices involved when creating a meaningful animated poem. The key findings have been employed when considering the best practices involved when digitising and visualising interactive education content.
Ousie Annes : memories of my late grandmother. cooking up an anarchive
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Adendorff, Adéle; Sooful, Avi; u15205292@tuks.co.za; Manka, Moroesi Felicia-Carol
The study explores the Basotho food heritage lost due to migration, oral documentation, and religious beliefs. Through my matrilineal exploration, I hope to create an anarchive of traditional recipes that will encompass the memory of my late maternal grandmother and expand on the knowledge of Basotho culture through its relationship with food. The practical work for this study showcases a body of artwork that considers the relationship between food practices, memories of my grandmother and my Basotho heritage. The theoretical component follows an a/r/tographical approach and interfaces artmaking and research through living inquiry. The study aims to unpack ideas associated with the archive, with a particular emphasis on Carine Zaayman's concept of anarchive, as a way of making sense of the traces and memories I hold dear of my grandmother and her cooking. Zaayman's argument that art-based research can illuminate untold stories and offer traces of knowledge aligns well with the study's goals. By utilising visual art practices as anarchive, I navigate the "slivers" of knowledge I was left with to bring to light aspects of my Basotho food heritage that have been lost or forgotten over time. Overall, the study hopes to contribute to society's sustainable development by recognising the value of indigenous knowledge and experience. Through my exploration of Basotho food heritage and my a/r/tographical approach, I hope to shed light on untold stories and offer new insights into the rich cultural heritage of the Basotho people.
From beadwork to Africanfuturism : exploring MaXhosa Africa’s SS22 collection
(University of Pretoria, 2023-08-30) Adele, Adendorff; hlengi.mngo@gmail.com; Hlengiwe, Mnguni
The study investigates Africanfuturism within the broader framework of Afrofuturism through the SS22 collection of MaXhosa Africa to offer a view of the future of Africa by embracing its past. As a secondary aim, the study considers these pieces as social designs and concludes their ability to shape Africanity, inspire cultural imaginations, and effect transformation. I follow Bruce Cadle’s (2020, 74) view that Afrofuturism, in its current understanding, needs to be revised to fit the needs of the present by considering the futures that merge with the present instead of just focusing on the future imaginings. With what he has termed Afro-now-ism, Cadle (2020, 81) seeks to offer a “more African-voiced, more derived-from-an-African-identity, more representative solution to the sweeping Afrofuturist/Afrofuturism mentality that is being popularised in media of every sort”. I explore Cadle's (2020, 67) correlation between Afrofuturism, cultural significance, and social design, what he calls Afro-now-ism, through an analysis of MaXhosa Africa's SS22 collection. The analyses include the campaign video accompanying the collection and the garments, focusing on the designer's alliance with the past (his indebtedness to traditional isiXhosa design elements and practices) and the future-present (his adoption of digital design processes and the future-oriented adaptation of conventional isiXhosa beadwork).
‘Being’ Alyx Vance : an autoethnographic analysis of immersion as experienced within narrative-based virtual reality video games
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Lauwrens, Jennifer; Engelbrecht, Janine; michael.ernestwalter@gmail.com; Walter, Michael Ernest
Human beings have been fascinated with the notion of submerging themselves into other spaces since antiquity (Therrien 2014). Immersion has been employed in imagemaking as a strategy to place viewers with, or amongst, the art of early landscapes, frescoes, and panoramas (Grau 2003). Today, immersion has become one of the fundamental objectives of video games (Brown & Cairns 2004; Gard 2010; Dansky 2021), a new medium that has quickly grown to become the largest in the entertainment industry (Read 2022:[sp]). As a diverse and multifaceted medium, video games immerse audiences in innovative ways, employing an amalgamation of the strategies used by various media. New technological advancements in emerging media, such as virtual reality (VR), have given rise to the advent of VR video games, which open new fields of enquiry about novel forms of immersion and the role these new kinds of games play in people’s lives. The novelty of VR is to elicit and sustain higher levels of immersion and presence by positioning the user in virtual spaces where they can interact using bodily movements (Lanier 2017; Slater 2018). As each iteration of head-mounted displays (HMDs) gets smaller, lighter, and more capable, bringing more of the user into the virtual world, major technology and media industries place this technology as a foundation for the ‘metaverse’. Scholarly debates viewing VR as an emerging (mass) media, however, pivot around two polarising camps; on the one hand, ‘utopians’, ‘instrumentalists’, or ‘evangelists’, embrace the interactive and spatial affordances of VR and foresee its potential as a life-altering technology, while the ‘dystopians’, ‘determinists’, or ‘sceptics’ caution against the potential for such technology to drastically alter lived experience (Ihde 2012; Bender & Broderick 2021; Du Toit & Swer 2021). Moreover, the concept of immersion has become diluted across the various fields where it is applied, including virtual reality research, video game studies, film studies, and music studies (McMahan 2003; Nilsson et al 2016). Loose applications of the concept of ‘immersion’ often equate the experience with feelings of ‘presence’. Furthermore, many studies that analyse and measure various notions of immersion and presence within virtual environments (VEs) employ quantitative approaches, using focus groups and questionnaires (Jennet et al 2008; Bender & Broderick 2021). Such research provides valuable insights into immersion and presence within various contexts, but may struggle to address the multidimensional layers that constitute immersive experiences, specifically when considering the multifaceted and lengthy nature of contemporary video games. Since insufficient research on extended reality (XR) derives from the social sciences (Girginova et al 2023: [sp]), more research is needed to understand the sensation of immersion as it relates to the player’s experience in the growing medium of (VR) video games. By analysing the various immersive strategies experienced in (VR) video games, the primary aim of this study is therefore to present a qualitative method for analysing immersion using autoethnography and phenomenology. Through this method, the researcher/player explores the subjective experience of immersion in (VR) video games in depth. The development of this method necessitated a new (revised) model of immersion – the Player’s Immersive Experience (PIE) model – which more profoundly frames the player’s multidimensional experience of immersion in (VR) video games. Through an application of the PIE model to the pertinent VR video game Half-Life: Alyx (2020), this study analyses the nature of, and extent to which, a player experiences immersion in emerging (VR) video games.
Bricolage and assemblage as proponents for a participatory art practice through multicultural dialogue in a South African suburb
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Grobler, Nicola; u17241512@tuks.co.za; Preston, Carol Anne
The interlocutor assemblage In this practice-led Fine Art research project, I examine how sculptural assemblages created as a form of bricolage and presented in my suburb, Sunnyside, as a multicultural, cosmopolitan, postcolonial space, can initiate a dialogical exchange between artist and curious viewers. This study argues that a bricolage and assemblage of art objects placed in a site-specific and site-responsive home studio can encourage multicultural audience engagement. The art objects are made from repurposed material through the method of bricolage and provide opportunities for viewer spectatorship and response from the residents of Sunnyside. The form of my art objects is closely bound to their context, both materially and culturally, to provide an accessible point of entry for viewers. Viewers may be familiar with the materials, which are informally sourced from my neighbourhood, contextually binding the artworks to their environment. Bricolage is relevant to my work because it is democratic in its visual availability to viewers who may not necessarily be familiar with contemporary visual art. My creative practice is informed and sustained by the values of provisional solutions and tinkering that bricolage suggests and the appropriation of materials and techniques that are representative of their surroundings in Sunnyside. Assemblage and bricolage as primary methods of creation become the basis for a rhizomatic thinking structure, which is strongly organic and intuitive. Through this creative practice, I argue that the tactility and materiality of my assemblages invite spectator participation, as the ambiguity of the material imagery can evoke a quality of psychological absorption. Insert key terms: Sunnyside – is a highly populated, old, ungated, middle-class suburb in Pretoria where the research is situated. Interlocutor – a person with whom one converses and who could act as a mediator. Bricolage – a construction made from a diverse range of repurposed materials. Assemblage – the combination of disparate materials and objects acquired by the artist. Provisional solutions – arranged temporally. Tinkering – attempts to construct or repair.
"What will happen to me if I fail your test?" : an exploration of femininity as a tool in Ex Machina (2015) and Westworld (2016)
(University of Pretoria, 2023-03) Du Preez, Amanda; rileyrengger@gmail.com; Rengger, Riley
The representation of femininity on screen is a frequently explored topic, particularly in the science fiction genre, and has often been referred to as reflecting broader social ideas pertaining to femininity and technology. This study aims to analyse the use of femininity as a tool on screen. More specifically, it draws examples from digital screen media to explore pertinent ideas to contemporary feminist discourse in the digital space. Laura Mulvey’s (1975) influential essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, is discussed and evaluated so that it may be situated in the contemporary representation of women. This theoretical background thus grounds an analysis of key visual texts, namely Metropolis (1927), Ex Machina (2015), and Westworld (2016). Differences and similarities within the representation of machine- women on screen are revealed and reflect a complex telling of women’s stories.
Exploring the development of formal and conceptual skills of Grade 10 Visual Art learners within an online environment
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Human, Delene; Thom, Johan; u14038944@tuks.co.za; Fourie, Clinton
Visual Arts, a specialist school subject, is taught in a limited amount of schools in South Africa and contain both practical and theoretical lessons. The lessons and curriculum for this secondary school subject are structured according to the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) Further Education and Training (FET) phase Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document. Typically, schools hire Visual Arts specialists with extensive knowledge and skill as this subject focuses primarily on practical aspects. Consequently, learners should learn new formal skills to create aesthetic artworks and develop their artistic abilities. In addition, the subject also contains a conceptual component, where the learners need to create artworks that possess a cognitive visual message conveyed to the viewers. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide lockdown in 2020, closing schools and preventing these trained art specialists from teaching face-to-face while forcing learners to stay at home and learn online. These learners faced challenges in completing their Practical Assessment Tasks (PATs) and studying by themselves (Self-Actualization) without the supervision of a Visual Arts educator. This study explores the impact that COVID-19 had on the 2020 Grade 10 Visual Arts learners, who were new to the Visual Arts class when the lockdown occurred, regarding their formal and conceptual skills development. This dissertation aims to determine whether North Gauteng educators influenced the skills that their learners developed and focused on during the national lockdown period. In addition, the study determines whether the learners themselves selected and explored the skills that they developed. This is achieved through the analyses of selected PATs of Grade 10 Visual Arts learners and interviews with the respective Visual Arts educators of the selected schools. The study will show that most educators value formal skills over conceptual skills, as they prefer a simplified approach to teaching formal skills. All participating schools developed learning skills differently as revealed in my study, yet they had similar outcomes across the Visual Arts subject. Even though the CAPS specify what educators should focus on, it does not change how the Visual Arts educator will teach
Decentralise everything : a critical analysis of crypto art and non-fungible tokens as Egalitarian artefacts
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Adendorff, Adéle; jethrotim@gmail.com; Gawaya, Timothy
This study surveys the emergent artistic phenomenon identified as Crypto Art in relation to a perceived artistic decentralisation immanent to the orientation. Crypto Art delineates an artistic orientation predicated on the construction and artificialisation of digital ephemera under the construct of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In a word, NFTs refer to cryptographically secure certificates of ownership over digital assets (Sidley and Dingle 2022, 132-133). These certificates of ownership are recorded and verified on a distributed digital database known as a blockchain. Crypto Art applies the NFT construct to digital artworks, classifying them as fundamentally unique and singular in their presentation and framework. Moreover, Crypto Art assumes the blockchain’s technologically decentralised architecture towards an artistic decentralisation. That is, blockchains have no central custodians and as such are envisioned as replacing human systems predicated on centralised power crystallisations. As an artistic orientation, Crypto Art attempts to bypass the role of intermediating actors – such as galleries and museums – towards a technologically mediated form of autonomous interaction. As such, this study considers the extent to which Crypto Art, through the construct of NFTs located on the blockchain, facilitates an artistic decentralisation.
Exploring illusion in the work of Robin Rhode and Lauren Moffatt through the investigation of truth, reality, and perception
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Van Rooyen, Magdel; Kriel, Lize; claudiabrown453@gmail.com; Brown, Claudia
The research aims to prove that illusion is more than just a trick of the eye, but rather a multifaceted tool that can impact meaning and conceptual thought and practice. In this research illusion is understood and defined as the way artifacts, through the use of line, form and colour, seek to depict the appearance of the ‘real’. This is done through the combination of elements which constitute the quality of presence which in turn allows for immersive effect. The research will specifically explore how art is a form of communication and illusion is possible through the manipulation of truth, reality, and perspective. The research will be qualitative and will incorporate cultural research to highlight the interplay between lived experience, texts, art, and culture. The artworks withing this study will be analysed to highlight different patterns and trends within art and art practice. This research will make use of different publications, such as books, articles, and catalogues, so as to gain the necessary insight needed for the research in the topics of illusion, reality, truth and perspective. The study will be broken up into six sections, Chapter one will introduce the research and the research questions that inform the study. Chapter two will focus on perception and the underling cognitive processes within perception. It will highlight the fictions of memory and knowledge within perception and how this effects the reading of art. Chapter three will define and explain reality and truth, focusing on the concept’s complexities and fluidity. Chapter four will define illusion and how illusion is used within perception, reality, and truth. Chapter five will focus on the art of Lauren Moffatt and Robin Rhode and their use of illusion within their work. Finally, chapter six will conclude the research, highlighting the successes and short comings. It will also provide recommendations for further research.
Visualising Southern African late iron age settlements in the digital age
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Kriel, Lize; Schwarz, Anja; sikhosiyotula@yahoo.com; Siyotula, Sikho
VISUALISING SOUTHERN AFRICAN LATE IRON AGE SETTLEMENTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE studies the visualisation of Southern African Late Iron Age Settlements (LIAS) (c. 900–1800) across the late nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries (1871–2020), as found in a survey of the cultural production, circulation, reproduction, and theorisation of illustrations accompanying archaeological, anthropological, and historical Southern African LIAS research. A valuable contribution of LIAS research is its continuous demonstration of a pre-colonial hub of cosmopolitanisms on a scale never imagined in colonial histories of 'indigenous' communities – thought of as the ultimate 'other' of global modernity. This study focuses on the visualisation of four settlements, namely: Mapungubwe, Khami, Great Zimbabwe, and Bokoni. It is proposed that as with the authority of Eurocentric 'formative interpretations' of LIAS research currently under review, visualisations accompanying LIAS also need to be critically relooked at within appropriate visual cultural methodologies informed by postcolonial, decolonial and critical race theory. The study follows a two-fold methodological framework involving a textual analysis and an image-making process. On both accounts, the study focuses on the cultural politics of representation, asking: who and what is being made visible in the visualisation of settlements accompanying LIAS research; what forms of materiality and spatiality are pictured and performed; what is the affect such visualisations have on the people that experience them; and finally, what do they mean in the context in which they are made
Placed, displaced, and replaced : an exploration into a hybrid South African identity
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Sooful, Avitha; u20781866@tuks.co.za; Greyling, Viola
This study explores my experiences as a displaced person through processes of immigration that contributed to my hybrid identity. I narrate my experiences as a white, South African, Afrikaans-speaking woman who was affected by my journey to Australia, from which I returned only a year later. This study presents personal experiences and narratives that are vested in a body of ceramic work as my area of practice, which are imaginative interpretations of these experiences. The theoretical text supports this body of practice by also referencing three artists, namely Leora Farber, David Hicks, and James Marshall, as artists who also concern themselves with notions of liminality and displacement. There are insecurities that I grapple with in this study, which are unfamiliarity, personal loss and separation, alienation, and uncertainty. I attempt to rationalise experiences within the liminal that sways and influences an identity, through a disruptive and traumatic space. Visually representing these experiences in my practice and theoretically exploring embodied experiences summarise this study on the construction of my fluid identity.
A foundational approach towards the relationship between mark-making, freedom, and meaning in selected works by David Koloane and Dylan Graham
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Thom, Johan; dylantgrahamart@gmail.com; Graham, Dylan T.
The artistic phenomenon referred to as ‘mark-making' is a foundational artistic process in creative practice. In this practice based artistic research project, I will explore the relationship between mark-making, freedom and meaning by investigating the works of the South African artist David Koloane (1938-2019) and myself, Dylan Graham. I will explore the process of mark-making as a basic human impulse to express our thoughts, emotions, and experiences and to give external form there to through art. I will also discuss how marks can allow us as viewers to have emotional and empathetic responses to the artwork and its subject matter. In order to do so I will perform a formal analysis of artworks, provide historical context and utilise an autoethnographic approach (specifically when discussing my own artistic practice and education). The dissertation has to be read in conjunction with the artistic outcomes of my practice-based research. These were presented as a solo exhibition titled Regardless (15 July - 29 July 2022) at the UP Student Gallery at the University of Pretoria and were subsequently collated in a catalogue of the same name presented as part of this submission. Keywords: Mark-making, Expression, Race, Freedom, David Koloane, Resistance Art, Painting and Drawing.

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