Browsing by Author "Van der Schijff, Johann"

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    Between echoes an experiment in creative collaboration
    (2011) Purvis, Bryony; Younge, Gavin; Van der Schijff, Johann
    I had been living in South Africa for almost a year by the end of 2010, when I instigated a series of creative collaborations with seven individuals, symbolically understood to represent the heterogeneous assortment of relationships that make up real-life social worlds. The people I began working with comprised those closest to me, those I live with, friends living in distant parts of the world and others that I have never met, but whose work or labour I have so greatly admired that I considered them to be an integral part of my world. I extended seven invitations to join me in a dialogue from which we could produce a visual artefact together. I asked that this dialogue address experiences and thoughts on the relationship between the individual and another; what makes us feel intimate and what causes us to feel estranged. The core aim of this project has been to develop a methodology/process that will produce art from dialogue. I centralised the need for the process to be sensitive to the identity and values of all those involved and capable of a deep engagement with the particularities of that encounter. Through this, a space between individuals is activated from which genuinely new ideas/social meanings are formed, and art produced. I regard this process of formation rather than affirmation as an approach that can redistribute agency in the production of meaning. Communication theorist Sara Diamond notes a distinction between collaboration that is ‘simply working together, creating in a context where there is an intention to either make that relationship on-going or create a product of that labour’, and the kind of collaboration that is ‘the process which combines the knowledge, experience and previous understandings or methodologies that are substantively different from that which the participants or even the partners entered the relationship with’ (Diamond 2003). Her distinction points towards a need to balance inter-subjective dialogue with the preservation of individual identities. Diamond’s later definition of collaboration implies that participants actively engage with difference, and resist conflating the initial diversity that made collaboration an appealing prospect in the first place. In this model, however, there must be an awareness of the limits of communication to represent an external reality as a shared reference. This is potentially a paralysing limitation: if communication of any kind can fail, where does this leave us? Shedding the security of relativism (of subjective expression) in exchange for the perilous task of cumulative, inter-subjective engagement has been key to the development of these eight experiments. The artist in this framework is a provider of ‘context’ rather than ‘content’, entering into collaborative encounters and communicative exchange (Dunn, cited in Kester 2004: 1). This document outlines the complexities of collaborative works, so as to do away with an easy reading. It contextualises the subtleties that define the collaborative approach in which I am interested. Much of what I understand about the work we have made, and the process that produced it, has only come about upon reflection and as a result of countless exchanges and conversations with the seven individuals I have worked with. As such I present the following document as both a retrospective of the collaborative experience, as well as a condensed cluster of ideas that help anchor this project’s core meaning. To structure this ‘research’ document, I have divided my work into nine chapters. The first describes my methodology in a wider context of collaborative practice from an ontological and genealogical perspective, before refining the key concerns that inform my making. These are: the space collaborative art occupies; a pluralistic sensibility towards multiple perspectives; and, finally, the role of dialogue in collaborative projects. The subsequent seven chapters are the visual and textual documents of the process of each collaboration. They illuminate aspects of the process specific to the seven working partnerships. Through separating each partnership my aim has been to preserve their authorship and prevent each collaboration from collapsing under the weight of my own agency. However, the process that unfolds in each of the chapters is only the process thus far, and many of these projects continue to evolve and form a part of my ongoing practice. I regard this research and the practical work it supports to be the generation of a specific collaborative methodology.
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    Cirque du Pan : panic circuit : an exploration of the accelerative effects of information communication technology
    (2006) Maggs, Charles; Van der Schijff, Johann
    Much of the developed world operates under what is referred to as liberal democratic capitalism. This implies government by the people, operating in a free and profit driven market, which in theory suggests an equality of voice and access to markets for personal profit. However the 'powerful movements of acceleration and excess' which Auge refers to above are less to do with the intentions of a liberal democratic capita list system and more accidental effects of it. This dissertation explores the constant push of commerce and the digital communication revolution as contributory factors to this hypermodern or globalised state.
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    Desperate whispers : empathy in the context of an ecological crisis
    (2015) Gauld, Quanta; MacKenny, Virginia; Van der Schijff, Johann
    In his text Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino (1974) describes the fictional city of Baucis, a land suspended in the clouds, in which humans maintain a purposeful and mysterious physical detachment from the earth. Calvino’s imagining of Baucis visualises a conceptualisation of humans as divorced from nature1; a lingering residue of the post-Enlightenment obsession with reason and progress that casts nature as separate from and inferior to humans. In the context of the current ecological crisis, in which the perpetual abuse of human and natural resources threatens the sustainability of the planet and all earthly life, reconsideration of the relationship between humans and the non-human natural world becomes profoundly relevant. An overview of contemporary environmental theory, undertaken in the first section of this text, suggests that the widespread understanding of nature as an inferior realm that lacks the full degree of human rationality or culture, is giving way to conceptualisations of the relationship between humans and nature that highlight the interdependence and interrelatedness of all living organisms and systems. Sustainability scholar Stacy Alaimo ( 2010: 15-16) states: At this point in time, with global climate change proceeding even more rapidly than was projected, we hardly have the luxury of imagining any expanse of land or sea as beyond the reach of humanly-induced harm. Matters of environmental concern and wonder are always “here,” as well as “there,” simultaneously local and global, personal and political, practical and philosophical. This concept of the interrelatedness of global economic, technological, social, cultural and ecological systems, is significant in conceptualising the role that humans play in ecological degradation and exploitation.
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    The enigma machine : unravelling the domestic experience
    (2004) Grobler, Nicola; Van der Schijff, Johann; Younge, Gavin
    In today's capitalist society, the environment of the home has become increasingly insular. Though there may be television, Internet and other forms of technology that connect one to the 'outside world', time spent indoors is for many people time spent alone. My body of work is concerned with an individual's experience within the confines of the home, where the exterior (physical space) becomes a reflection of the individual's interior experience.
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    Fashionable addiction : the impact of digital identity through the cult of the body (an African perspective, with particular reference to the Democratic Republic of Congo)
    (2015) Mbikayi, Maurice; Alexander, Jane; Van der Schijff, Johann
    My MFA project consists of sculptural installations, videos and images that, together with the written text, comment on the impact of information technology on society. In both the written and practical components, I refer to my own experience and developments in fashion and access to information technology (IT) in my home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a focus on Kinshasa. I also explore aspects of the consumerist nature of IT in Africa more broadly and how this generates trends relating to ‘FOMO’, an internet slang acronym for the Fear Of Missing Out. My primary reason for connecting African fashion with contemporary computer technology is because both concern Western products being utilised in Africa in the context of self-determination. The African continent is a source of mining wealth, for example coltan (short for columbite-tantalite), a mineral widely used in technology. The DRC is one of the major coltan-producing countries, and yet it is technologically underdeveloped or limited itself because of an oppressive capitalist system (Pole Institute – blood minerals [PI], 2010: 8-9), (PI, 2010). However, some of these minerals return to Africa in the form of products and create new consumers, desires and services in emerging contemporary technology contexts. In the process of upgrading to higher levels of technology, the developed world often uses Africa as a dumping zone for electronic waste (e-waste), with no regard for the environmental and human impact. For example, the UN environment programme's 2012 and 2013 report under the Waste for Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) legislation showed that thirty percent of the allegedly second-hand products imported to Ghana were useless (African WEEE Report by the UN Environment Programme [AWRUNEP], 2012). Pieter Hugo's photographs in the book Permanent Error (2011) provide strong visual evidence of this. Although I’m aware of the debate around issues of representation and ‘afro pessimism’ generated by Hugo’s images, my motivation in using them is that they provide sufficient documentation of the realities of disposing of electronic waste and the impact on people and the environment pertaining to those particulars zones of Africa. I draw an analogy between the consumption of IT and African fashion, and specifically with my own country's culture of dressing-up, which has developed into a kind of doctrine (the ‘cult of the cloth’) and an expression of resistance. The analogy is linked to the desire to stay up to date with IT, which can lead to addiction. I also consider it useful to compare the symbolic and aesthetic aspects of African customs of hairdressing, the wearing of hats and jewellery, and even body modification as a social identification with today's society, within which ‘personal media’ are additional accessories for urban status. My reference and use of computer parts critique the way that contemporary technology has become an extension of our personal style, as in the fashion sense described above: a virtual identification which could also suggest a tendency towards an alienation of the body (because of the virtual social interaction and virtual identity) from its immediate environment that has manifested in our current psychological landscape. Consequently, I suggest the consumption of contemporary media in urban spaces opens up the notion of virtual anthropology or virtual cultural anthropology, related to the electronic personality or e-personality.
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    Malundeness, personal memory and the diaspora : politics of the skin
    (2006) Kasibe, Wandile Goozen; MacKenny, Virginia; Van der Schijff, Johann
    Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-79).
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    Mute articulations representing the body when the self isn't what it used to be
    (2005) Verwey, Adala Michelle Prévost; Van der Schijff, Johann
    The topic of my research is an exploration of the concept of the 'mute body. The mute body is the body which stages a certain inderminacy and distance from the viewer. It is a form of hiding, but also a form of play with narcissistic implications and perhaps even seductive intent. The mute body is a response to the fear of power and what power has done to bodies in history. Conversely, it is also the location of power - the exercising of the choice to remain silent is a wilful act of retention or withholding. The mute body is not the vacant body. It is the body of which we are unable to say with certainty whether it is unable to signify or unwilling to signify.
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    Reprocessing interference : an artistic exploration of the visual material generated by interference
    (2006) Rynn, Sarah; Van der Schijff, Johann; Zaayman, Carine
    My body of work is concerned with the constructed promise of telecommunication - that is, the promise to connect people all over the world via telephone lines, computer networks and, most recently, satellite signals. The development of and access to networked systems has brought about this "utopian promise" (Mitchell 2005: 305), an ideal of instant connectivity that allows a user to be in contact with others through technological devices over vast distances. Connectivity supposedly enables users to develop and sustain relationships on the Internet. However, the question arises whether telecommunication technologies are living up to their promise. My title, Reprocessing Inte/ference: An artistic exploration of the visual material generated by inte/terence, refers to the concepts pertaining to this promise and also to the failure of the promise, focusing on the notions of distance and interference. It further encapsulates my working method, a process of degrading and filtering both my own and found footage.
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    An unknown country
    (2013) Jenks, Peter; Skotnes, Pippa; Van der Schijff, Johann
    In this Master's project, my work has been concerned with a number of ideas associated with old age and ageing, and with the physical, psychological and social conditions and changes that attend this period of human life. The realisation that one is reaching what is commonly understood as old age is a paradoxical one: a sense of change accompanied by wisdom and insight, yet also the recognition of decline and the stasis that accompanies this. In order to discuss old age it is necessary to try to define the term and to identify what the boundaries are between youth, 'middle-age' and old age. In popular culture, at times expressed through poetry, the progression through life is seen in easily identified stages, variously numbered from three (infancy, adulthood, old age) to Shakespeare's classic 'seven ages of man' from his play As You Like It. Despite this variety, the 'old age' state is generally accompanied by greying hair, and the noticeable onset of physical and cognitive deterioration. These various stages of human development are all affected by significant life events and crises, in many cases marked or celebrated by rites of passage for events such as leaving school after matriculating, marriage, the birth of a child, or celebration of the first year of a new decade. There is no definitive marker for the onset of old age, but perhaps the closest is that of formal retirement from working life, typically around the age of 65. Although many transitional events can be uplifting, bringing new gains and insights, they invariably involve some form of loss. In particular, it is the aged and elderly who suffer the greatest sense of loss as theirs are many and varied – children leave home, friends or family members die, the body begins to fail, mental abilities often diminish and social status is lost. More significantly, perhaps, old people often lose opportunities and the promises of the future. Yet despite these negative aspects, old age can also offer its own particular rewards and possibilities for growth, as my own experiences and investigations have shown.
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    Walkabout: 2009 - 2011
    (2011) Ginsburg, Josh; Van der Schijff, Johann; Dalwai, Moeneeb
    The word walkabout is commonly used within the context of fine art to denote the guided discussion of an artwork, often lead by the artist, while in the presence of it. Walkabout is in one sense just that, however it involves no walking and there are no material objects in the gallery to which the discussion directs. Rather, the artwork to which Walkabout refers occupies an essentially mental space of ideas and thought - immaterial and constantly in flux.