OpenUCT :: Browsing by Subject "Drama"

Browsing by Subject "Drama"

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Open Access
Breath-Body-Self : an exploration of the body as a site for generating images for performance making
(2016) Matchett, Sara; Fleishman, Mark
This thesis investigates the body as a site for generating images for purposes of performance making. It is a methodological study that draws from various traditions, methods and somatic practices, such as yoga, Fitzmaurice Voicework®, the Sanskrit system of rasa, body mapping and free writing. The study specifically focuses on interrogating the relationship between breath and emotion, and breath and image, in an attempt to make performance that is inspired by a biography of the body. It explores the relationship between body, breath and feeling and how this impacts on the imagination in processes of generating images for performance making. It further investigates whether breath can be experienced as an embodied element that is sensed somatically by performers, and in so doing act as a catalyst for activating memories, stories, and experiences held in the body of the performer. The potential of breath as impulse as well as thread that connects imagination, memory, body, and expression, is investigated. Using the conceptual framework of somaesthetics, the study draws from theories of the body, neuroscience and cognitive philosophy to support its claims. Through the disciplinary framework of somaesthetics, as an embodied philosophical practice, it is suggested that the performer cultivates a heightened awareness that makes possible what is being proposed as a process of performance making. It draws on my experience as a lecturer of theatre in the Department of Drama at the University of Cape Town as well as on my experience as a maker of performance with The Mothertongue Project, a women's arts collective I co-founded in South Africa in 2000. My work with The Mothertongue Project, emanates from a particular ideological position in the world that is informed by the context in which I locate. South Africa has some of the highest rates of rape and sexualised violence against women in the world. The result is a society where women's bodies, in particular, are constantly under threat of being violated. In summary, this thesis explores the relationship between a particular kind of performance making process for a particular kind of work within a particular kind of context. It seeks to provide women with the tools and space to speak back to the social context they inhabit. The choice to include a creative project as a case study alludes to the synergetic relationship between theory and practice. One that is cyclical; one that speaks directly to the method of image generation for purposes of performance making that is being proposed, where the route between breath, body, emotion and image, maps a circular trajectory.
Open Access
Considering rhythms of emotional proximity: an alternative approach to directing theatre in a violent society
(2015) Herbst, Rone; Stopford, Clare
This inquiry is concerned with realistic representations of violence on stage within a South African context. Inside this broad frame I focus on why this directorial approach is a problem and I propose a possible solution in a directorial intervention with mise-en-scène, which attempts to regulate the audience's emotional immersion and distance through theatre apparatus. This notion is supported both by Psychological research into the problem of violence in South Africa, and by Theatre and Performance studies, with author Lilie Chouliaraki (2013) arguing for the "in-between" of theatre as a means to approaching violence. Conceptually, I propose working with theatre apparatus in a spatial triad, which is located within Peter Brook's ideas around an "empty space", the post-Brechtian according to David Bennett, which is concerned with both distance and emotional immersion, and the spatial trialectics of Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja, who argue for the insertion of a "thirdspace" in order to counter the limited workings of binaries. This conceptual frame translates into praxis in the form of theatre apparatus such as interruption and disruption of the narrative, working with metaphor and gesture, "playing" with time, duration and repetition and working towards moments of extreme intensity before a pause is inserted into the action. I propose these apparatus as the findings of a series of Practice as Research projects which formed part of this study, and as the tools for my final Thesis Production. This project will take place in November, 2015 in the form of an adaptation of a novel, where my objective will be to create a rhythm of emotional audience involvement. My aim is to test whether the apparatus I have discovered in this study are able to regulate the emotional proximity of the audience to the violence on stage, hopefully providing an alternative approach to working with violence in an already violent society.
Open Access
A critical biography of Rosalie van der Gucht : investigating her contribution to education in South Africa with special reference to speech and drama
(1989) Morris, Gay; Haynes, David
This study attempts to explore the ways in which Rosalie Van der Gucht influenced and contributed to Speech and Drama education during the second half of this century in the Cape. The writer takes the view that although Van der Gucht was not particularly original in her work - dramatically, socially or politically - she had an impact which is still felt in the Cape Province and beyond, because of her outstanding qualities as a leader, teacher and play director; effected through her special skills as a communicator. The chosen form is a critical biography, which makes it possible to investigate the impact of Van der Gucht's initiatives within the contemporary context. Given that there are only a handful of books which deal with the theatre of this period in the Cape, and they contain few specific references to Van der Gucht; the chief sources for this topic were unpublished written material, and interviews with Van der Gucht's past students, colleagues, friends and relations. Of special importance were Van der Gucht's unsorted collection of papers (bequeathed to the Human Sciences Research Council), the Little Theatre Press Cutting books and the University of Cape Town Archives. In Chapter One the formative influence of her parents, her education, and her first working years in England prior to the Second World War are traced. The following six chapters cover, decade by decade, the period from 1942 to 1971 when Van der Gucht was at the University of Cape Town, training aspirant Speech and Drama teachers, actors, and students taking general Arts degrees. Her influence upon the teacher and actor training courses, including a scrutiny of curriculum developments, is examined; as is her membership of the South African Guild of Speech Teachers and her foundation and leadership of Theatre for Youth which aimed to reach young people beyond the University. Chapter 8 covers the years after her retirement from the University, when she launched upon a second career as a play director, and attempts to pinpoint the chief characteristics of her directing. Chapter 9 deals with the events leading to her death in 1985 - which shed new light on Van der Gucht as a person. The conclusions drawn from this study pertain to Van der Gucht's quality as a person and teacher. The writer takes the paradoxical view that this woman of British origin and education; was, first and foremost, an educator of the traditional kind found in Africa: an oral educator, who used oral material, verbal communication and social situations to inspire and direct those with whom she worked to greater efforts for the benefit of their society, themselves and the discipline of drama. The study is intended to be a useful historical resource for students of drama and the theatre in South Africa.
Open Access
An examination of the relation of scientific thought to changing notions of time, space and character in 20th century drama: Chekov, Beckett, Foreman
(2013) Wilsenach, Cobaâ€ Maryn; Fleishman, Mark
This study examines and investigates the relation of scientific thought to changing notions of time, space and character in twentiethâ€ century drama. The aim of the study is to illustrate the influence scientific thought had on the zeitgeist of the twentiethâ€ century and how this in turn is reflected through the drama in the treatment of the dramatic elements of time, space and character. The focus of the study rests on three case studies, each of which can be seen as a precursor to the following in a linear timeline of the development of twentiethâ€ century drama. The analysis of the three texts, namely Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Go dot and Richard Foreman's Bad Boy Nietzsche, will show how the philosophical notions of the twentiethâ€ century, namely relativity, uncertainty, ambiguity, paradox, complexity and causality (which stemmed from the changing worldview offered by the theory of relativity) is reflected in the dramatists' handling of the notions of time, space and character.
Open Access
Homecoming: finding a place for shamanic practice in the creation of post colonial theatre
(2010) Kiel, Sue; Pather, Jay
At the centre of my research, in the light of my homecoming and notions of home, there is a question: might I find a place where dimensions of shamanism might intersect with modes of performance, in the creation of theatre for the 21st Century? In this liminal hybrid moment, a place between the present and the future, I suggest that art is actually necessary and that it is essential for artists to build a counter-narrative, both locally and globally, to terror, suffering and denial. Art and social change can be a trend for certain nations, societies, even artists and theorists. In my view, however, which is my point of departure, it is particularly in an era of self reference, modernity, post modern and post colonial rupture and fragmentation that an informed coherence between the inexplicable terror of unsettling major social upheaval and the individual, may be able to be sketched once again and with certainty, by and through art and performance; if not actual transformation; then a witnessing, an acknowledgement and an end to the pain of denial. This explication begins with an overview of current socio-political dilemmas, and looks at the role of theatre in impacting change. My exploration continues with an examination of the role of shamanism as a tool to assist the theatre maker, the actor and even the audience in the pursuit of a transforming experience where one might initiate a shift in perceptions, thought and consciousness. In my observation of current theatre makers in South Africa, I am finding that this is already taking place. The object of this paper is to frame and make more specific, the role of shamanism as it connects to interdisciplinary techniques and technologies for performance. In my practical research, which will include my culminating production, Passages (provisional title), I attempt to tease out these methodologies in order to expand my work and be a part of the development of theory and practice in theatre making in these significant and urgent times, for my 21st Century homes. The primary theorists that I have referenced, contained in my theoretical framework, are Ashraf Jamal, Sarah Nuttall, Achille Mbembe, Homi Bhabha, Breyten Breytenbach, Iain Chambers and Hamid Naficy. In my research for my praxis, I have worked predominantly with the findings of Richard Schechner, Victor Turner, Antonin Artaud, Peter Sellars, Jerzy Grotowski, Alison Oddey and Rachel Karafistan.
Open Access
Inherited memories : performing the archive
(2007) Davids, Nadia; Erasmus, Zimitri; Banning, Yvonne
This thesis explores the way in which words, memories, and images of District Six are mediated and performed in an attempt to memorialised a destroyed urban landscape. It expands the borders of 'performance' to include oral (re)constructions of place by ex-residents, which in turn opens a space for a reflective analysis in which Marianne Hirsch’s psychodynamic theory of ‘postmemory’ is explored through the phrase ‘Children of District Six’. It traces the role and influence of ex-residents in shaping the politics and poetics of the District Six Museum and argues that orality and performance are singularly sympathetic in evoking and remembering the aesthetic, cultural, and political realms of District Six. It then shifts towards an analysis of two creative projects; Magnet Theater's Onnest’bo and the Museum’s Re-Imagining Carnival in which the themes of place, home, loss, exile, resistance, advocacy and restitution rotate around experiences of forced removals in general and District Six in particular. A thematic cord is created between these performance pieces and oral testimonies and their combined mediation of the many archives of District Six. Through an engagement with the performative odysseys and attendant archives of Re-Imagining Carnival and Onnest’bo the thesis examine metaphysical enactments of material loss, engages with tactics of re-construction of place and experience through memory, connects the psychic worlds of memory and performance and suggests an ideological flow between oral history, witnessing, and theatre. It is an exploration underpinned by the question of the role of performance in memorialising national narratives and the potential of creative mobilisations of memory in enacting psychic restitution. Both Onnest’bo and Re-Imagining Carnival are linked to the District Six Museum, and as such the Museum, its methodologies, ethics, ethos, and work with tangible and intangible heritage serve as an essential ideological foundation from which these creative visions emerge.
Open Access
Lessons from an aftermath : recovery of the self through trans-disciplinary applied drama practice
(2008) Taub, Myer; Fleishman, Mark
The aftermath is a region that is often associated with disruption, disrepair and trauma. Taking as his departure point his witnessing of the specific aftermath of the September 11th attacks in New Yorkâ€“ the author returns to South Africa to locations that are concerned with the aftermath of apartheid and the aftermath of the advent of HIV/AIDS i.e. education and public health. He attempts a method of extracting elements from an aftermath as a form of redemptive critical theory (see Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Jean L. Cohen and Andrew Arato, Maurizio Passerin Dâ€™Entreves) in order to apply a combination of elements into a dialogical method of dramatic practice that might provide opportunities for recovery. This he does through a practice that is based upon participatory research involving participants from a high school and an HIV/AIDS wellness clinic.
Open Access
"Let's put on our teaching face" : an investigation of teaching styles and their skillsets
(2016) Marrier D'unienville, Krystle; Baxter, Veronica
The following dissertation analyses teaching as a performance and argues that teachers "enrole" or "put on their teaching face" when in front of their learners (Whatman, 1997:182; Dobson, 2005:334). The dissertation investigates the benefit to teachers of learning the skills of an actor such as voice, breathing and relaxation techniques, movement and use of space, presence and mindfulness and improvisation. The research argues that actor training may lead to increased effective communication with an 'audience' of learners in order to transmit and transact information. The research process involved observation and analysis of 14 teachers in government schools in Cape Town, using 'performance' as an analytical framework for a total of 36 hours over the course of a month. Questions around the use of acting and drama training are explored, and ethnographic observation and auto-ethnography are used to further the analysis. Trends and patterns were noted in the field using observational research methods such as video-recordings, field notes and interviews with participants. The writer's position as researcher was adapted from outsider (interpretive ethnography) to insider (autoethnography) due to unforeseen circumstances. Findings included the recognition of the predominant teaching style in schools, namely the transmissive approach, the emphasis on content learning, the lack of self-reflexive practice and acute stress due to the pressures of the job. The difficulties teachers are confronted with in their day to day operations became apparent, resulting in possible disinterest in, and lack of time, for professional development. The researcher's position as reflective practitioner and the ethnographic observations of teachers in schools confirmed and reinforced that teachers would benefit from actor and drama training skills such as voice, movement, improvisations and role-play.
Open Access
Mise en scÃ¨ne as a feminine textual body : making meaning in new plays
(2013) Stopford, Clare; Morris, Gay
This study proceeds from research I have conducted through autobiographical writing, into my experiences of directing untried play texts for first performance. The question of ownership of the meaning conveyed by the play in performance, in the negotiated space between the writer and the director, provides the frame for this discussion. Who has the right of ownership over meaning, and in times of dissension about meaning, whose meaning should prevail? Since it is the writer's first opportunity to see his or her play on the stage, it would seem that the ethics of the situation favour the writer. However, if the director's modality is unconscious, intuitive and 'felt' as mine is, the best and most ethical path to follow may be hard to discern by both director and writer. At the same time, the intuitive modality of the director may be destabilized by the presence of the writer. Within this conundrum my focus is on identifying, exploring and considering the director's modality, which I have identified as 'feminine', a term which in this text favours sexual differentiation as a feminist strategy for the re-creation and re-inscription of woman within a male dominated signifying system. Rosi Braidotti's evocation of Cixous' creative writing as a 'feminine textual body' in resistance to woman as 'non-said', and as procreation of woman as a subject, provides the inspiration for the conceptualization of mise en scÃ¨ne as a feminine textual body. Using Green Man Flashing written by Mike Van Graan and directed by me in 2004, and Lara Foot's Reach that I directed in 2007, as case studies, I consider, as well as assess the impact, of my feminine directorial modality on these two performance texts. I am interested in how meaning is made from inside the feminine modality, what meaning is made, and finally, how the feminine modality is affected by the material circumstances in which these two plays were rehearsed. My aim is to extend the feminine modality into the style of it's dissemination by taking the reader into the 'feeling' of the modality in a style of writing that embodies the personal, intimate, intuitive qualities it invokes. I also take a more analytical view, assessing the efficacy of the feminine modality by using the lenses of materialist feminists such as Dolan and Diamond, as well as Irigaray's 'relational alterity'. The outcome of this exploration is that the feminine modality is both a solution and a problem, depending on material circumstances. Its paradoxical nature requires a third space in which it can stabilize, and yet remain accessible to the unconscious.
Open Access
Moving ideas about moving bodies : teaching physical theatre as a response to violence and the violated body
(2012) Reznek, Jennie; Pather, Jay
In this thesis I explore my obsession with teaching the physical theatre body over the past twenty-five years.Two sets of questions are proposed: How does the teaching of physical theatre respond to violence and the violated body; and how does pedagogy change when it moves from one context to another? Firstly, I argue that the pedagogy developed by Jacques Lecoq in Paris responded like a pendulum to the extreme violence perpetrated on bodies during the Second World War. I argue that my own practice, influenced by my two years of study at École Jacques Lecoq (1984-1986), continued this tradition by responding to what, I propose, existed as a ‘culture of violence’ in South Africa from the period of colonialism through the apartheid era and into the present. I analyse the impact of violence on the body by focusing on three consequences - stillness, erasure and rupture - and come to an understanding of how the teaching of physical theatre, as per Lecoq and myself, counters all three with a focus on the moving, articulate, individuated body capable of transformation. Secondly, I propose that pedagogy responds to geographic, philosophical and historical contexts and is subject to modification when context changes. The methodology has included conventional research, a comparative analysis of the two contexts, and an analysis of my own experiences - from notebooks that I have kept - as a student and teacher.
Open Access
A Museum of Bottled Sentiments: the ‘beautiful pain syndrome’ in twenty-first century Black South African theatre making
(2014) Mahali, Alude; Morris, Gay; Sitas, Ari
This study is about contemporary black theatre makers and theatre making in the 'now moment'; this moment of recovery and gradual transition after the fall of apartheid in South Africa. The 'now moment', for these theatre makers, is characterized by a deliberate journey inward, in a struggle towards self-determination. The 'now moment' is the impulse prompting the 'beautiful pain syndrome', and through performances of uncomfortable attachments and rites of passage, generates and dwells in the syndrome. Uncomfortable attachments are unsettlement and anxiety wrought by the difficulty of the 'now moment'. These manifest in the work of Black South African-based contemporary theatre makers, Mandla Mbothwe, Awelani Moyo, Mamela Nyamza and Asanda Phewa, within the duality of the 'beautiful pain syndrome'. The 'beautiful pain syndrome' is a cultural dis-ease revealed by the individual theatre makers through the aesthetic interpretation, or beautiful consideration of inherently painful material – a condition or predicament that best contains and yet attempts to unpack this shifting impulse of the 'now' moment. The works around which this study revolves, namely Mbothwe's Ingcwaba lendoda lise cankwe ndlela (the grave of the man is next to the road) (2009), Moyo's Huroyi Hwang – De/Re Composition (2007), Nyamza's Hatched (2009) and Phewa's A Face Like Mine (2008) are rites of passage works, representing a passage or transition from one phase of life to another, which occurs on multiple levels. Through guiding thinking tools, which include intuition, my own positioning, observation and comparative and cultural performance analysis, the four selected works are described, probed and, interrogated; with their purposes and poetics investigated and articulated in different ways. The study does not complete the assignment of unpacking the four works but continues to wonder and worry at them, while investigating a particular aesthetic of dis-ease through the artistic assemblage of symbolic categories. These rites of passage works reflect or echo the transitions in the country's shifting identity, along with the identities of the individuals who inhabit it.
Open Access
Neurobiology, empathy and social cognition: the potential benefits of theatre in traumatised communities
(2012) Galley, Adrian; Barnes, Hazel; Fleishman, Mark
The ubiquity of technology enables unprecedented contact between people, yet it neglects essential face-to-face communion; e-mail, text-messaging and even social media strip away the metadata of our interpersonal communications; the emotional cues and clues that are a necessary part of everyday social interaction. At the same time, the relentless densification of urban populations enforces proximity among strangers, with routine encounters increasingly bereft of emotional nourishment. The affective numbing that ensues shares many characteristics of post-traumatic stress disorder. The current study explores how exposure to theatre may help to maintain the emotional health of individuals alienated by the stresses of 21st century urban living; moreover, it examines how performance is able to facilitate emotional and social healing in post-conflict communities.
Open Access
Own-made in the (post-)new South Africa : a study of theatre originating from selected townships in the vicinity of Cape Town
(2010) Morris, Gay; Jacklin, Heather
This thesis sets out to develop a framework for the analysis and description of theatre practices evident in selected Cape Town townships during the past six years. Building an account which is both aesthetic and sociological and informed by political intentions; which considers the whole - the gestalt - and which adopts a located orientation; the study sets out to elucidate the theatre's connections to its locality and local culture, its particular organizational and aesthetic character, its idiosyncrasies and performance strengths, its concerns, and its struggle for distinction within the field of theatre in Cape Town.
Open Access
Painting as a response to a sense of dislocation in the South African social fabric
(1994) Hartzenberg, Randolph Joseph; Atkinson, Kevin
My proposal was to produce a series of paintings as a response to a sense of dislocation in the South African social fabric. The body of paintings is entitled Domestic Baggage and consists collectively of paintings on canvas and preliminary works entitled The Grids. Thematically consistent, the works and the accompanying research document emphasize the disturbed and marginalized dimensions of fragmented society. A significant frame of reference is the claustrophobic, persistent presence of increasing violence and loss of life arising from the dislocation ethos. lconographically, a strategy of allusion has been adopted, allowing for the interaction of figurative, gestural and material referents. Dependence on overtly illustrative or purely narrative modes of representation has been deferred. An extensive background essay highlights the appropriately identified specifics of the backdrop against which the series of paintings has been developed. A detailed art historical contextualization foregrounds those precedents most pertinent to the formal and conceptual processes informing the Domestic Baggage series.
Open Access
Plot 99 : towards a feminine semiotic : spiritual and sexual emergence(y) in women's puppetry and visual performance
(2012) Marneweck, Aja; Pather, Jay; Bennett, Jane
This thesis explores how a multidisciplinary Feminine Semiotics may find expression through the cross-disciplinary medium of puppetry and visual performance. It investigates puppetry's relevance to the developing academic field of Practice as Research in performance. It considers the theoretical and creative applications of this multidisciplinary art form in the innovative Feminine Semiotics of emergence(y) in the production Plot 99.
Open Access
Questions for Amma: Tracing the manifestations of violence on the South African Indian Female body
(2018) Naicker, Kivithra; Jephta, Amy
“[i]n the eyes of the law, a woman is both Eve and Eva. As a pure, fragile female she must be specially protected; as a seductive object, from whom men must be protected. In both cases women are the victims” (Navi Pillay in Gqola, 2015: 36). This research investigates performance as a medium through which the South African Indian female body transgresses and transcends the limitations and barriers of identity, culture and society. As this study positions the brown female body as a site for violence and codification, it challenges the mythical and stereotypically gendered representations of brown females in media and culture. In examining the performance of gender through the performative case studies supporting this research, this study critically engages with the fluid and shifting territory of identity and culture, tracing a feminist tradition beyond western notions, challenging overlooked cultural and domestic injustices which perpetuate a culture of patriarchy. Rape culture thrives on manufacturing power and fear, with rape being “sexualised violence” that has “survived as long as it has because it works to keep patriarchy intact” (Gqola, 2015: 21). Through performance, this study documents the manifestations of violence on the brown female body, theoretically engaging with how subtle and surreptitious forms of violence work to reinforce patriarchy playing into rape culture, perpetuating a cycle of oppression. In examining the 'tradition’ of Indian theatre in South Africa, this research examines the theatrical devices used to express anxieties, crisis of identity and representation, focusing on the South African Indian female experience through an auto-ethnographical study interrogating my identity and position as a South African Indian (Hindu-Tamil) female, artist, and feminist scholar. This study also unpacks the complexities and contradictions embedded within the representations of the brown female body in theatre, 'Indian’ and Hindu culture through a feminist lens, arguing that gender stereotypes perpetuate a cycle of oppression; highlighting ways in which the brown female body is trained and disciplined into performing as an Indian woman.
Open Access
Remembering in the postcolony : refiguring the past with theatre
(2012) Fleishman, Mark; Worden, Nigel
This thesis is a study of remembering in the postcolony. A remembering that is less about the need to forestall forgetting than it is about a putting back together of the fractured body. It suggests that while the postcolony demands remembering, its particularities render remembering highly problematic if not impossible. It argues that performance and a particular piece of dramaturgy is one way of intervening in this process of remembering; one way of making the silent dead speak, because performance is connected to both time and silence in key ways.
Open Access
Remembering Repertoires: exploring performance as a social innovation technology
(2019) Rossouw, Tasneem; Fleishman, Mark
This thesis explores some of the functions that performance rituals play in social space. It proposes that these curated performance interventions may bring people together, and assist them in negotiating the past and their place in the present, in relation to that past. The possibility that through undergoing this process, these newly formed and/or strengthened communities are enabled to collectively build towards better futures, is also explored. Specifically, this work considers whether the ways in which this happens may qualify this applied form of performance intervention as a technology for Social Innovation. The study explores how the dynamic tensions between the document Archive (cf. Derrida, 1998)1 and the performance Repertoire (cf. Taylor, 2003)2 may contribute to this process. It further considers the roles of curatorial framing within this exchange. Elements of Case Study, Practice as Research, and Grounded Theory are combined to provide a methodological locus. The thesis counterpoints observations drawn from a case study, the Clanwilliam Arts Project, with two examples of the authoress’ own practice.
Open Access
Subversive acts : the politics of the female subject in performance
(1997) De Wet, Elizabeth; Banning, Yvonne
This study analyses the role of theatrical discourse in the relationship between patriarchal ideology and gendered subjectivity. It explores ways in which theatre might be used to encourage the social transgression of patriarchal gender norms and investigates the problems associated with the practical realisation of these strategies for gender subversion. The study is structured in two parts. Part I lays the theoretical foundation of the discussion. It argues, in Chapter One, that the concept of gender identity as a natural, inherent facet of human nature is an ideological construct and that gender is not, therefore, an innate aspect of all human beings, but rather a learnt behaviour. In Chapter Two, the connection between the social and theatrical performances of gender is made and the role of theatre in teaching the social performance of gender is examined. Part I concludes with an exploration into possible strategies for gender subversion within the paradigm of theatre. Part II concentrates on the application of the theory discussed in Part I to the practice of theatre. Chapters Four and Five focus respectively on the author's experiences of producing and receiving performance texts from a gender-subversive perspective. In conclusion, this study argues that there are particular problems associated with attempting gender-subversion through theatrical performance texts, due to the extent to which patriarchal ideology is entrenched within the cultural practice of theatre. It also argues, however, that theatre offers unique potential for intervening in the interpellation of gendered subjects and as such, all attempts to use it to this end should be encouraged and supported.
Open Access
Visualising Human Migrations in Cape Town The story of three ships through ‘time’, ‘space’ and ‘memory’
(2019) Singh, Meghna; Pather, Jay; Shepherd, Nick
This practice-led PhD contributes to an understanding of contemporary art practice as a tool to render visible and unravel capitalist imaginaries within the field of migration studies. Focusing on the theme of contemporary and historical migrations at Cape Town through research conducted on three ships between 2013 and 2017, it uses the themes of ‘time’, ‘space’ and ‘memory’ to visualise migrations. The PhD interrogates the hidden process of globalisation; the invisibility of the workings of the port; the invisibility of the workers; their stories and their connection to the movement of capital, and renders them visible through the research. The study is situated at the intersection of migration studies, visual art practices and artistic research methods. Using the methodology of observational filmmaking and the creation of immersive multimedia installations incorporating virtual reality, it borrows from the work of anthropologists like David MacDougall (1998); Michael Taussig (1993); James Clifford (1988); Alyssa Grossman (2013); and Anna Grimshaw and Amanda Ravetz (2005) who make a case for the technique of ‘visualising anthropology’ in the field of ethnographic enquiry. Furthering the case of observational filming as a sensory form of investigation, I draw on the work of film scholar Laura Marks who advocates the phenomenon of “tactile epistemologies” (2000) and Doug Aitkens whose creations of split narrative videos illustrate the immersive experience I seek to achieve in my creative outputs. The central argument of this study is that an experience of research, conducted through the medium of observational filmmaking and presented via immersive video installations, creates visibility, empathy and an understanding of situations through corporeal embodiment, adding to the field of visual art and migration research.