Redress at a higher education institution: Art processes and image theatre as embodied and rhizomatic learning

Elmarie Costandius,Amelda Brand,Gera De Villiers

doi:10.14426/cristal.v8isi.277

Elmarie Costandius, Amelda Brand + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v8isi.277

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Abstract

A visual redress project was launched with various artworks installed on campus, but it became clear that the erecting of these sculptures does not, on its own, provide a means to address structural injustices. A more embodied way of engagement was needed and workshops using art and performance were introduced where lecturers, students and community members worked through social, political and personal issues in a rhizomatic manner. The entanglement of art, performance, bodies and space, valued as equals, became a methodology and at each workshop the methodology changed as the space, bodies and materials changed. The methodology cannot be prescriptive, as it depends on the elements constituting it. The methodology became a dynamic, fluid and relational process.In this article, the various workshops are discussed and it is shown how concepts and methodology at each workshop emerged through the process.

Highlights

There is a need for redress in South Africa – for an embracing of justice, responsibility, and equality
Redress has been underway in South Africa for more than two decades; it has been a slow and unequal process, which has resulted in a few elite experiencing the benefits of redress, while the poor remain in a similar or worse position
We argue that working with art processes could become the new means of doing research in education, the humanities, and social sciences

Summary

Introduction

There is a need for redress in South Africa – for an embracing of justice, responsibility, and equality. Art and performance processes, including body sculpting (tableaux) and elements of image theatre used in the workshops, opened up the space for more diffractive and intra-related (Barad, 2007) thinking, doing and learning. Ideas emerged about starting a live museum that the experiences were made live at the workshop, and the idea of a play that the participants, together with drama students, could perform in the school during the annual Woordfees festival was discussed This relates to what Basu and Macdonald suggest: that it is often the coming together of affective agents that offers ‘generation rather than reproduction of knowledge and experience’ (2007: 2–3)

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Discussion

Conclusion