Masters Degrees (Art History and Image Studies)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Art History and Image Studies) by Title

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    Ceremonial cinema: world-creation and social transformation through film as ritual
    (University of the Free State, 2021-11) Janse van Rensburg, Rudiker; Rossouw, Martin; Kriel-de Klerk, Johanet
    The journey to the cinema and our experiences there form part of what is effectively a screening ritual geared toward affecting audiences. The power of cinema largely derives from being removed from general society – presenting an ideal traditional ritual space of liminality. Within this space and in familiar patterns, viewers’ attention and emotions are guided and synchronised by the film, which are pre-determined by canonical codes like narrative logic and generic features. Ceremonial thresholds separate but also connect, and in cinema, they serve to initiate and encode spectators’ experience as part of a fundamentally social activity. When we visit the cinema to watch a film, the encounter is not only shaped by exciting moving pictures or engulfing sound, but also by the people watching with us, as we become part of a social ritual. This study aims to identify and explore the various connections and unavoidable entanglements between the spheres of film and ritual, particularly in terms of the ritualistic aspects that extend beyond the cinema before and after the screening. This includes basic phenomena that Ritual Studies take as its domain of inquiry – thresholds, liminality, collective effervescence and communitas, symbols, etc., and the broader effects or functions of these phenomena such as social identity, social structure, social cohesion, and social transformation. The diverse experiential qualities, effects, and broader influences of film may seem disconnected, but they share a deeper commonality that this study argues is the source of film’s profound social influence: each presents an instance or aspect of what is here called ‘film as ritual.’ It aims to explore the robust presence of film production and film spectatorship beyond the physical location of the cinema and considers viewer engagement in terms of pilgrimages and participation within an extended media landscape and its related narratives of symbolic significance. Ultimately, the study addresses film’s transformational power and influence by mapping it onto social ritual theories and exploring its worldbuilding capacities. The global fascination with films, which clearly includes social viewing experiences and encounters with film beyond the confines of the cinema, establishes film as ritual as a highly extended and culturally diffuse phenomenon. Film as ritual relates to collective identity creation and social relations through extensions of the cinematic experience beyond a mere physical place that provides the opportunity to watch a movie. The notion of film as ritual helps us come to terms with how films affect and influence people, their actions and their way of looking at the world – essentially transforming them, in some or other way.
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    Europees-historiese vormtaalelemente in die Nederduits-Gereformeerde kerkargitektuur van die Groot-Karoo
    (University of the Free State, 1978-01) De Waal, Lydia Magdalena; Teurlinckx, A. A. F.; Roodt, L.
    Afrikaans: In die ondersoek na die Europees-historiese vormtaalelemente in die Nederduits-Gereformeerde kerke van die Groot-Karoo en omgewing is bevind dat dié kerke veral deel het aan die herlewingstyle wat in die 19e eeu in Europa ontstaan het. Dit was veral die neo-Gotiek, gebaseer op die hoogtepunt van die Middeleeuse style, en die neo-Klassieke styl wat in die Karookerke neerslag gevind het. Die voedingsbron van die Suid-Afrikaanse variasies is hoofsaaklik die Dietse stamlande en Engeland. Seker die volmaakste voorbeeld van die Engelse Gotiek is die Grootkerk van Graaff-Reinet, gebaseer op die katedraal van Salisbury in Engeland. Die Nederduits-Gereformeerde kerk op Cradock is op sy beurt weer 'n variasie van die neo-klassieke St. Martin-in-the-Fields op Trafalgar Square, Londen. In albei dié kerke is die onderskeie style se vormtaalelemente gevarieer, met in eersgenoemde geval 'n minder suksesvolle toepassing. Die oorvloedige gebruik van sekere Gotiese elemente en detail soos fiale, sterk geprofileerde kroon- en druplyste en beeldhoukunstige dekorasie skep byvoorbeeld aan die symure 'n bont effek. By Cradock se kerk is die toepassing van neo-Klassisistiese elemente - 'n diep portiek, groot pediment en Toskaanse suile - wat met 'n Gotiese toring gekombineer word, baie geslaagd. Wat 'n algemene beskouing van al die Karookerke wat besoek is betref, was dit opvallend dat dié kerke in hulle situering ook 'n Middeleeuse tendens vertoon. Die kerk is op 'n groot plein geleë, direk langs die hoofstraat (Beaufort-Wes, Prins Albert, Murraysburg en Laingsburg) , of vorm 'n "eiland", sentraal in die dorp (Aberdeen en Hanover). In ander gevalle loop die hoofstraat teen die kerk dood (Merweville en Colesberg). Verskeie graftombes kom dikwels binne die kerkterrein voor, wat heenwys na die oud-Europese "kerkhof- rond- die - kerk"-idee. Sprekend van bykans al die kerke is die hoë torings, reeds wat die meeste Europese elemente vertoon, soos steunbere (Nederland), kantele (Engeland) en ander versieringselemente soos fiale, spuwers en hogels wat by die meeste Europees-Gotiese katedrale aangetref word. Naas die torings is die Gotiese spitsboogvensters dié kerke se grootste bate. Vele Karookerke spog met pragtige getraseerde vensters met byvoorbeeld tipiese Engelse drie- en vierpasindelings, soos by Graaff-Reinet en Beaufort-Wes. Ander kerke, byvoorbeeld dié op Steytlerville, Merweville en Prins Albert, het weer goeie voorbeelde van oorsnydende trasering. Die meeste kerke is volgens die Latynse en Griekse grondplantipes gebou. 'n Voorbeeld van 'n oktogonale plan kom in die Bo-Karoo by Colesberg voor. Oordekking van die kerkruimte geskied deur die algemene hanebalk- en stutbalkstelseIs, wat veral tipies is van houtgewelwe in die Engelse Gotiek. Kruisgewelfstelsels in hout, geïnspireer deur onder meer die Engelse Perpendicular Style, waarin die knobbel prominent oor die viering figureer, kom by onder meer Beaufort-Wes en Graaff-Reinet voor. Die meeste ander kerke het nie oop dakstoele nie, maar is deur plafonne afgedek. Die tradisionele Europese ruimte-indeling van die interieur in hoofbeuk, sybeuke, transep en koor word nie volledig in die Karookerke gevolg nie. Veral die koorgedeelte of sanetuarium van die Rooms-Katolieke kerk, ontbreek en word bloot deur die konsistorieruimte vervang. In sommige kerke (Murraysburg, Merweville, Aberdeen en Steytlerville) neem groot dubbele kansels, soms terug in nisse geplaas, ook 'n groot ruimte direk voor die konsistorie in beslag. Die kansels wissel dikwels in vorm en grootte. Behalwe die tribune-tipe, kom ook 'n goeie voorbeeld van 'n tipiese Oos-Engelse kelkvormige kansel op Prins Albert voor. Beaufort- Wes se kerk het op sy beurt 'n pragtige agthoekige kansel op 'n hoë voetstuk. Die kansels het gewoonlik ryklik versierde klankborde waarin een of ander Gotiese motief wat in die interne dekorasie gebruik is, herhaal word. In afwerking en dekorasie sowel aan die interieur as eksterieur is die oorgrote meerderheid van die Karookerke wat besoek is, baie eenvoudig. Die trasering van die vensters, pleister en klipwerk verskaf die nodige dekorasie. Hoewel dié kerke tog, afgesien van gemelde feite, weelderiger as die plattelandse Protestantse kerke van Nederland vertoon, bly hulle in die geheel gesien sober in benadering.
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    Exploring the imagination in the wake of Surrealism
    (University of the Free State, 2015-10) Van den Berg, Corneli; Human, E. S.; Du Preez, A.
    English: This thesis reports an exploration of various interrelated facets of human imaging and imagining using the literary and artistic movement, French Surrealism, as catalyst. The ‘wake of Surrealism’ – a vigil held at the movement’s passing, as well as its aftereffects – indicates my primary focus on ideas concerning the imagination held by members of the Surrealist movement, which I trace further in selected artworks of a cluster of women surrealists active in Latin‐America as well as select artists in the South African context. The Surrealists desired a return to the sources of the poetic imagination, believing that the so‐called ‘unfettered imagination’ of Surrealism has the capacity to create unknown worlds, or the potential to envision often startling and strange realities. Not only did members of Surrealism have a high regard for the imagination, they also emphasised particular involuntary actions and unconscious functions of the imagination, as evidenced in their use of the method of automatic writing, dreams, play, objective chance, alchemy and so‐called primitivism. In this investigation I follow digital‐archival procedures rather than being in the physical presence of the artworks selected for interpretation. Responding to this limitation and to the current interest in image theory, I elaborate a method of art historical interrogation, based on the eventful and affective power of images. This exploration of the imagination into Surrealism’s wake therefore also functions as a ‘pilot study’, to determine the viability of this approach to image hermeneutics. I appropriate and expand W.J.T. Mitchell’s notion of ‘hypericons’ to develop the proposed concept of ‘hypericonic dynamics’. The hypericonic dynamic transpires in ‘hypericonic events’, through the cooperative imaging and imagining eventfulness of the interaction between artist and spectator, mediated by artworks. The dynamic is especially prominent in artworks with a metapictorial tenor. With hypericonic dynamics and metapictorial thematics as my heuristic method, I investigate artworks by three women surrealists – Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, and Leonora Carrington – living and working in Latin‐America after the Second World War, and after the French Surrealist movement had already experienced its decline. Against the backdrop of indigenous visual culture their distinct individual styles are also related to Magical realism in the Latin‐American literary context, a style which overlaps and intersects with Surrealism. I expand upon insights gained in investigating the women in Mexico, to determine whether select South African artists, Alexis Preller, Cyril Coetzee, and Breyten Breytenbach belong in the wake of Surrealism. The central aim of my exploration of the imagination is to gain a deeper understanding of the everyday human imagination and its myriad operations in daily life, for the greater part conducted below the threshold of consciousness. The imagination is a universal human function, shared by all, yet also operational at an individual level. It also performs a unique function of image creation in the specialised domain of the fine arts. I understand the imagination to be irreducible, while often working in a subconscious, involuntary, and supportive, but nevertheless primary manner in everyday human life.