Nous définissons l’instant plasticien en céramique comme l’unité temporelle d’un processus formel – à la main - d’une pièce d’argile qui subira une cuisson. Maillon syntaxique du présent plasticien, il est geste cogito-sculpteur qui recouvre différentes modalités. Habité de multiples composantes, nous analyserons son contenu en exposant d'abord ses contraintes techniques. Nous prendrons appui sur un exemple personnel pour expliquer sa composante lest cognitif – les connaissances techniques, artistiques, scientifiques et historiques -, nous analyserons également les constituants de la culture gestuelle. Ces deux composantes distinctes modèlent plus ou moins sciemment cet instant spécifique comme l’esthétique des formes qu’il promeut. Nous préciserons la spécificité de celui personnel en puisant dans l’Histoire de l’Art céramique ; nous aborderons la culture raku du Japon médiéval d’où provient le mode de cuisson employé pour les œuvres personnelles en référence. Si depuis le début de l’Art céramique, chacun des domaines qui constituent le contexte sociétal a autant modelé ses arguments poïétiques que l’esthétique qu'il promeut, celui personnel puise ses arguments créatifs et sa posture d’apologie des beautés de la planète, d’un questionnement sur l’origine des désordres et déséquilibres environnementaux qui forment le fond de notre contemporanéité. Motivé d'une intention réceptionnelle – autre composante -, celui personnel espère susciter chez le regardeur une réflexion sur les causes probables de la dégradation des biotopes existants comme sur la gestion actuelle d’une entité qui est au fondement du faire technique céramique, à savoir le respect du temps de la nature. / We define the plastician instant in ceramic work as temporal unit of a formal process - by hand – of a work in clay, which will necessarily be subjected to firing. Syntactic link of the plastician present, it is a cogito-sculptor's gesture which covers different modalities. Filled with multiple components, we’ll analyze its content by first exposing its technical constraints. We'll refer to a personal example to explain its lest cognitive component – the technical, artistic, historical and scientific knowledges -, and we'll analyze the constituents of the gestural culture. These two distinct components model more or less knowingly this specific instant, as well as the resulting aesthetic shapes. We will identify the specificity of the personal one by exploring the History of ceramic Art ; we will address the raku culture's past, born in medieval Japan where the firing technique used for personal art works in refer comes from. If, since the beginning of Ceramic Art, each of the domains that constitute the societal context modeled its poïetic arguments as well as the aesthetic this special instant constitutes, this particular one on which we’ll base our analysis draws its creative arguments and its planet beauty's vindication posture from a questioning about the origin of disturbances and environmental imbalances which are the essence of our contemporary world. Filled with a receptional intention – another component –, this personal one intents rouse the viewer to reflect on the probable causes of the existing biotopes' degradation, as well as on the current management of an entity which is fundamental in the ceramic technical work, namely the respect of nature's time.

That consciousness is ubiquitous, and relevant to autopoietic self-organisation and embodiment within every living being and/or organism, is a prevalent idea in contemporary consciousness research. However, because ‘consciousness’ as a word is derived from con or cum, meaning ‘with’ or ‘together’ and scire, ‘to know’ or ‘to see’ it infers the experience of knowing with an ‘other’ and/or ‘others’. The narrative that follows, while expressing a life of its own, documents the interdisciplinary research conducted and questions who and/or to what ‘other’ might infer. My visual diary, Dust from dust: Microorganisms and other tales: An Artist’s diary, created as the visual component of a creative practice-as-research undertaking, was silently performed amidst ‘others’ in the Unisa gallery, in an attempt to render visible, the autopoietic, self-organising embodiment essential to the conscious self-developmental component of the project. Once upon a time, I grew bacterial yeast cells in a glass vitrine to observe how they self-organised their own embodiment and photographed the process. At the same time, I conducted interdisciplinary research into consciousness as a self-developmental process, and utilising the cellular symbiosis unfolding in the vitrine as a self-reflexive mirror, came to visualise how indispensable bodily feelings are to conscious self-development, and being-in-the-world-with-others processes. As a creative-practice-as-research undertaking, I grew, manipulated and photographed the cellular imagery in the vitrine over many years in an attempt to unfold personal bodily feeling associations the imagery held captive, while gathering photographic footage I considered capable of expressing the primordial nature of certain emotive feeling experiences. Once obtained, I choreographed and performed a stop-frame video, entitled Dust from Dust: Microorganisms and other tales. An artist’s diary. The stop-frame video, along with a catalogue that focuses on the processes engaged with, accompanies the written narrative. Once edited, I macroscopically projected different phases of the video into a three-walled enclosure in the UNISA Art gallery. The three videos, representing a facet of my praxis, ran concurrently over a two week period. The fourth facet, presented with the video projections to emphasise conscious self-development as an in-the-world-with-others process, was the glass vitrine. It was positioned in a darkened enclosure in the gallery space, opposite the video projections. This narrative documents how I projected myself into the cellular imagery developing in the glass vitrine, in a way akin to how the ancient alchemists ‘projected’ themselves into the prima materia with which they worked. While the alchemists seemingly worked unconsciously, and my praxis initially started somewhat unconsciously, the process developed into a conscious attempt to embody the research findings. So, while the video choreographed, champions a microbial cell story, by referring to it as an artist’s diary, I emphasise the subjective nature of my praxis as a whole. In this creative-practice-as-research undertaking, I address the significance of bodily feelings and their relevance to being-in-the-world-with-others processes. In doing so, I aim to offer insight into how and why feelings are essential to inter-subjectivity and/or sociality, self-organisation and conscious self-development, as well as how and why conscious self-development can lead to immersive experiences, which I interpret as embodied adaptation to the rich diversity and/or fullness of life itself. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Art History)

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Setswana. Translated titles in Afrikaans and Setswana supplied / Dataset link: https://doi.org/10.25399/UnisaData.14101913.v1 / The gap between diverse cultures living in a globalized world is not intransigent nor unassumingly flexible. This space is an arena of dissimilarities and correlations, which result in interactions that incite unusual expectations. ‘Cultural hybridity’ is clearly mirrored within contemporary society. New methods and approaches are required to comprehend the lived experiences of escalating displacement. This research traces the trajectory of migration, identity, self and other from the point of view of contemporary diasporic artists. Notions of ethnicity, authenticity, identity, transnationality, singularity and duality are debated against the backdrop of the creative practices of Anish Kapoor and Yinka Shonibare. Informed by Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the third space, and also theories of hermeneutic translation by Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, this dissertation creatively and critically investigates the ambiguities and ambivalences in this field of inquiry. / Die gaping tussen uiteenlopende kulture wat in ’n geglobaliseerde wêreld woon, is nóg onversetlik nóg pretensieloos veerkragtig. Hierdie ruimte is ’n arena van ongelykhede en korrelasies wat lei tot interaksies wat ongewone verwagtings ontketen. “Kulturele hibridisme” word duidelik in die eietydse samelewing weerspieël. Nuwe metodes en benaderings word vereis om die werklike ervarings van toenemende ontheemding te verstaan. Hierdie navorsing spoor die trajektorie van migrasie, identiteit, self en ander vanuit die oogpunt van eietydse diasporiese kunstenaars na. Idees rondom etnisiteit, egtheid, identiteit, transnasionaliteit, enkelvoudigheid en tweevoudigheid word teen die agtergrond van die kreatiewe praktyke van Anish Kapoor en Yinka Shonibare bespreek. Hierdie verhandeling, wat geïnspireer is deur Homi K. Bhabha se konsep van die derde ruimte, asook teorieë van hermeneutiese verplasing deur Georg Gadamer en Paul Ricoeur, ondersoek op ’n kreatiewe en kritiese wyse die dubbelsinnighede en teenstrydighede in hierdie ondersoekveld. / Sekgala magareng ga ditso tse di farologaneng tse di tshelang mo lefatsheng le le susumetsanang ga se a tsepama le mme ga se obege bonolo. Sebaka seno ke serala sa dipharologano le dikamano tse di lebisang kwa dikgolaganong tse di tlhosetsang ditsholofelo tse di sa tlwaelegang. Tota 'motswako wa setso' o bonala sentle mo setšhabeng sa sešweng. Go tlhokega mekgwa le selebo se sentšhwa go tlhaloganya maitemogelo a phuduso e e oketsegang. Patlisiso eno e lebelela motlhala wa bofudugedi, boitshupo, jwa sebele le jo bongwe go tswa mo mogopolong wa batsweretshi ba sešweng go tswa mo mafelong a bofudugedi (diaspora) Go ganetsanwa ka megopolo ya lotso, boammaaruri, boitshupo, boditšhaba, bongwefela le bobedi go lebeletswe ntlha ya ditiragatso tsa boitlhamedi tsa ga Anish Kapoor le Yinka Shonibare. Thesisi eno e e theilweng mo mogopolong wa ga Homi K. Bhabha wa sebaka sa boraro, le ditiori tsa saense ya boranodi ka Georg Gadamer le Paul Ricoeur, e batlisisa ka boitlhamedi le ka tshekatsheko, ketsaetsego e e mo lephateng leno la dipatlisiso. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)