Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The tensions I experienced as a Stellenbosch University student made me curious to delve into potential exchanges between the boundaries of worthwhile art and valid education. I explored the capacity of interactive artworks to contribute to realising the university‟s institutional vision. This research venture seeks to inspire innovative approaches to education that can potentially decrease discrepancies between institutional policy and practice. The primary question examines the nature and effect of students‟ responses to an interactive artwork placed on the Stellenbosch University campus. These reactions subtly exposed the particularity of the Stellenbosch University context and indicated aspects of art education in the expanded field that could aid higher education institutions in fulfilling their transformative role. An anti-colonial paradigm guided me through a crucial attentiveness of the power issues embedded in knowledge production, validation and dissemination. The reflexive process of qualitative research permitted a captivating interdisciplinary landscape that spans from policy documents to philosophical enquiries. I studied the lived experiences of students, lecturers and staff members at Stellenbosch University through individual and group interviews. A case study research design was employed to use the patterns picked up in these single cases to lead me toward more entrenched underlying issues and attitudes. Nuanced research findings were the result of the anti-colonial prism that caused me to place equal value on difference and coherence in my enquiry. Visual metaphors such as my interactive public artwork translate philosophical ideas into practice and communicate these ideas right to the heart. This is how art can bridge the divide between in- and out-of-class education and aid the university in preparing students to become purposeful citizens. Not only does this project signify the university‟s institutional transformation, but it also adds to the transformative impact of the university on all its stakeholders; a necessary process that enables greater social impact. Belonging is a crucial aspect in this regard, because it enables students to internalise the knowledge acquired through higher education. And one of the key underlying messages of higher education is that graduates are citizens that should contribute their skills and knowledge to positively enhance society. The interview feedback revealed that the artwork was successful in guiding students‟ thoughts and conversations to form new knowledge because it was an honest space where people could articulate their opinions. Interdisciplinary learning is a powerful tool that enriches curricula and increases the impact of university education. The university needs to allow students to belong and then develop responsibility and empathy toward societal needs, and it appears that the artwork roused some of these sentiments. In order to become an institution that launches the thought leaders of the future, Stellenbosch University needs to harness all collaborators that collectively contribute to an integrated understanding of life and an expanded appreciation of knowledge. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die spanning wat ek as „n Stellenbosch Universiteit‟s student ervaar het, het my nuuskierig gemaak om dieper in die moontlike wisselwerking tussen die grense van betekenisvolle kuns en ware opvoeding te delf. Tydens my studie het ek die vermoë van interaktiewe kunswerke om tot die verwesenliking van die universiteit se institusionele visie by te dra, ondersoek. Hierdie navorsing poog om innoverende benaderings tot opvoeding te soek wat die gapings tussen instititionele beleid en praktyk potensieël kan verminder. Die primêre vraag analiseer die aard en effek van studente se reaksies op „n interaktiewe kunswerk wat op die kampus van die Stellenbosch Universiteit geplaas was. Hierdie reaksies het die besonderse konteks van die Stellenbosch Universiteit blootgestel. Hierdeur is aspekte van kunsonderrig in die uitgebreide veld aangedui, wat moontlik hoër onderwys institute in hulle transformatiewe rol behulpsaam kan wees. „n Anti-koloniale paradigma het my deur „n kritieke bewustheid van die magsstryd waarin kennisvorming, geldigheid en verspreiding gewikkel is, begelei. Die terugskouende proses van kwalitatiewe navorsing het „n fassinerende interdissiplinêre landskap toegelaat wat strek vanaf beleidsdokumente tot filosofiese ondersoeke. Die ervaring van die studente, lektore en personeel van die Stellenbosch Universiteit is deur onderhoudsvoering met individue en groepe bestudeer. „n Gevallestudie navorsingsontwerp is gebruik om patrone in hierdie enkel gevalle in te span om versteekte onderliggende vraagstukke te ontbloot. Genuanseerde navorsings bevindings is na vore gebring deur anti-koloniale prisma wat my gelei het om gelyke waarde op beide verskille en ooreenkomste te plaas. Visuele metafore, soos my interaktiewe publieke kunswerk, het filosofiese idees in praktyk oorgeplaas. Dit is hoe hierdie idees reguit na die hart van die deelnemer spreek. Kuns kan so die skeiding tussen binne- en buite-klastyd onderrig oorbrug en die universiteit ondersteun in hul poging om studente as doelgerigte landsburgers voor te berei. Hierdie projek dui terselfdetyd op die universiteit se intitusionele transformasie nie en op die transformatiewe impak van die universiteit op al sy belangegroepe. Om aan „n groep te behoort „n belangrike aspek omdat dit studente in staat stel om die kennis, wat hulle deur hoër onderwys verkry het, te internaliseer. Dit sluit by een van die onderliggende sleutelboodskappe van hoër onderwys aan naamlik dat graduandi landsburgers is wat hulle vaardighede en kennis tot positiewe uitbouing van die samelewing moet aanwend. Die terugvoer van die onderhoude weerspieël dat die kunswerk suksesvol was in die begeleiding van studente se gedagtes en gesprekke, om nuwe kennis te vorm. Dit is moontlik gemaak deur die eerlike spasie waarin die mense opinies kon lig. Inter-dissiplinêre kennisverryking is „n kragtige werktuig wat kurrikulums versterk en wat die impak van universiteitsonderrig verbreed. Die universiteit behoort studente te laat voel asof hulle behoort en om verantwoordelikheid en empatie vir die samelewing se behoeftes by hulle te kweek. Dit blyk dat hierdie kunswerk sekere van daardie sentimente na die oppervlak gebring het. Vir Stellenbosch Universiteit om a instelling te word wat denkleiers van die toekoms vorm, verg dat al die deelnemers wat kollektief bydra tot „n geïntegreerde verstaan van die lewe uitbrie op die waardering van kennis.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / 214 Leaves printed on single pages, preliminary pages i- xvi and numbered pages 1-191. Includes bibliography and illustrations. / Digitized at 600 dpi grayscale to pdf format (OCR), using a Bizhub 250 Konica Minolta Scanner. Digitized by Ivan Jacobs on request of Niel Hendrickz, 15 April 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This investigation is informed by the assumption that language, as representation and as image, is positioned in a metaphorical relationship to reality. Language, as a structure of representation, is the way in which we represent reality to ourselves and to others and recreate the past, as well as the way in which we invest our lives with meaning, significance and experience. Language includes visual and verbal representation, and this investigation shows how image and text create a variety of multiple meanings through playful and interactive reciprocation. Following from the assumption that language comprises temporal and spatial qualities, it is also the terrain that enables us to know and understand reality, ourselves, and others. This emphasizes the material nature of language, which is also connected with social and cultural practices and, as such, involves reciprocation and interaction between divergences. Language is therefore a mode of action that makes the bridging of divisions possible. Language is proposed as a medium through which the monolithic hegemony of the apartheid past may be confronted within a multicultural South Africa. The aim of representing this past in my work is not to recall it as it was or to discover etemal, inheritable qualities, but rather to bring about re-demption (healing) through re-presentation. Re-demption and re-presentation is a textual practice that involves a re-script of the past. With the understanding that history and culture are regarded as text, re-writing the past does not involve representation as mimesis, but as production. This investigation recognizes the role of the subconscious as the other or the alterity in all language constructs that makes it possible to circumvent the logic of binary oppositions; entertain alternatives simultaneously; erase boundaries; share spaces, and discover the other in the self. This unconscious language of the other, as a strange doubling and interplay between near and far, gives rise to poies/s. The creation of multi-dimensional spaces that draw the poetical and the everyday into an imaginative and directed conceptual interplay as well as provoke dialogue between differences and diversities, engenders a desire for the complexity of the other. The interplay and recurrent movement across divisions and between paradoxes create a new and changed interspace, characterized by difference, plurality, and contradiction. Intertextual spaces allow relationships between differences and exist precisely as a result of dialogicity between diversities. In this way it is possible to establish, by virtue of difference, a mutual, interdependent relationship with the other. Metaphorical language requires an allegorical reading that places divergences in relation to one another, thereby causing a mythic animation of signification that moves from one level to another. Mytho-poeisis, as an allegorical structure, is proposed as a model by means of which symbolic transformation and redemption of the personal and collective psyche may occur. Poetic re-imagining as re-presentation impels change and transformation and points to other possible forms of social and ethical experiences. This impulse, to reconcile the social and the aesthetic, or the cultural with symbolic form, is based on the principle of reconciliation between art and life. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie ondersoek handhaaf die veronderstelling dat taal in 'n metaforiese verhouding tot die werklikheid staan as voorstelling en as beeld. Taal, as 'n struktuur van voorstelling, is die wyse waarop ons die werklikheid aan onsself en ander voorstel en die verlede herskep, asook die wyse waarop ons sin, betekenis en ervaring aan ons lewens verskaf. Taal sluit visuele en verbale voorstellings in en hierdie ondersoek toon op watter wyse beeld en teks in speelse en interaktiewe wisselwerking 'n verskeidenheid meersinnige betekenisse skep. Uitgaande van die veronderstelling dat taal temporele en ruimtelike kwaliteite betrek, is dit ook die terrein wat ons in staat stel om die werklikheid, onsself en ander te ken en verstaan. Dit beklemtoon die materiele aard van taal, wat ook met sosiale en kulturele praktyke verbind is en sodanig wisselwerking en interaksie tussen uiteenlopendhede betrek. Taal is dus 'n modus van doen, wat oorbrugging van skeidings moontlik maak. Taal word as 'n medium voorgestel waardeur die monolitiese hegemonie van die apartheidsverlede binne 'n multikulturele Suid-Afrika gekonfronteer word. Voorstelling van hierdie verlede in my werk is nie met die doel om dit te herroep soos dit was, of ewige, erfbare eienskappe te ontdek nie, maar eerder om herstel deur her-voorstelling te bewerkstellig. Her-stel en her-voorstelling is 'n tekstuele praktyk wat 'n re-skripsie van die verlede behels. Met begrip dat geskiedenis en kultuur as teks beskou word, behels die her-skryf van die verlede nie voorstelling as mimesis nie, maar as produksie. Hierdie ondersoek erken die rol van die onderbewussyn as die ander of die alteriteit (alterity) in alle taalvoorstellings wat dit moontlik maak om die logika van binere oposisies te omseil; alternatiewe gelyktydig in ag te neem; grense uit te wis, ruimtes te deel en die ander in die self te ontdek. Hierdie onbewuste taal van die ander, as 'n vreemde verdubbeling en spel tussen naby en ver, gee aanleiding tot poesis (poiesis). Die skep van multidimensionele ruimtes wat die poetiese en die alledaagse in 'n verbeeldingryke en gerigte konseptuele wisselspel betrek, asook dialoog tussen verskille en diversiteite bewerkstellig, skep 'n aandrang vir die kompleksiteit van die ander. Die interspel en ewigdurende beweging oor skeidings en tussen paradokse skep 'n nuwe en veranderde interruimte, wat gekenmerk word deur verskil, pluraliteit en kontradiksie. Intertekstuele ruimtes laat verskilsverhoudings toe en bestaan juis as gevolg van dialogisiteit tussen diversiteite. Op hierdie wyse is dit moontlik om op grond van verskil 'n wedersydse en interafhanklike verhouding met die ander aan te knoop. Metaforiese taalgebruik verg 'n allegoriese lees wat uiteenlopendhede in verhouding tot mekaar plaas sodat dit 'n mitiese animasie van betekening bewerkstellig wat vanaf een vlak na 'n ander vlak beweeg. Mito-poesis, as 'n allegoriese struktuur, word voorgestel as model waarvolgens simboliese transformasie en herstel van die persoonlike en kollektiewe psige kan geskied. Poetiese her-verbeelding as her-voorstelling motiveer verandering en transformasie en dui op ander moontlike vorms van sosiale en etiese ervarings. Hierdie impuls, om die sosiale en die estetiese, of om die kulturele met simboliese vorm te vereenselwig, berus op die beginsel van versoening tussen kuns en lewe.