This thesis is part of a creative arts PhD which explores the possibilities of constructed images and the memory of the South African Border War. It was presented together with an exhibition of constructed photographic images entitled BOS. In the thesis I argue that the memory of the war, an event now almost three decades past, continues to be problematic. I also argue that photographs are themselves complex and constructed objects that do not provide a simple truth about either history or memory. Photographs can supplement or support memories but they are always to be viewed with suspicion. In Chapter One I explore the limitations imposed on the speech of conscripts, both during the conflict and in the years following the conclusion of hostilities. In Chapter Two I examine the recent appearance of several ‘anti-­‐ heroic’ memoirs of the conflict written by conscripts. The use of the medical diagnosis of post-­‐traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) in these writings is critically examined. Chapter Three focuses on a development in the ideas of the two most influential figures in the field of Anglophone photographic theory, Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes. I argue that their initial hostility to the photographic image on ethical/political grounds has been replaced by a more nuanced engagement with the power of the image. I then examine the views of two contemporary writers on photography, both deeply involved with the analysis of traumatic images: Ariella Azoulay and Susie Linfield. In Chapter Four, I engage with the artistic practice of the American photographer, David Levinthal, an important reference point for this project because of his photographic work with miniatures and toys and his place within what I describe as ‘critical postmodernism’. In Chapter Five, I examine the themes of silence and censorship as these pertain to the photography of the Border War using Susan Sontag’s notion of the “ecology of images”. I analyze the types of images which have been produced from the war, looking at the “limited photojournalism” of John Liebenberg and the role of iconic images in the propaganda war. Finally, in Chapter Six, I present an account of the process of creating the work for the BOS exhibition in which I employed a combination of strategies involving appropriation, miniaturization, and re-­‐staging.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-195). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR39037

My research involves the reassertion of mythic experience in a manner considered contemporaneously relevant. The relevancy resides in the Jungian assumption that myth structures psychic experience to the benefit of the individual and ultimately, society. To this end, I have taken the hero myth of Heracles, and, by filtering it through Jung’s system promoting psychological maturation, that is what he called the individuation process, I have reconfigured it in fine art form

D. Tech. Fine and Applied Art / The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between art making and the brain state known as flow, a construct defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Links were sought between artists' perceived propensity to experience flow and quantified experimental data of the same art-making events. A predominantly psychological theoretical framework had to be created, contextual as well as conceptual, of historical and contemporary leanings that have formulated understandings of creativity and flow. These indicate that flow can trace its origins to concepts of human happiness and excellence, motivation, self-determination and peak experiences. These concepts illustrate that in pursuing intrinsic endeavours such as art making, a person is continuously engaged in reflectivity and deliberation concerning his or her actions and aims, which tend to be self-motivated or autotelic. In this study the autotelic and self-reflecting leanings of art making were found to be germane to flow. A key aspect for understanding the flow experience is Arne Dietrich's hypothesis of transient hypofrontality, described as enabling the temporary suppression of the analytical and meta-conscious capacities of the explicit system. In this study, transient hypofrontality was found to be germane to interpretations of flow and art making.