Thesis (MTech. degree in Performing Arts) -- Tshwane University of Technology. 2010. / The training of students for the technical side of the Entertainment Industry in South Africa is not something that has been with us for many years. It is only for the last 33 years that an institution, the then Technikon Pretoria, started a course that trains Scenic Artists in South Africa. Not many institutions are training Scenic Artists in South Africa, and the current Department of Entertainment Technology has always been the leader in this field. In the United Kingdom, training students as Scenic Artists has been part of their programmes for the last ninety years. One finds that there is a demand for training Scenic Artists in the United Kingdom, because of the size and complexity of the Entertainment Industry there. During the Apartheid era, South Africa was excluded from the International scene, so the demand did not really exist here for a number of years. Lately, the Entertainment Industry in South Africa has picked up momentum and expanded its borders immensely, and this has created a great demand for trained Scenic Artists in South Africa. Today one can proudly say that one is part of an industry that trains people as Scenic Artists in South Africa that contributes to the global Entertainment Industry. The Scenic Artists who completed their studies at TUT are employed nationally and internationally, and deliver a very high standard of work on the most impressive projects. During the research that was done between the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa and the Rose Bruford College and Guildhall School of Drama and Music, both in the United Kingdom in London, one can see that there are no major differences between the three institutions. Each institution has its own methodology, but at the end, all are working towards one goal, and that is to train the best Scenic Artists possible. The differences that present it are in the course structure, available facilities and the amount of staff allocated to do the training.

This thesis examines different understandings of 'landscape' in Wales between 1900 and 1950, and the implications of these 'ways of seeing' for questions of nationhood and national identity. The bridge between these conceptual and political realms is the practice of rural planning as developed and applied in Wales. The Introduction sets the thesis in the context of work on national identity and the idea of landscape, and discusses the notion of modernity. It closes by outlining the understandings of landscape which run through the body of this thesis - landscape as 'scenery', 'environment' and 'territory'. Section One examines the evolution of planning in Wales. Chapter One identifies four individuals who represent themes of sustained importance in the development of this modernist discipline. All four were involved in the founding of the Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales (C.P.R.W.) in 1928. The C.P.R.W. is the focus of Chapter Two in which planning ideals and notions of scenic order are seen applied to the Welsh countryside. Consistent themes in the C.P.R.W.'s approach are identified, and their success is evaluated. Section Two addresses the work of others active in the study and planning of rural Wales, but from a perspective less concerned with the visual construct of landscape. Chapter Three examines the work of geographers and other academics, primarily in University College Aberystwyth, who constructed in their work a picture of rural Wales as a repository of both ancient artefacts and contemporary civilising values. Welsh history and society had, they argued, been shaped by its geography and environment. These academics' attempts to plan rural society according to their ideals is considered. Academic work informed the campaigns of the Welsh Nationalist Party, Plaid Cymru, which is discussed in Chapter Four. The nationalists echoed this reverence for rural Wales, seeing it as the fount of national character. The evolution of a political philosophy around this sociological and territorial concern is examined in detail. Section Three examines conflicts between these groups and their philosophies of landscape in response to large-scale State planning. Chapter Five discusses wartime land requisitioning and its perceived challenges to the scenic, social and political integrity of rural Wales. Nationalist concern for the sovereignty of Welsh land emerges as the profoundest issue. Chapter Six considers the role of Wales in post-war reconstruction, with particular reference to debates on the subject of tourism and the holiday trades. Conflicting views as to the use Wales should make of its rural resources become evident. In the Conclusion, the emergence of the main themes surrounding landscape in rural Wales are summarised, and it is argued that the three ways of seeing have merged to some extent. The implications of a greater concern for environment and territory in planning are analysed, and some suggestions offered as to the role the discipline of geography might play in the process of shaping new landscapes and environments.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1963 W33

published_or_final_version / abstract / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

We are currently living in a society in which interactivity is at an all-time low. People are glued to their cell phones, tablets and computers, preferring to communicate with pixels and images than other human beings. It often leads to one feeling alone, even amongst a sea of people. This is also true outside of interpersonal relationships. There is a growing lack of engagement in narrative and the design of that narrative. We see Rocky: The Musical, Amelie: The Musical and Shrek: The Musical. There are playwrights re-hashing the living room drama over and over again, afraid to venture into new material, becoming obsessed with perfecting an unattainable formula. In a constant cycle of re-hashing previously successful franchises and tropes into different mediums, designers lose the opportunity to grow. However, with the rise of smash hits like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and Then She Fell, designers find a place to dazzle spectators with raw, enthralling artwork that creates a sense new audiences are missing more than anything: Wonder. To continue the creation of relevant, diverse and genre-defying theatre, designers must be trained to hold authority over the elements of design. These include the concepts of line, shape, color, texture and scale. A designer must know when to trust their instincts and when to rely on time-proven techniques. A designer cannot be afraid of building something new. In addition to this, a growing emphasis is being placed on a designer’s mastery of multiple disciplines. By having a more-well rounded education, a designer is more of an asset on the team.

This thesis is concernedw ith artists' representationso f the English landscape and rural scenery from the last decade of the nineteenth century up to the outbreak of war in 1914. While isolated aspects of the period in relation to landscape painting have been explored in the form of individual monographs and exhibition catalogues, there have been no overall studies. Equally there has been no sustained attempt to examinet he closei nterconnectionsb etweend epictionso f the rural, and experiences of modernity and the urban that characteriseth ese years. As a result there has been no opportunity to explore the different and complex ways in which ideals of Englishness were negotiated over time amongst a diverse group of painters. This thesis is a contribution to a debate which has emerged in other disciplines and in work within other art historical periods, an investigation of the role of paintings, their public reception and critical interpretation, in the context of the contemporary production and reinforcement of ideas about race, national identity and the construction of native traditions. The paintings discussed here of Stott, Clausen, Steer, John, Knight, Tuke, Gore, Spencer and Nash have all been selected because in different ways, they exemplify the diverse strands of the debate about Englishness around turn of the century. In order to engage properly with the broader effects of these representations, this thesis explores related areas of enquiry about the significance of ruralism and the countryside, as they have emerged in social and rural history, cultural studies, as well as current investigations in the fields of cultural geography and the study of tourism. These areas establish the centrality of ideas about the rural as a focus for unity and order, and as a site upon which imaginative solutions to the problems of modernity could be developed, in ways that have been left out of art historical accounts of the period as a whole. A fundamental aim here is the study of the cumulative effects, by 1914, of a consistent commodification of the countryside and of its populations by and for urban spectators.

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