Spelling suggestions: "subject:"theseset history."" "subject:"thesesensors history.""
1 |
The methods and techniques employed in the manufacture of the Shroud of Turin.Allen, Nicholas Peter Legh. January 1993 (has links)
The main objective of the inquiry is to deduce the methods and techniques that were
employed in the manufacture of the historically unique Shroud of Turin. By taking a more
or less phenomenologically based stance, it is argued that this image could only have been
produced by employing a photographically related technique. To this end, an examination
is made of both the nature of the image, as well as all relevant documented evidence which
supports the above stated hypothesis. In addition, practical experiments are conducted
which employ the kinds of technology and apparatus known to have existed c 1250-1357
AD. The results of this investigation strongly support the notion that persons living c 1250-
1357 AD did in fact have the necessary technology to manufacture what could be termed
a negative solargraphic image of a human subject. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1993.
|
2 |
The nature of relations and the metaphysical dilemma in Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus.Thompson, Lora Cindy. January 2003 (has links)
This thesis is concerned with an analysis ofLudwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus that centers around the dilemma in which Wittgenstein finds himself in expressing the belief that the propositions of his work, while they are nonsensical according to their own standards, remain informative. The contention is that whether the text is successful in upholding Wittgenstein's claim relies deeply on the account that it gives of relations, in particular the pictorial relation and the relations that pertain amongst objects in states of affairs. It will be argued that the Tractatus sets itself the requirement that ifits propositions are to be nonsensical
yet informative, then they must display the general form of a proposition that can have 'sense.' In turn, if any proposition is to be able to have 'sense,' then the pictorial relation must serve a dual purpose in holding the situation represented in the sense of a proposition distinct from the reality it depicts, while acting as a means of comparison such that the truth or falsity of a proposition can be determined. It will then be argued that if the pictorial relation is to be able to function in this way, then propositions must be able to signify exactly which relations pertain in
the situation depicted by its sense. In conclusion a case will be made that the Tractatus is unable to meet the demands that it places on itself, for the work does not give an account by which elementary propositions, to which all propositions are analyzable, can signify the specific relations which pertain in the states of affairs they represent. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.
|
3 |
Andries Botha : creativity in a context of change.Leigh, Valerie T. L. January 2009 (has links)
In this text I consider Andries Botha's work over the period 1977 to 2007. I
particularly look at Botha's creative response to the period of change in which he
has worked and at his own considerations of works of art as acts of creative
citizenship and private creativity.
The text is based largely on interviews with Botha wherein he discusses his
intentions and gives insight into the character of his creative imagination. In light
of the interviews I write on individual works in detail, giving attention, to a certain
extent, to chronology. During the late 1970s Botha was particularly concerned
with establishing a sculptural language that would be expressive of his experience
as a South African creative artist in the time of turbulence in the country and of
paradox in his own circumstances as liberal thinker and inheritor of a conservative
Afrikaner Nationalist background.
Botha's creative output has been considerable. He commenced his career in a
period of waning modernity and an increasing presence of Postmodernist culture.
In his works of the 1980s he makes use of conceptual means – installation,
assemblage, multiples, technology and unusual materials to express, through
myth and allegory, his understanding of aspects of the human condition. The
many associations, aesthetic, historical and political, regarding land, in a South
African and in an international context, also became his concern. He sought to
look at the affects on selfhood in the wake of apartheid, considering particularly the Afrikaner male and indigenous women, with especial reference to KwaZulu-
Natal. He has been particularly interested in the effects of the abuse of power in a
local and in an international sphere and in the situation of subaltern peoples in the
aftermath of domination.
When Botha commenced studies at the (then) University of Natal, the prevailing
philosophical attitude was Humanism, and his attitude to social responsibility is
often markedly humanistic. His own thinking regarding his creative work coincided
in many aspects with Marxist aesthetic. A development of Postmodernist thinking
occurred in South Africa with the writing of Die Sestigers, who had had large
contact with French philosophical writing of mid-twentieth century. Botha's
challenge, as was that of Die Sestigers, was to take cognisance of international
thinking and at the same time to work creatively within an experience of the South
African locale.
Botha's reading of Merleau-Pontys' writings on phenomenology influenced him to
respond to the immediacy of experience and record that response in his work.
Largeness is a distinguishing feature of his art which I discuss in connection with
the character of the sublime, as perceived by Burke. The character of duende, as
seen by Lorca, is also distinctive to Botha's art and is used by him creatively to
effect catharsis. He shows responsibility in his creative citizenship and in his
private creativity in understanding and meeting the changes of the time. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.
|
4 |
Deciphering aspects of Azaria Mbatha's worldview located in specific religious themes and images employed in his work.Jansen, Leigh. January 2007 (has links)
Azaria Mbatha's (1941 - ) work incorporates the many and various influences he has
experienced throughout his life. Writers have tended towards essentialist readings of his
work emphasizing proselytizing, resistance or traditional Zulu aspects of his work
discretely. This is not sufficient to gain an accurate representation of his work which
exhibits a spontaneous response to Biblical narratives as he critically appropriates and
modifies texts at will. He utilizes narrative to express and explore his own circumstances
creating works which are able, in turn, to express the plight of anyone who identifies with
his experiences. His work functions both autobiographically and didactically and aspires to
be applicable and encouraging to both the individual and the general public, regardless of
one's culture of origin.
This dissertation aims to present a holistic reading of Mbatha's oeuvre taking into account,
amongst others, his Lutheran kholwa upbringing, the situation in South Africa (especially
in the years under Apartheid), his familial ties to the Zionist church, his training at the
Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre and in Sweden, his foundation within
traditional Zulu cosmology, the influence of members of the Lutheran Theological College
on his theological views, his position as an artist of the diaspora as a result of his self imposed
exile in Sweden and his own interpretation of the Bible, influenced most
profoundly by his father. Such a reading of his work is necessary to decipher aspects of
Mbatha's idiosyncratic approach to the various influences he applied to his work in order
to outline his personal worldview.
His work encompasses many themes, of which three are covered here. Firstly, his
depictions of scenes from the book of Revelation are examined, as are his various
portrayals of the figure of Jesus Christ. Finally, his images of reconciliation in its various
forms are considered.
Interpretations of these works are informed by a consideration of the various influences
already mentioned combined with a visual analysis of each work. It is hoped that this
dissertation will aid in understanding the idiosyncrasies and complexities present in
Mbatha's work and thus aid in preventing further essentialist readings of comparable
artists. For the purposes of this study I have limited my interpretations to his linocuts only. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
|
5 |
Michael Zondi : creating modernity.Nieser, Kirsten. January 2010 (has links)
This dissertation considers the creativity of Michael Zondi as one of South Africa’s so-called
pioneer artists and the manner in which he used his art to contribute and create modernity.
His creative skills initially locate him outside the classical designations of any one artistic
discipline. From cabinet-making and building construction, which included an engagement as
an architect and interior designer, ultimately Zondi became the proficient originator of a
comparatively very large body of work in three-dimensional figurative wood sculpture. This
study is largely confined to the latter body of work.
The wood sculptor is located within the ambit of the black intelligentsia who, with their
western mission education, was seeking to define and shape African modernity for
themselves beyond descriptions mired in Eurocentric expression. Zondi’s early work
emerged from crafting skills in woodwork, with thematic narratives that reflect regional
sourcing among the amaZulu. Conceptually these represent a continuity of the creative
practice of the generation before his own, particularly that of the black literary elite, who
inspired him. He drew on the humanist values of the African communalism in which he
was nurtured. As an ikholwa, he further drew on his Christian faith for guidance, using
biblical inspiration for a few of his figurative works of art.
Apart from participation in various group exhibitions from the early 1960s, unusual
exhibition opportunities included two solo exhibitions, in 1965 and 1974, and an exhibition
of his work in a group show in Paris, in 1977, which he attended personally. In the South
African environment of black disempowerment and marginalization he secured his position
outside party-political activism by using his art as his voice, especially among white patrons.
As he found predominantly private patronage for his expressive human portraits, his
philosophical exchange with enlightened friends, especially the medical practitioner Dr.
Wolfgang Bodenstein, became the backdrop for his creative experience.
Sensitive mentorship and informal tuition by white patrons provided Zondi with some
knowledge of European modernist art. Drawing on it as an inspirational resource, the artist
made discerning selections from this aesthetic in order to develop his own personal style. At
the same time he ensured that his art remained accessible for a broad audience that
included the rural people of his home environment, who were the source of his inspiration. Zondi’s thematic move beyond the confines of his Zuluness was the decisive factor which
enabled the artist to engage in a very personal reconciliatory quest with white South Africans
across the racial divide. In an endeavour which spanned the four decades of his active career
as a sculptor, his self-representation through art was simultaneously an immersion in the
human condition which became the expression of a shared humanity. By becoming the
facilitator of reciprocity between people, it stood in defiance of the long-canonized fetish of
race and segregation. By proffering his art as a means of communication, it thereby became
an original and formative tool in shaping African modernity. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.
|
6 |
Michael Zondi : South African sculptor.Nieser, Kirsten. January 2004 (has links)
The art historical foregrounding of pioneer and contemporary art of black South Africans during the last two decades of the 20th century has emphasised two-dimensional media. Given the dearth of biographies on black artists in general, it is the purpose of this dissertation to reposition the three-dimensional oeuvre of a pioneer sculptor in the context of the artistic creativity occurring within the educational and economic constraints of a segregated South Africa. While Michael Zondi's school education and vocational training was forged predominantly within a western mission context, the emergence of his talent remained largely independent of any art training initiatives or art-making institutions. This research study places a strong emphasis on Zondi's interface with a white elitist patronage base. As a member of an educated kholwa elite, Zondi's acculturation and intellectual exchange with his patrons regarding mores, belief systems and world views, centred on reciprocity, as the artist sought to redefine himself in terms of western paradigms initially imposed by colonialism. The exchange found consistent expression in Zondi's stance of reconciliation, which reflected the cross-cultural friendships under the aegis of a shared Christianity which the artist forged into a syncretism with his own received belief systems. Zondi's espousal of western cultural paradigms which facilitated the interface resulted in the public foregrounding of the work of this black artist, at a time in South African history when this was exceptional. From the 1960s the Lutheran mission enterprise in Natal provided a platform for liberation theology, challenging the suppression of indigenous belief systems as well as state autocracy and the reality of a segregated society. Given Zondi's acute political awareness, he was prompted to take up that challenge, albeit covertly, with visual texts addressing moral issues and voicing humanitarian concerns. With figurative genre sculptures frequently alluding to the artist's rootedness in his received Zulu traditions, the thematic content of some of Zondi's work shows an indigenisation of the Christian gospel as he drew on Biblically inspired imagery, making his art function as a vehicle for the articulation of his dissent. This study traces Zondi's stylistic development from representational naturalism of his early work to an espousal of a modernist visual language embracing some experimentation with his preferred medium, South African hardwoods. Within his essentially figurative representational style, and in part as a result of the intervention of his supporters, Zondi made use of expressive surface textures and distortion. His pronounced use of faceting in the later 1960s was consolidated after a short sojourn in Paris in the mid-1970s, when, for a short time, he created more conceptual human forms in a cubist manner. This represented his most marked departure from his recognizable figurative style of representational carving. While some of Zondi's pieces in private and public collections were included in group exhibitions during the 1980s and 1990s (1), research has not yet revealed pieces postdating 1987. It is probable that ill-health forced Zondi to consider his retirement from sculpting by the early 1990s. (1) "The Neglected Tradition", 1988; "Images of Wood", 1989; "Land and Lives", 1997. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.
|
7 |
Contextualizing the use of biblically derived and metaphysical imagery in the work of Black artists from KwaZulu-Natal : c1930-2002.Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile. January 2003 (has links)
As art historians uncover the many sources and catalysts that have contributed to the emergence of black contemporary art in South Africa, one of the principal influences is that derived from the Christian mission churches and breakaway separatist groups - the African Independent Churches (AICs). Histories of African art have failed adequately to consider the art that emerged from these contexts, regarding it perhaps as too coerced and distinctive – merely religious art subject to the rigours of liturgical or proselytizing function. The purpose of this dissertation is to foreground this art and its position in the development of both pioneer and contemporary South African art and to identify the many features, both stylistic and thematic, which distinguish this work. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.
|
8 |
Aspects of the visual arts in advertising with particular reference to South Africa.Sutherland, Ian Gilbert. January 1998 (has links)
This investigation accepts that art is a term of western culture and that advertising is a creation of an historical and social process firmly linked to the economies of western industrialised nations. A cultural niche theory of the visual arts is employed to define the various visual art forms and it is in this context that the development of the notion of fine art, which had its origins during the Renaissance, is investigated with a view to how this led to the commodification of art. The phenomenon of art as a commodity accelerated throughout the nineteenth century and was moulded by the same political, cultural, social, economic and technological forces that gave rise to advertising when, during the second half of the century, the capitalist system of production became geared towards mass production of products for consumption. This was also the period of significant European colonial expansion in southern Afiica and consequently the development of both art and advertising in the region was cast in a colonial, European mould, the effects of which are investigated throughout this research project. This body of research also seeks to explain how the meaning and the value of the art object and its reproduced image, changed and became exchangeable as technology developed. Significantly this occurred at a time when the needs of advertising shifted from a simple system of proclamation and announcement on the periphery of the national economy during the nineteenth century to become a sophisticated system of communication which acts as an influential social institution at the end of this millennium. That this appears to have occurred at a time when the influence of fine art began to decline as a cultural force is significant as it is in this context that advertising has become a primary carrier of meaning in society. This research project works within this paradigm to investigate the history and motives of business support for the arts, particularly the visual arts, in the form of sponsorship with particular reference to a culturally diverse and politically dynamic South Africa. In addition, specific rhetorical devices that advertising employs, as a strategic tool of marketing, to appropriate and (ex)change meaning from the value laden visual art object is investigated with reference to contemporary advertising in South Africa. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal,1998.
|
Page generated in 0.069 seconds