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The doctoral thesis deals with the topic of exihibiting of an empty gallery. The problem of the emptiness is presented by using a prism of theory of art, semiotics and phenomenology, more precisely hermeneutics. The matter is in a relation with some remote domains, it tries to give a definition of substance and general rules by exihibiting of the emptiness in a gallery. According to one of the presented propositions the plain emptiness itself comes to be an artwork. By semantics of logic method the text is tryiing to form another proposition about specific emptiness in a gallery that generates artwork naturally. The text tries to reopen the theme of some crucial problems in conceptual art. It presents an explanation of the aplication of conceptual method to general public.

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No description available.

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I sought to find out whether this was a tension between artistic and commercial in the career of visual artists, and if so, how this tension was managed. In attempting to uncover information which could address the research question I undertook in-depth career history interviews with artists which covered their time at art school through to their current practice. The career history method was deliberately chosen in order to address the research question at a tangent as both the literature, and my own personal experience of the field of contemporary visual art, had suggested that the topic of artistic and commercial was a sensitive one. By framing the interviews around the experiences the artists had through the time period of their training and career, I was able to approach the research questions indirectly from the perspective of the artists. Through analysis of the interview transcripts the framework of Bourdieu's capitals arose as one that would capably explain the activities which the artists were undertaken and I used this as a framing device for the empirical chapters in the thesis. In exploring ideas of cultural, social and economic capitals in relation to how artists describe the activities they undertake during their career it became apparent that the broad structures of cultural capital needed further refinement in their application to the careers of visual artists. In the thesis I chose to elaborate further on the concept of artistic capital which has, until now, been unexplored by scholars. I have developed an understanding of artistic capital as a subcategory of cultural capital with particular application to the field of contemporary visual art – with the potential for wider application beyond the thesis. The three capitals of artistic, social and economic proved a capable structure for understanding whether there was a tension between artistic and commercial and how artists managed this. Through this research I have found that artists come to believe, during their early career and training through art school, that there is a tension between artistic and commercial as this is perpetuated by institutions and art world participants through their exclusion or dismissal of commercial aspects of the visual art field. Through their careers they come to realise that this tension is less prevalent than they thought and that they are able to manage these two aspects of artistic and commercial more effectively. However, artists continue to be faced with instances where this tension is imposed upon them by other art world players who perpetuate the belief that there is an inherent, unresolvable tension between artistic and commercial. These individuals attempt to shield artists from this perceived tension later in their careers when artists are already adept at managing the competing priorities of artistic and commercial without the two creating tension.

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / This research explores the potential value for the application of the visual expressionistic arts, as well as the application of forensic art for the emancipation of victims of violent crime. Qualitative research methods are used in order to make certain assumptions and recommendations for the application of the forensic arts in the emancipation of traumatized victims. The research is based on the view that human behaviour is influenced by different internal and external contextual influences. The theoretical basis for the research is further supported by the grounding principals of the psycho-analytic, symbolic interactionistic and the phenomenological theoretical approaches. The potential for the application of the forensic arts during crisis intervention and trauma counselling as a therapeutic technique and a communication medium are investigated. The potential forensic value of the victims’ art for the criminal justice system is also explored during the research. / Die navorsing ondersoek die potensiele waarde vir die aanwending van die tradisionele visuele beeldende kunste asook die aanwending van die forensiese kunste vir die emansipasie van slagoffers van geweldsmisdaad. Kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodes word tydens die navorsing gebruik ten einde sekere afleidings en aanbevelings te maak aangaande die aanwending van die forensiese kuns vir die emansipasie van getraumatiseerde misdaadslagoffers. Die navorsing word teoreties gebaseer op die beskouing van die mens wie se gedrag beinvloed word deur verskillende interne en eksterne kontekstuele invloede. Die teoretiese basis vir die navorsing word verder ondersteun deur die grondbeginsels van die psigo-analise, simboliese interaksionisme en die fenomenologiese teoretiese benaderings. Die potensiaal vir die aanwending van forensiese kuns as 'n terapeutiese tegniek en kommunikasiemedium tydens krisisingryping en berading word ondersoek. Die potensiele forensiese waarde van misdaadslagoffers se kuns in die regsplegingstelsel word ook in die navorsing ondersoek. / Criminology / M.A. (Criminology)

Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604) was a cultured courtesan who lived in the famous pleasure quarter along the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). She was talented in dance and music, painting and poetry, and surprisingly for her time, she was also a playwright. Although she was a celebrity of the prolific Nanjing cultural milieu and there is a good corpus of extant material by and about her, the particular contribution of Ma Shouzhen - her character and her work - have been marginalised, or even neglected, by the previous scholarship. This thesis is a cross-disciplinary study of Ma Shouzhen and is the first in-depth scholarly investigation into the entirety of her activities. It employs material and methods traditionally pertaining to the disciplines of sinology, history, art history, literary and drama studies. The thesis has a dual aim: first, to provide a nuanced understanding of the courtesan, her cultural production and social practice; second, to reclaim the agency and legacy of her character within the cultural milieu of late Ming Nanjing and beyond. These aims will be achieved through two main research objectives: (1) recovering and re-evaluating visual and written sources by and about the courtesan; (2) investigating those sources in order to comprehend her modes of self-representation and strategies of self-fashioning, analysed especially through the lens of gender. The main body of the thesis is composed of an introduction, five core chapters, and an epilogue; the chapters are structured so as to provide as complete a picture of Ma Shouzhen as possible. Chapter Two explores the space of the pleasure quarter, Ma’s biography and its entwinement within the complexities of the historical moment. Chapter Three focuses on her painting, Chapter Four considers her poetry, and Chapter Five explores her theatre practice; Chapter Six extends the investigation to focus on the construction of Ma’s historical character in later decades. In its content and aims, this thesis contributes to women’s and gender history, as well as to studies in visual culture and literature.

This thesis analyses a series of threshold states located within contemporary culture. It investigates the effects of technology on spatial relations and human conditions in recent centuries, with a specific interest in the rise of virtual phenomena and the ongoing process of virtualisation. Key to the discussion is measuring the extent to which America and its narratives have influenced the virtual layer attached to contemporary global technological culture. Prevalent within this framework is the idea of the frontier as an idealised outpost, a lingering threshold state that is scrutinised in terms of its metaphoric power and socio-historical relevance. The research examines the points of interaction between the frontier, the virtual, and recent technology, as well as the areas in which technology has been produced, distributed, and consumed, as a means of building on ‘virtual frontiers’ and the ‘technological state’ as original critical concepts. Chapter one, from a socio-cultural and historical perspective, develops the idea of California as the location where the frontier spirit dispersed, transferring to an extent from land to body. Rich in posthuman ambience, the state functions as a hub from which to negotiate the position of the body in relation to the frontier: to look at the body as a frontier in itself, its virtualisation, and the now perennial dialectic between the positive and negative effects of technology on human/non-human interactivity. From the ashes of the 1960s, pockets of urban youth living in America’s inner cities gave birth to a subculture that is now globally recognised as Hip Hop. Despite Hip Hop always being a potent reflective surface, chapter two assesses its development and continuing capacity as a virtual and technological form of expression. In the decades between Malcolm X’s assassination and the election of President Obama, how has Hip Hop changed as a virtual arena and mode of resistance, as it has simultaneously been incorporated into the American mainstream? Indeed, as a cultural object and virtual space with the potential to carry evocative messages across thresholds, did Hip Hop even survive this transition? And what were the ramifications of its transformation? The third chapter examines the shadows emanating from the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001. The narratives from 9/11 are considered while investigating a diverse selection of transnational texts that touch on the subject, including works from Don DeLillo, Amy Waldman, Martin Amis, and Frédéric Beigbeder. Also considered is the day’s social and historical significance, and its power as a virtual event. More specifically, the impact on time, perception, and narrative structure is observed, each element appearing in the shadows that stretch out from the decades before and beyond the events of that clear blue September morning. Through characters in recent fiction by William Gibson and Hari Kunzru, the final chapter scans American consumption and the representations projected out from its brands and advertising. Within technological states now transmitted globally, the chapter reflects on the consequences of consumer culture as we venture further into the virtual and its realities, drawn through what Jean Baudrillard calls an irreconcilable conflict between ‘total integration’ and the ‘dual form’.