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This thesis and its accompanying project are concerned with the use of digital technology in the representation of material culture. The thesis aims to find ways of using such technology that are appropriate to our present needs and to its potential. The computer is a technology which we understand, interact with and relate to through metaphor. I propose that many of the metaphors through which we understand it invoke the idea of an enclosed space. The use of such a trope might seem suitable when using computers for representing museum collections, or material culture in general, since it invokes the enclosed space of the museum. I examine how this idea of enclosure is manifested in computer developments such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence. I also look at how these developments are congruent with perspectival modes of visual representation privileged in the modern era. I argue that such metaphors and forms of representation, whether manifested in visual arts, the museum, or computer applications are problematic, bound up as they are with modern western ideas of mastery and transcendence, which are presently being subjected to critiques from various quarters. Throughout the modern era there have been forms of representation which have contested the dominant visual mode of modernity. These include the art of the Baroque in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and, in this century, the work of the Surrealists. In contrast to the rational, orthogonal space of modernity, both these deal with complex and fragmented representations of spaces and time. Such developments have been discussed as forms of representation appropriate to contemporary concerns about knowledge They also have a corollary in computing developments, such as multimedia and hypermedia, Yet, I argue, those working in multimedia have in the main failed to exploit the potential of such developments to enable new ways of representing knowledge. I propose looking to both the Baroque and Surrealism to find possible models and strategies for use in multimedia in the representation of material culture. In relation to this I describe practical work done in conjunction with this thesis which uses these models as the basis of a piece of multimedia software for the representation of material culture.

Post Apartheid South Africa presents a fascinating platform from which to discuss the complexity and contestations around the creation of memory space. Through examination of multiple modes of dealing with memorials and museums, (the traditional and conventionally understood emblems of authoritative memory), this thesis seeks to explicate how memory is addressed in a society that is attempting to come to terms with a recent past. In so doing, it aims to understand how memory becomes codified into architectural space, how that physical manifestation may be altered over time, and examines some of the complexity inherent in creating new spaces that seek to represent an often volatile and contested past. The traditional palette of the architect: materiality, site, aesthetics and form all contribute to creation of new national narratives and in so doing, reveal the difficulties in revising existing memories as they are articulated through architecture. In order to appreciate how South Africa specifically is approaching memory, I have established a taxonomy that highlights differing modes for dealing with the physicalisation of recollection. Within each case study, questions arise over the success and failures of each modality, which lead to broader discussions about opportunities for gaining insight into how memory space may be addressed in other countries, those facing a colonial past or coming to terms with recent memory themselves. While it does not present a comparative analysis, this thesis seeks to illuminate some of the difficulties inherent in the creation and maintenance of memory space that accurately reflects the population it purports to serve, while generating 'meaningful' architecture. The study is broken down into the following components: TOPPLING TOTEMS The Voortrekker Monument is an examination into existing architectures of an out-dated regime, questioning how meaning is ascribed to architectural space and seeking to understand how easily that significance may be revised. EXPERIENTIAL MUSEUMS The Apartheid Museum presents case studies of how memory is conveyed meaningfully to contemporary society, looking at the international language of museums, questioning how specificity is lost in a desire to situate the past on a world stage. The economy and commoditisation of memory forms a central component of this study. CANNIBALISED SPACE The Constitutional Court offers an investigation into the repatriation of spaces potent as sites of trauma. It examines how sites of trauma become significant places for recollection and presents spatial opportunities for a form of rehabilitation of those sites. SOCIALLY INTEGRATED MEMORY The Red Location Museum presents a study of a new mode of creating official narratives of recollection within a society resistant to official narratives. It looks at architectural solutions to situating memory within the daily life of a society rather then distinguishing official memorials by setting them and by association recollection apart. Ultimately through an examination of the treatment of memory space in South Africa, issues around the complexity of dealing with memory in general become apparent. The aim of this thesis is to draw out some of these narratives so that they may elucidate some of the broader relationships between architecture and collective memory.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106 -110)

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2004. / "August 30, 2004"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-139).

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2004. / "August 30, 2004"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-202).

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2004. / "August 30, 2004"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-117).

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2005. / "August 29, 2005"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-97).

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2005. / "August 29, 2005." Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-165).

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2005. / "August 29, 2005"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-144).