This thesis is an attempt at understanding South African photography through the lens of Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko, Tracy Rose, David Goldblatt, Jo Ractliffe and Santu Mofokeng. Through the works discussed this thesis intends to unpack photography as a complex medium similar to that of language and text, as well as attempt to understand how exploring South African experiences and spaces through the lens of photography shapes and mediates them. Furthermore it also attempts to understand how these experiences and spaces conversely affect the discourse of photography or at the very least our perception of it. Through these photographers and their works it is hoped that ultimately the interconnected relationship of exchanging codes that takes place between photography and society will be highlighted. The example of connectivity or dialogue I believe exists between the medium of photography and the physical/social and psychological spaces it photographs will be mediated through Deleuze and Guattari‟s conception of “the wasp and the orchid” where “the wasp becomes the orchid, just as the orchid becomes the wasp...an exchanging or capturing of each other‟s codes”. Other theorists I will be looking at include Vilém Flusser, focusing in particular on his book Towards a Philosophy of Photography, as well as Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and others. The main aims and objectives of this thesis are to understand the veracity of the documentary image and whether or not the image harbours any objective truth, as well as whether truth, if it can truly be said to exist in the world, resides between the camera and the seen world. This dichotomy is further complicated by the matter of subject-hood and technical and philosophical understandings of the camera as an apparatus. At no point do I aim to be conclusive, rather it is hoped that by developing the dynamic tension between the theory and the image world that I will be able to bring fresh insight into the reading of a changing South African condition and the subject position of the photographer in relation to this condition.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:38:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabiane Morais Borges.pdf: 3503545 bytes, checksum: 7297b721aeaa0cb975f5cbd2df5be8ad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis has arisen from the complex Internet networks intending to build up new Space paradigms based on practices of free software and hardware and open source systems, as they appeared, roughly, since the turn of the century. In order to examine these new paradigms, I consider prior processes connected to the Space Culture. The text goes back to the history of the Space Race; the first rockets, the first satellites, some tenets of the international politics that guided the cold war in the years after the Second World War. I bring up interesting elements of the Space programs both of the US and the USSR, as well as the main technicians and scientists behind the engineering of the rockets. The research dives in the rockets of Nazi Germany who first invested in the production of rockets, goes to communist Russia as well as to liberal post-war America. The thesis brings up ideas concerning Space utopias, science fiction in literature and cinema and engages with the difference between Space exploration taken up by humans and by robots. It examines the first rocket flights and the first artificial satellites placed in outer Space, paying attention to the particulars of each of those first endeavors, to their purpose and to how much they accomplished their mission. The thesis is therefore ready to question the importance of the Space Race to human imagination and to analyse the realm of Space dreams from the late 19th century up to now. The last part of the thesis is concerned with the groups that are building Space travels in an independent way, moved either by ideological or by commercial reasons. The investigation uncovers the ideas of each of those groups concerning Space exploration. It then goes on to think the relation between the makers of such exploration and a possible industrial revolution. Finally, the thesis raises some criticisms to the creative processes of individuals, groups, networks and social movements that are concerned with the outer Space / Essa tese surge a partir das complexas redes de internet voltadas à construção de novos paradigmas espaciais, baseadas em práticas de software e hardware livre e sistemas open source que surgiram, a grosso modo, a partir dos anos 2000. Mas para chegar nesse ponto foi preciso investigar processos anteriores em relação à Cultura Espacial. O texto retoma a história da Corrida Espacial, os primeiros foguetes, os primeiros satélites, a política que estava em voga durante os anos da Guerra Fria pós II Guerra Mundial. Ela tenta levantar os pontos de tensão dos programas espaciais da União Soviética e dos Estados Unidos, assim como dos principais técnicos que estavam por traz de toda a engenharia de foguetes. Vai mergulhar na Alemanha Nazista que foi a primeira a investir irrestritamente na produção de foguetes, passeia pela Russia comunista e o liberalismo americano. A tese traz à tona ideias sobre utopias espaciais, ficção científica na literatura e no cinema, e analisa a diferença entre exploração espacial humana e robótica. Traz tabelas dos primeiros vôos espaciais e os primeiros satélites levados ao Espaço, atentando para as particularidades de cada um deles, para que serviam e que fim levaram. Levanta questionamentos sobre a importância da Corrida Espacial para a imaginação humana e analisa o arco dos sonhos espaciais desde o final do século XIX até os dias atuais. O final da tese é dedicada aos grupos que estão retomando a questão das viagens espaciais de forma independente, sejam grupos ideológicos ou mais empresariais e as ideias de cada um a respeito da exploração espacial. Pensa a relação dos makers com uma possível revolução industrial e levanta algumas críticas aos processos criativos de indivíduos, grupos, redes e movimentos sociais que se dedicam ao espaço

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