Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree: Master of Architecture (Professional) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / Hyperembodiment is an approach to negotiating the interface between spaces for women (in
Johannesburg’s inner-city) and jewellery as a connector of the body – especially for women
– to place. The inner-city, a space that is male-dominated and where women are present but
seem to be largely excluded, or to feel unsafe and vulnerable - especially because of what
the female body represents in an ‘unsafe’ male space, is also full of vibrancy and activity and
has the potential for a positive and radical cultural change, but remains disconnected, nonprogressive
and stagnant in thinking as well as non-inclusive of all people.
The spatial investigations into places for women (modern feminist spatial concepts) and
jewellery as a ‘site’ or interface between the body and architecture, and the interesting
parallels it draws between feminist views, space, psychology and the body (process and
development of body adornment and jewellery theories), are powerful ways of thinking
about space that could suggest an appropriate architectural approach that could realign
both spaces for women, a modern approach to the act of making, and creative jewellery
practices in Johannesburg.
The spatial connotations of the word ‘hyper’ is something that is ‘very’, ‘beyond’, or ‘very active’
and those of the word ‘embodiment’ is something ‘embodying’, ‘representing’ or ‘expressing’
a space. The compound word ‘Hyperembodiment’ used here means beyond embodiment,
or very actively personifying a space and its innate properties of land, earth, materials, and
the bodies (people) in it. It is also all the layers of embodiment – physical, historical, social
layers – that are collaged together in one time and in one space to create a high-intensity
and complex expression of place. Jewellery as a connector; for the body and for woman to
place, would be these collaged layers made into a physical object and symbol made from the
materials, earth, historical and social layers. It is a simultaneous case of the wearer embodying
the place, and the place embodying the wearer. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/22974 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Dewar, Katherine Jane |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (212 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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