Encounters between the Portuguese explorers of the fifteenth-century and the
people living on the southern tip of Africa initiated interaction and trade between
Europeans and Africans. My Portuguese heritage within a family of shopkeepers
has provided me with a selective point of view from which to investigate the
complexities involved in cross-cultural exchange, visual perception and image
interpretation. The analysis of appropriated surveillance footage collected from
CCTV cameras installed in the shop and the investigation of my own videos
captured with hidden digital hand-held video camcorders, elucidates concerns
related to intercultural interaction and exchange. In the shop the exchange of
goods occurs, concomitantly with an exchange of vision and cross-cultural
perception; the video camera surveys this exchange and translates it into
images. It is argued that visual and intercultural processes have, with the aid of
visual technologies and mediums (such as the panorama and digital video),
become central to the ways in which cultures are perceived. This study proposes
that interpreting images (for example in the photographs of Pieter Hugo and
Zwelethu Mthethwa), like intercultural exchange, is paradoxical and ambiguous,
as often these images evoke associations with conflicting meanings. It is argued
that iconoclasm complicates image interpretation and visual perception further,
as it is related both to destructive strategies and the vulnerability of the image.
While the study argues that visual exchanges are by nature inconsistent and
distorted, they still expose a common reciprocity and human vulnerability.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-06072011-143328 |
| Date | 07 June 2011 |
| Creators | de Jesus, Angela Vieira |
| Contributors | Prof ES Human, Mrs J AllenSpies |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-06072011-143328/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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