Storytelling through video game artworks – Twee kante van ’n storie
- Authors: Randall, Tasmin Tania
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Colored people (South Africa) Ethnic identity , Colored people (South Africa) in art , Storytelling in art , Digital art , Browser game , Art Video games , Autoethnography , Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art , Discrimination based on hair texture , Swag
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425355 , vital:72232
- Description: This mini-thesis serves as a supporting document for my Master of Fine Art (MFA) exhibition, ‘Twee Kante van ‘n Storie’. The exhibition explores my culture and experiences as a ‘Coloured’ woman in Makhanda through storytelling. I use the term ‘Coloured’ with quotation marks to remain respectful to those who do not wish to reclaim the term. My minithesis analyses how video games as artworks can be a mode of storytelling and can encourage sociocultural awareness. In my research, I use storytelling as a tool and autoethnography as a methodology to both discuss and influence my practice. For my MFA installation, I have created a digital interactive website that uses the same language as a video game. Throughout my process, I have used two video games, That Dragon Cancer and Boet Fighter, as case studies, in order to help the building and creation of my autoethnographic art video game. My art video game explores my experiences of my culture and living in a small town. Through the creation of four fictionalised characters, which are loosely based on true life experiences and first-hand observations, I can reveal and unpack cultural experiences and biases that I have observed over the years. Each character in the game grapples with one of three prominent themes; stereotypes, ‘swagger’ and texturism. Furthermore, through using autoethnography as a methodology and the researcher as the phenomenon (Ellis, 2004: 45). This study contributes to the gap in ‘Coloured’ cultural diversities that exist outside the lens of the Western Cape experience. This is a perspective not commonly found within academia. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Exploring black South African men’s lived experiences of being fathered
- Authors: Rasebitse, Karabo
- Date: 2022-04-07
- Subjects: Fatherhood South Africa , Fathers and sons South Africa Psychological aspects , Masculinity Social aspects South Africa , Hegemony South Africa , Social constructionism South Africa , Culture , Men, Black Attitudes South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294504 , vital:57227
- Description: There is a lack of research studies in South Africa that explore young men’s lived experiences of being fathered. The aim of this study focused on exploring how Black South African men construct and understand their own lived experiences of being fathered by their biological father. This research study is situated within a social constructionism methodology and theoretical framework. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with young men between the ages of 18-24. Data were analysed using thematic analysis as a way of analysing participants’ stories. Three central themes with subthemes emerged. The main themes regarded the father behaviour, fatherly roles and participants’ constructions of fatherhood. The study argues that fatherhood is a social construct based on participants’ lived experiences. Participants in this research still view fatherhood from cultural discourses, such as the provider/protector and a moral guider/role to construct fatherhood. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2022
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Tronkvoël: An exploration of the intersection of personal experiences and identities, concerning depression
- Authors: Kramer, Brunn David
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Mental illness in art , Art, South African 21st century , Metaphor in art , Depression, Mental , Prisons in art , Identity (Philosophical concept) in art , Gender identity in art , Intersectionality (Sociology)
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191647 , vital:45129
- Description: My diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder in 2018 led to my experience of a terrible loneliness and a peculiar isolation that triggered a feeling of imprisonment. The work thus engages with the idea of prison as a metaphor for depression, and is influenced by earlier work that centred around prisons and ex-prisoners. I explore the intersection of gender-based issues, homophobia, racism and religious prejudice that is based on my experiences and identities, in an attempt to understand the depression and communicate the complex prejudices I face in my daily life. The work is based on my lived experience, through which depression can feel like a self-constructed prison. Thus, by visually communicating my lived experiences with depression as a coloured, queer body, I also aim to encourage dialogue and open up conversations around mental illness, as it is all too is often seen as taboo, particularly in communities of colour. I harness old family photographs as a departure point to investigate personal memory, as well as recently captured selfies to explore my narrative of self-imprisonment. I also integrate objects from childhood games such as glass marbles, with prison objects like paper mache dice and shivs all presented in the form of an installation. My invisible prison is visually communicated further through incorporating visual language of the prison – including tattoos, prison slang, and ‘shifts and shanks’ (makeshift weapons). I use a variety of mediums, including charcoal, photographic transfers, paint and linocuts, with a combination of burning and smoking techniques, made by using candle soot, as a primary feature throughout my work. In this mini-thesis I reflect on memories from my childhood and the way they have informed my experience of depression as a self-constructed prison. I position my practice in relation to the work of South African artist Tsoku Maela who navigates similar concerns in his own artworks. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2021
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What is political corruption?: A philosophical analysis
- Authors: Onah, Gideon Owogeka
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Political corruption , Political ethics , Political science Philosophy , Philp, Mark , Thompson, Dennis F (Dennis Frank), 1940- , Miller, Seumas
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192298 , vital:45213
- Description: The concept of political corruption is crucial in political discourses. Since the 1990s, there has been a massive resurgence of focus on political corruption. Definitional accounts of the concept have been proposed. This work is a critique of the accounts that have since been provided. I argue that these definitions are inadequate, offering an alternative. The predominant definition of the concept is that it refers to public officials’ violations of public office rules due to their respective interests in private gain. I consider this wrong for three reasons. First, politics includes more than the activities of public officials. Second, that is not the only behaviour that is contrary to the moral imperatives of politics. Third, the lack of political integrity is not just about acting wrongly. It also includes the possession of political vices. Observing the inadequacy of the dominant perspective, Seumas Miller offers a more comprehensive definition. He defines political corruption as any act that despoils the moral character of political actors and undermines the processes and purposes of legitimate political institutions. However, his definition is also insufficient. First, he includes some immoral non-political acts as examples of political corruption, although he agrees that political corruption entails immorality in politics. Second, he unjustifiably excludes some immoral political actions as denoting political corruption. In contrast, I define political corruption as possessing political vices or acting contrary to moral, political imperatives. This definition is a comprehensive reflection of what it means to lack political integrity. My thesis begins with a critical account of politics and its moral imperatives. That is the criteria for determining what political corruption is. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Philosophy, 2021
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