sorry, jo@turbulence.org

Jo-Anne Green wrote:

> Hi Kevin,
>
> There are several South Africans I can put you in touch with if you'd
> like to contact me directly.
>
> Best,
> Jo
>
> Kevin McCauley wrote:
>
> > Hey there,
> >
> > this is my first posting on rhizome…
> >
> > I'm an American expat artist/teacher in Cape Town. i arrived a few
> > months ago (i lived in this amazing city before, couldnt stay
> > away…), and just started work at city varsity, a local media arts
> > college. its very exciting…there place is just buzzing, everyone
> > running around in every direction, all sorts of changes and new
> > ideas…
> >
> > I've been assigned the task of creating the school's foundatioins
> > program for first years, and researching/exploring for the school's
> > grounding educational philosophy, looking at new design
> possibilities
> > for organizing the structures of its various interlaced
> > communities/departments. theres a general agreement that there's
> > potential for some interesting things to happen…
> >
> > i'm looking for anyone and everyone who can dialog with me about
> this
> > process…i'm looking in every direction: from materials science
> (for
> > structural systems), to institutional design, media studies and arts
> > programs all over the place, people doing work on arts and media
> > education development in the context of post-apartheid south
> > africa…and so on…
> >
> > the thread that i have in my head today is some kind of systematic
> use
> > of how south africa's experience now parallels global trends. South
> > Africa's historical/contemporary shift from segregation and violent
> > social design to integration and conscious social transformation is
> > progressing at the same time as global culture's drive toward
> further
> > integration reaches ever-louder crescendos…
> >
> > theres another important point, which i have made before…that all
> of
> > the terms that seem to characterise our lives today and the terms we
> > use to describe/theorise the mediascapes of global culture
> > (intertextuality, multimediation, appropriation/sampling,
> performative
> > call-and-response modes of expression, etc.)….these are the same
> > principles that have animated african artistic thinking and
> creativity
> > from antiquity…long before anyone thought of being post-anything.
> >
> > i wonder what media objects will look like when their multiple
> > expressive technologies have been remixed by the first
> > post-authoritarian generations of artists???
> >
> > what would an intermedia arts college look like if it were to
> respond
> > not only to the global stimuli of hypertechnology, media-saturation,
> > hyper-technology, etc, but also to the specifics of the south
> african
> > context–also in motion from radical segregation to radical
> > integration…
> >
> > what shape? what structure? its primarily an image media school,
> but
> > keep going back to sonic/audio rather than physical or visual
> > metaphors…i.e. the school/community sets down a rhythm, the
> teachers
> > and learners improvise rhythms and harmonies in collaboration within
> > that original track.
> >
> > I have not come up with any specific models…but i'm trying to get
> > people talking about it wherever i go…
> >
> > im really interested to hear what anyone has to say.
> >
> > cheers,
> > kevin