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African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments

Six sections, six ways of reading African cities and, by extension, Africa. Anchored in the Cape Town metropolis - an important node in both North?South and South?South global trade networks ? this project investigates the African urban as a site of knowledge production. Rather than attempt to captu...

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Main Author: Inggs, Alice
Other Authors: Evans, Martha
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Michaelis School of Fine Art 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Inggs, Alice
author2 Evans, Martha
author_browse Evans, Martha
Inggs, Alice
author_facet Evans, Martha
Inggs, Alice
author_sort Inggs, Alice
collection Thesis
description Six sections, six ways of reading African cities and, by extension, Africa. Anchored in the Cape Town metropolis - an important node in both North?South and South?South global trade networks ? this project investigates the African urban as a site of knowledge production. Rather than attempt to capture a complete or panoramic vision of Cape Town, this project is instead a non-linear narrative of the city space constructed out of a combination of essays, narrative fragments, reportage, images and formal and informal interviews. Starting with what makes an African city "African" in African City, the investigation moves through five more thematic categories: Built Environment;; Renewal/Decay;; Everyday Urbanism;; Nature;; and Pattern. Out of each section new ways of reading the city emerge ? through architectural surfaces;; the city as archive;; pop culture;; ecology;; and design. This project is about curating and creating an analytical topography of a specific urban space in Africa;; but it is also about engaging with the urban on an experiential level. Readers are encouraged to engage in a dialogue with the urban form, to trace the contours of the city space. The textual and visual material contained within the project is rendered into building blocks, which can be rearranged into various visions of the city, transferring agency to the reader to create their own interpretation of (this) city space. This interactive element manifests an important idea underpinning the project: there are multiple lines of flight emanating from the supposed fixed grid of the post-colonial or post-apartheid city space;; the urban narrative can be rewritten;; Africa can be reimagined. Ultimately, this project is an experiment in and juxtaposition of modes of analysis, advancing new ways of reading African urban forms ? from Africa.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:56.946Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Michaelis School of Fine Art
publisherStr Michaelis School of Fine Art
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6860 African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments Inggs, Alice Evans, Martha Six sections, six ways of reading African cities and, by extension, Africa. Anchored in the Cape Town metropolis - an important node in both North?South and South?South global trade networks ? this project investigates the African urban as a site of knowledge production. Rather than attempt to capture a complete or panoramic vision of Cape Town, this project is instead a non-linear narrative of the city space constructed out of a combination of essays, narrative fragments, reportage, images and formal and informal interviews. Starting with what makes an African city "African" in African City, the investigation moves through five more thematic categories: Built Environment;; Renewal/Decay;; Everyday Urbanism;; Nature;; and Pattern. Out of each section new ways of reading the city emerge ? through architectural surfaces;; the city as archive;; pop culture;; ecology;; and design. This project is about curating and creating an analytical topography of a specific urban space in Africa;; but it is also about engaging with the urban on an experiential level. Readers are encouraged to engage in a dialogue with the urban form, to trace the contours of the city space. The textual and visual material contained within the project is rendered into building blocks, which can be rearranged into various visions of the city, transferring agency to the reader to create their own interpretation of (this) city space. This interactive element manifests an important idea underpinning the project: there are multiple lines of flight emanating from the supposed fixed grid of the post-colonial or post-apartheid city space;; the urban narrative can be rewritten;; Africa can be reimagined. Ultimately, this project is an experiment in and juxtaposition of modes of analysis, advancing new ways of reading African urban forms ? from Africa. 2014-09-02T10:03:27Z 2014-09-02T10:03:27Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6860 eng application/pdf Michaelis School of Fine Art Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Inggs, Alice
African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
thesis_degree_str Master's
title African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
title_full African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
title_fullStr African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
title_full_unstemmed African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
title_short African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
title_sort african city cape town in pieces aesthetics theories narratives fragments
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6860
work_keys_str_mv AT inggsalice africancitycapetowninpiecesaestheticstheoriesnarrativesfragments