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Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories

Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2021.

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Main Author: Deane, Nicola Frances
Other Authors: Muller, Stephanus
Format: Thesis
Language:en_ZA
Published: Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Deane, Nicola Frances
author2 Muller, Stephanus
author_browse Deane, Nicola Frances
Muller, Stephanus
author_facet Muller, Stephanus
Deane, Nicola Frances
author_sort Deane, Nicola Frances
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv Stellenbosch University
description Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2021.
format Thesis
id oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/123656
institution Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
language en_ZA
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:44:33.029Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
publishDateSort 2021
publisher Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
publisherStr Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
record_format dspace
source_str SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
spelling oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/123656 Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories Deane, Nicola Frances Muller, Stephanus Froneman, Willemien Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts Feminism -- Archival resources Psychographies Sound recording -- Catalogs Visual arts Information storage and retrieval systems Archives -- Administration University of Stellenbosch -- Department van Musiek en die Konservatorium. Archival materials -- Management UCTD UCTD Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2021. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Decentering the Archive: Visual Fabrications of Sonic Memories navigates various strategies of inverting and subverting the ordered, categorised and confined cultural archive, in this case, the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS) at the University of Stellenbosch. This practice-based doctoral study treats DOMUS as the site for a creative production of decentered reading and writing from archival fragments, while interrogating the role and power of the archive in manipulating time and collective memories by asking the question: How should fragmented or destabilising experiences be remembered given the delinking option from both modernity and post-modernity? My referral to Decolonial theory at the start of this study prompted me to test new possibilities through the “decolonial options” that Walter Mignolo describes as operating “from the margins and beyond the margins of the modern/colonial order. It posits alternatives in relation to the control of the economy (market value), the control of the state (politics of heritage based on economic wealth), and the control of knowledge” (Mignolo & Vázquez, 2013). Since my heritage lies on the side of the coloniser while I grew up within the context of a colonised nation, my position as a South African citizen is divided and complex, hence my attraction to the margins. As an artist who cuts up and rearranges image, text, and sound, my study of an archive can never be strictly scholarly, as in, disciplined and inhibited. Hence, I determined a decolonial option of working with the archive: to re-invest it with an ability to bleed - to traverse the rigid taxonomies and artificial fictional separations between categories that are generally foundational to the archival process of storing (and building on) records of social, cultural and political practices. Sound in the archive, however, carries traces of pulse in rhythm, breath and voice – traces of blood beating – and brings to awareness the vibrations of one's own tympanic membrane. It is the fabric of sound, the pulse of a particular history through sound that stimulates the composition of memories. “Through the ear, we shall enter the invisibility of things” (Edmond Jabès, 1984). The work which is embedded in herri is divided into four passages, these are Surfaces, Invagination, Noise and The Mask. These passages are further infused by my conceptual framing through the terms “dehiscence” and “pentimento”, borrowed from the fields of medicine and painting, indicating the leap across mediums, disciplines and territories of knowledge, towards a mutidimensional understanding of time and space through and beyond the senses. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Decentering the Archive: Visual Fabrications of Sonic Memories volg verskeie strategieë van omkering en ondermyning van orde, kategorie en die ingeperkte argief, in hierdie geval die Dokumentasiesentrum vir Musiek (DOMUS) aan Stellenbosch Universiteit. Hierdie geïntegreerde doktorale studie gebruik DOMUS as ‘n terrein vir die kreatiewe skep van gedesentraliseerde lesings en skrywes in argivale fragmente. Die studie neem die rol en mag van die argief in die manipulasie van tyd en kollektiewe herinneringe onder oorweging, en vra: Hoe word gedestabiliseerde en gefragmenteerde ervarings onthou in die lig van die uitoefening van die opsie om te ontkoppel aan moderniteit en post-moderniteit? Dekoloniale teorie, met verwysing na die “dekoloniale opsies” wat Walter Mignolo beskryf as synde aktief “in die kantlyne en duskant die kantlyne van die moderne/koloniale orde”, was ‘n vertrekpunt om nuwe moontlikhede te toets in hierdie verband; opsies wat alternatiewe postuleer “in verhouding tot die beheer oor die ekonomie (markwaarde) die beheer oor die staat (die politiek van erfenis gebaseer op ekonomiese welvaart), en die beheer oor kennis.” (Mignolo & Vázquez, intyds: 2013). Aangesien ek grootgeword het in die konteks van ‘n gekoloniseerde land, is my erfenis ‘n koloniale een, en is my posisie as Suid-Afrikaanse burger gesplete en kompleks. Daarom fokus ek op dít wat marginaal is. As ‘n kunstenaar wat werk met beeld, teks, klank, uitvoering, hauntologie en remix, kan my bemoeienis met die argief nooit net streng vakkundig en akademies wees nie. Een moontlik dekoloniale opsie om met die argief te werk, sou kon wees om dit te her-investeer met die moontlikheid om te bloei – om die rigiede taksonomieë en kunsmatige fiktiewe verwyderings tussen kategorieë wat oor die algemeen funderend is tot die argivale prosesse van die berging (en uitbouiing) van rekords van sosiale, kulturele en politieke praktyke, oor te steek. Klank in die argief dra die polsing van ritme, asem en stem – eggo’s van pompende bloed – en skep ‘n bewussein van die vibrasies van die eie tempaniese membraan. Dit is die tekstuur van klank, die polsing van ‘n partikuliere geskiedenis deur klank, wat die komposisie van herinneringe stimuleer. “Deur die oor sal ons die onsigbaarheid van dinge binnegaan” (Edmond Jabès, 1984). Die studie is verdeel in vier gange: Oppervlaktes, Invaginering, Geraas en Die Masker. Hierdie gange word verder belig deur konseptuele rame aan die orde gestel deur die terme “dehiscence” and “pentimento”, ontleen aan die studievelde van die geneeskunde en die skilderkuns. Hiermee poog ek ‘n sprong tussen media, dissiplines, en territoriums van kennis om te reik na ‘n multidimensionele verstaan van tyd en ruimte, deur en buite die sintuiglike. Dit alles word gekalibreer en gefokus deur die lens van die domestieke. Doctoral 2021-09-07T09:05:44Z 2021-12-22T14:14:20Z 2021-09-07T09:05:44Z 2021-12-22T14:14:20Z 2021-12 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/123656 en_ZA Stellenbosch University 8 pages : illustrations application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
spellingShingle Feminism -- Archival resources
Psychographies
Sound recording -- Catalogs
Visual arts
Information storage and retrieval systems
Archives -- Administration
University of Stellenbosch -- Department van Musiek en die Konservatorium.
Archival materials -- Management
UCTD
UCTD
Deane, Nicola Frances
Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories
title Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories
title_full Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories
title_fullStr Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories
title_full_unstemmed Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories
title_short Decentering the archive: visual fabrications of sonic memories
title_sort decentering the archive visual fabrications of sonic memories
topic Feminism -- Archival resources
Psychographies
Sound recording -- Catalogs
Visual arts
Information storage and retrieval systems
Archives -- Administration
University of Stellenbosch -- Department van Musiek en die Konservatorium.
Archival materials -- Management
UCTD
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/123656
work_keys_str_mv AT deanenicolafrances decenteringthearchivevisualfabricationsofsonicmemories