Nothando Lunga
Unit 18 Hyperreal prototypes
2020
Prologue
In 2018, the World Bank stated that South Africa has “one of the highest inequality rates in the world[…], inequality that is perpetuated by a legacy of exclusion and that is not pro-poor” (World Bank, 2018). This project explores an alternative architectural typology of “protest sustained by memory” (Hooks, 1989) in pursuit of a politically motivated speculation of contemporary and future definitions of equality – through exposing the ghosts and hauntings of past repressive systems in the present. Advancing theories of memory to account for contemporary forms of activism through design – Bell Hooks, Avery Gordon, Don Mattera, and Lebbeus Woods – are authors that write about the importance of remembering, the possibility of transformation sustained by memory and architecture of resistance.
Bell Hooks writes in her essay ‘Choosing the margin as a radical space of openness’ “the margin is not only seen as a site of deprivation but rather a site of radical possibility and resistance” (Hooks 1989: 20). The project operates in the margin as a space that necessitates resistance against oppression, to transform, and speculate alternative futures and new discourses. By creating a resistance sustained by “remembering that serves to illuminate and transform the present” (Hooks 1989:4). The project explores memory as an essential apparatus of transformation, questioning how a series of mnemonic devices may act as grounds for speculative futures for equality in institutional spaces of power?
“There's a need to create spaces where one can redeem and reclaim the past, legacies of pain, suffering and triumph in ways that transform present reality”
- bell hooks
The project is an installation of a series of prototypes that challenge the different aspects of the Bill of Rights and is situated at the Constitutional Court. Reframing the question surrounding equality and what it means to be equal in a post-apartheid context, further identifying those marginalised in the process of democratising equality. The work begins with an in-depth research and exploration into the Bill of Rights and its formations, along with recent protest movements which challenged the status quo of institutions of power such as Rhodes Must Fall, and Fees Must Fall. Studying their tactics of resistance to rectify the past and transform existing policy. They will be researched for the events as well as how they are held in memory for as Plate argues memories consist of “Images, scents, sounds, touch, taste – memories are manifold” (Plate 2005:137).
The project explores the use of digital and analogue simulations that depict lived experiences to inform memory, which include a dossier, film, physical and digital models. Creating a series of prototypes that are informed by memories of the past and present realities. Exploring the ability to curate a protest using a multi-sensorial interactive exhibition that prompts memories and subverts power. The project is further challenged by the notion of a hyperreal prototype; if what the project represents is a series of memories of the margin as a prototype, where and what is the original? Is there an original or is the margin a continuous simulation of replication and repetition?
The overall project proposes a form of resistance to being erased or simulated by challenging existing powers. Exposing the margins set in place by dominant power structures that promote the illusion of a “free” and “equal” country.
Embodied archive
Woven Memoir
Layers of memory:
- Khulu's grass mats, crocheted decorative elements
- Ncane's woven plastic mats
- Mamndindi
- Hair braiding on the steps
Making from memory, this loom was constructed using a collection of memories of my youth. This piece is a collective memoir of the women who I witnessed growing up, creating beatufil crafts using the skills that they were taught in bantu schools, which under the apartheid regime ensured that the black student was taught skills that would keep them inferior in society, skills that would always keep non-whites as subservient beings to white supremecy.
Spatial archive
Layers of the prop
A space for resistance
Protest in South Africa
Hallmark of political culture
1976 Soweto Uprising
1976 Soweto Uprising
1955-1960 forced removals, sophiatown
1956 women's march
2017 #AfrikaansSalBly student movement
2016 Red Ants evictions, Downtown JHB
Current GBV Nationwide march
2015/6 #FeesMustFall student movement
Site
Constitution Hill
- A site for resistance
- Constitutional court
Situated at Constitution Hill, a political enclave shaped by time. The sites identity is haunted by the ghosts of a divisive history and a future founded on the recognition of human rights and democracy represented by the constitutional court.
Site
Awaiting trial block
- Treason trial of 1956
The awaiting trial block was demolished during the construction of the new constitutional court. The project takes interest in the remaining fragments of the building and the liberating legacy of the building as a space that once permitted unexpected encounters that would one day shape the future of South Africa.
The Archive
Major design proposal
“We need to know where we live to imagine living elsewhere... we need to imagine living elsewhere before we can live there”
- Avery Gordon
Political context
Four significant events
- 1956 Treason Trial
- 2009 Anguish longer than sorrow
- 2015/6 #FeesMustFall
- 2017 #AfrikaansSalBly
covered by the dust of defeat or so the conquerors believed, but there is nothing hidden in the mind. Nothing that memory cannot reach or touch or call back"
- Don Mattera
Mnemonic devices
Archival methods
- Making from memory
- Performance
- Film
- Online repository
- Sound
- Algorithm
- Design
Making from Memory
Performance
Film
Online repository
Algorithm
“Necessity of a resistance that is sustained by the remembrance of the past, must include a recollection of broken tongues, giving us ways to speak that decolonize our minds and our very beings”
- bell hooks
Mnemonic devices
Sonic Memory Cloud
- Oral archives
- Protests and movements
- Soundscapes
- Audio playlists
- Music and poetry
Acknowledging that sound has the power to incite recollection 'Sonic Memory Cloud' an online repository was created as a response. Archiving audio clips from past protests, testimonies, oral histories, speeches, and interviews of prominent human rights activists and activist music and poetry.
Protest and architecture
Measuring architectures participation during protests
- #FeesMustFall 2016/7
- RedAnts Evictions 2017
Architecture plays a role during protests either as an enabler of protest or a hindrance to those participating in such. In this step I explored two historical events in Johannesburg where basic human rights were violated. The reading of written testimony and film are combined in this shortened clip to reveal architecture's role during the #FeesMustFall protest at WITS Great Hall.
Mnemonic devices
Algorithmic response
The late poet and apartheid activist Kgositsile Keorapetse wrote the poem Anguish longer than sorrow in 2009, contesting borders and the subjugation of foreigners. Here, poetry and film are combined to efficiently condense and expose life in Johannesburg city through the eyes of a child.
Final gathering
Mnemonic devices
Algorithmic response
The late poet and apartheid activist Kgositsile Keorapetse wrote the poem Anguish longer than sorrow in 2009, contesting borders and the subjugation of foreigners. Here, poetry and film are combined to efficiently condense and expose life in Johannesburg city through the eyes of a child.
Setting
- 29th December 2017
- Constitutional Hill Piazza
- Day of the final judgment of the UFS vs AFRIFORUM language policy case.
Plan
Section four prison
#AfrikaansSalBly
#FeesMustFall
Awaiting trial block
Treason trial cell
Anguish longer than sorrow
Old fort
Constitutional court
"...history as an archival reality that folds into an unreality of things that fade away"
- Jussi Parikka
Mnemonic Device & Final Gathering
Film and poetry
Anguish longer than sorrow
The late poet and apartheid activist Kgositsile Keorapetse wrote the poem Anguish longer than sorrow in 2009, contesting borders and the subjugation of foreigners. Here, poetry and film are combined to efficiently condense and expose life in Johannesburg city through the eyes of a child.
Final Gathering
Private discussion chamber
Final gathering
#FeesMustFall
Final gathering
#AfrikaansSalBly
Final Gathering
Aural experience
Final Gathering
Holographic projections
