March 2004 (Full text)
|
|
 Drama Lecturer wins 2004 Naledi Award.
March 2004
Gerhard Marx, newly appointed Drama lecturer, has just won the Naledi award for his unconventional set design for the play Tshepang. He received the award at the ceremony on 1 February. Written and directed by Lara Foot-Newton, the play investigated the circumstances behind the horrific rape of the one year old child known as Tshepang.
|
 TV Lecturer wins a Crystal Bear at Berlin International Film Festival
March 2004
Film Director and WSOA TV lectuter, Ntshaveni wa Luruli has won a prestigious Crystal Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival for his second feature film ?The Wooden Camera?. The film tells the story of two childhood friends who by chance discover a video camera and a gun inside a dead man?s briefcase. One chooses the camera, which he disguises as a wooden toy; the other picks the gun. From then on their lives diverge in dramatic ways.
|
April 2004 (Full text)
|
 Carlo Mombelli is 2004 Composer in Residence
April 2004
Composer and bass guitarist Carlo Mombelli is Composer in Residence at Wits during the April/May term.
From Professor Mary Rorich s introduction: "I had this crazy idea listening to Carlo Mombelli and The Prisoners of Strange last year?Why not invite Mombelli to be Wits Composer in Residence for 2004?"
|
 New gallery space launched with exhibition by Natasha Christopher
April 2004
The Substation, a new gallery and experimental performance space at WSOA was launched on Friday 19 April with an exhibition of new work by Fine Arts staff member, Natasha Christopher. Natasha, the Division s Photography Technician, was presenting the exhibition as part of her work towards an MAFA degree. The exhibition consisted of her powerful large format photographs, a video installation, and (for those who looked carefully!) a flash-based animation sequence.
|
 Physical Computing workshop in Digital Arts
April 2004
Ralph Borland, an alumni of the IPT programme at NYU, introduced physical computing to an ethusiastic group of students and industry professionals at a three day workshop held during the April vacation in Digital Arts.
Currently based at UCT, Ralph used the workshop to teach the students how to work directly with computer chips and electronic components in order to make devices which can control installations.
|
July 2004 (Full text)
|
 First phase of the Feedback 3D Animation project is successfully completed
July 2004
Based on the satirical stage play by South African performer and playwrite Andrew Buckland, this pioneering project, which is on track to become South Africa s first 3D animated feature, successfully reached the first stage of its development in WSOA Digital Arts. The "Riverside Scene" pilot was premiered on 27 March to a large and enthusiastic audience in the Digital Arts screening room.
|
 First Digital Arts group exhibition held in the new Wits Gallery
July 2004
Under the title "Terminal_extensions: bodymetrics-virtual surveillance", the Interactive Media Design class (MADA) presented their first group exhibition in the new Wits Art Gallery from 18 - 19 June. In his opening address the Head of Digital Arts, Prof Christo Doherty, welcomed the audience and congratulated the students on the standard of creativity and innovation represented by the thematically-linked works in the exhibition. He stressed that the exhibition was an important first step in the establishment of digital art forms in a South African context.
|
August 2004 (Full text)
|
 Richard Penn wins 2004 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition
August 2004
WSOA Fine Arts graduate Richard Penn, was the overall winner of the 2004 Sasol New Signatures Competition with his photographic work titled Mirror 4.Penn?s work was singled out from a record number of 408 art entries from all over South Africa from which a total of 100 works were selected and were on exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum.Describing the motivation behind his works, Penn writes: "This body of work can be seen as a narrative, made up of an event narrative thread and a character narrative thread..."
|
 2004 Martienssen award winners announced
August 2004
The joint winners for 2004 were 4th year Fine Arts students, Mitch Said and Carmen Jerrard. Their awards were announced at the opening of the Martienssen exhibition of student art on Thursday 29 July. This unique competition, which has been running in Fine Arts since 1982, features a selection of student work chosen by a panel of external judges.
|
 Johannesburg Circa Now
August 2004
Johannesburg Circa Now is a project by Jo Ractliffe and Terry Kurgan that engages with photography and the inner city of Johannesburg. The exhibition runs from 15 July until 15 October at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and also presents works by the Joubert Park Photographers Association and students at the Market Photo Workshop.
|
September 2004 (Full text)
|
 WSOA artist-in-residence exhibits at Goodman Gallery
September 2004
Peter Schutz, artist-in-residence for 2004 at WSOA, has recently held an exhibition of his sculptures and prints at the Goodman Gallery. Entitled "Extraordinary People", the exhibition featured work from the last two years of Schutz s scuptural practice. In these sculptures Schutz presents a surreal take on the suffering of Christian martyrs and mythological characters all filtered through a formal sensibility strongly influenced by African styles of carving.
|
 Expert on popular culture and video in Nigeria speaks at "In the Bag"
September 2004
In his talk, entitled Through the Prism of the Local: The Audience of Popular Video Films in Nigeria, Professor Okome explored various aspects of this uniquely African and very popular phenomenon. The organiser of the In the Bag events, WSOA TV lecturer, Lieza van Tonder, describes the motivation behind these gatherings:"Every Friday at lunchtime, students, staff, visitors and a guess speaker meet in WSOA TV Studio One to see what is IN THE BAG. So far this year we have had a mixed bag of some really exciting presentations, documentaries and short films..."
|
 Konrad Welz, a pioneer of video art in South Africa, speaks at Digital Arts Soiree.
September 2004
Sue van Zyl, an Interactive Media Design MA student, was one of the audience at Konrad Welz s presentation to the Digital Arts Friday Soiree on 20 August. She recorded her impressions of the presentation: "Sound and visual interact as a whole, each complementing the other, to create a complete art piece experience. Konrad Welz took his audience through several videos and passionately expounded how they were conceived, composed technically, and how the sounds and visuals reflect our different environments, experiences and emotions..."
|
 WSOA Head of Drama appointed as Artistic Director of the Market Theatre
September 2004
Prof Malcolm Purkey will be leaving WSOA to join the senior management team at The Market where he will be apppointed as Artistic Director. As Head of the Division of Dramatic Art at WSOA, Prof Purkey has a long list of productions to his credit and a deep understanding of South African and international theatre repertoires. He also has a proven track record of developing talent through his work at Wits.
|
October 2004 (Full text)
|
 Cercenses 3D Animation project gets under way
October 2004
|
 Interactive Video Workshop held in WSOA Digital Arts
October 2004
As part of their programme to take interactive media to a broader community of artists, Digital Arts held a three day workshop on Interactive Video from 10 - 12 September 2004. Led by part-time Digital Arts lecturer, Nathaniel Stern, the workshop attracted an interesting cross-section of Johannesburg artists, including students from the Interactive Media Design programme in Digital Arts, electronic musician Cobi van Tonder, new media designer Templar Wales; Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year, Kathryn Smith; scriptwriter Jono Cummings, and digital artist Kai Lossgot.
|
 Maskanda maestro performs at WSOA
October 2004
As part of the Liberty Life Concert Series, on 2 September 2004 a small but enthusiastic audience in the Wits Great Hall was treated to the sounds of maskanda guitar maestro Shiyani Ngcobo, with ron Meyiwa on bass and Phatekile Lukhosi on vocals. Shiyani Ngcobo was born in Umzinto on KwaZulu-Natal?s south coast and has been a maskanda musician for more than thirty years.
|
 Music Lecturer returns from Cambridge research trip
October 2004
WSOA Lecturer in Jazz, Nishlyn Ramanna, was Overseas Visiting Scholar at St. John?s College, Cambridge from January to June 2004. During this time, he researched the role of music as a "technology of identity" with regard to diasporic South Africans who have moved to the UK post-1994. He also performed a programme of original compositions with 3 other Cambridge musicians at the Masters Lodge, St Johns College. In addition he played for the Letters Home Festival of South African writing, and gave a paper on jazz and identity at a Faculty of Music Colloquium.
|
 Short course on Stop Frame animation introduced
October 2004
The latest addition to the bouquet of short courses which are offered by Digital Arts to WSOA staff and students is a short course in Stop Frame Animation. Designed and taught by Masters student, Colleen Alborough, the aim of the course is to provide the students with a very practical understanding of the principles of movement and timing in animation and film, whilst visualising their own story or artistic statement.
|
 Sparkling new interpretation of Shakespeare s The Tempest
October 2004
In his last production as Head of Dramatic Arts, Prof Malcolm Purkey directed William Shakespeare s The Tempest featuring student actors from WSOA in the First National Bank Wits Theatre. The production ran from 13 to 25 September.
|
November 2004 (Full text)
|
 WSOA composer receives presidential award for her work
November 2004
Prof Jeane Zaidel-Rodolph writes about the experience:It is with great pride that I inform you that on Friday 31st October the Order of Ikhamanga was bestowed on me by President Thabo Mbeki at a magnificent ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The wording on the gold scroll handed to me was as follows, "for her outstanding contribution as a composer, pianist and teacher in the development of music in South Africa and Internationally".
|
 Visual Literacy Course Exhibition 2004 Opening
November 2004
The exhibition represents the culmination of the students? year of working together on the course. The exhibition gives the opportunity for students to reflect on their journey, and to present some of their work to their fellow students, friends, family, and to staff at the university. It?s also a celebration of their achievement and learning, so it always is a festive occasion.
|
 Digital Art Lecturer wins a 2004 Kebble Art Award
November 2004
In the second year of the eponymous Brett Kebble Art Awards, a number of WSOA staff received awards for their entries to the competition. Art lecturers Jeremy Wafer and Bronwyn Findlay,and Drama lecturer Gerard Marx all won Merit Awards. Nathaniel Stern, a part-time lecturer in the Digital Arts Division was the winner of a Major Award for his interactive video piece, "Step Inside".
|
 WSOA students feature in the New Channel digital art competition
November 2004
Organised by Digerati and sponsored by Standard Bank, the New Channel competion seeks to stimulate creative work in digital art. Cobi Labascagne and Jane Cheadle, both MAFA students at WSOA, were the first runners up in the 2004 competition; while the other WSOA entries by Mitch Said and Nic Nesbitt made the short-list.
|
 Images from the Eye Shadow Show - WSOA Substation
November 2004
The exhibition ran from 21 October till 26 October.
|
