Through the Photovoice process, the Honours VA students achieved a greater awareness of the socio-dynamics experienced by the street reclaimers and were tasked with arranging a participatory colloquium to share the content of this discussion, based on students’ semi-structured interviews with wastereclaimers. Introduction The project’s primary aim was to engage Visual Art (VA) Honours students in participatory research and visual methodologies to collaborate with street reclaimers, or to respond to their stories in ethical and productive ways that have mutually beneficial outcomes. An invitation was extended to the Visual Art Department by the University of Pretoria (UP) to produce a body of work for exhibition at a Summer School colloquium, as part of the international Documenta-15 symposium in Kassel, Germany in July 2022. Head of the Department of Visual Art, Gordon Froud, was able to travel to Germany with Avi Sooful from UP to exhibit and present the works and research project at the Documenta-15 symposium. Before the work left for Germany, the students assisted in arranging a colloquium at FADA to share the outcomes and learnings with the community and collaborating partners. Teaching & learning benefits for students Students across the three collaborating institutions, namely University of Johannesburg (UJ) Visual Art students (Honours and third-year printmaking students), UP Honours students, and third-year Artist Proof Studio (APS) students, achieved a range of learning opportunities and outcomes. The VA Honours students, together with the Art Therapy Honours students attended an eight-week module of visual and participatory methods for community interventions, presented by me and guest specialists. This is an online series of seminars during the first term, with practical assignments that stretched across the semester, including participatory exchanges, work placements, and reflective and visual presentations that were self-and peer assessed. The VA Honours students learnt participatory methods and the ethics protocol of conducting Photovoice interviews with reclaimers, which included full consent for the public display of imagery, anonymity as required, and fair material exchange for stories and photographs (ethics protocol provided). A fair exchange (not monetary payment) took the form of food parcels. The purpose of the exchange was to identify opportunities for developing cross-disciplinary community engagements, to enhance a student contribution in support of initiatives that improve conditions for the street reclaimers of Johannesburg. Through the Photovoice process, the Honours VA students achieved a greater awareness of the socio-dynamics experienced by the street reclaimers and were tasked with arranging a participatory colloquium to share the content of this discussion, based on students’ semi-structured interviews with waste-reclaimers. In addition, third-year printmaking students collaborated with senior students from APS in jointly producing three group artworks using ‘green’ /not-toxic etching techniques, by using recycled materials for the exhibition. The Honours students were further tasked with arranging a student-led colloquium at FADA, with all invited stakeholders as participants. Learning about others from this project All participating students from collaborating institutions (UJ, APS and UP) attended a colloquium and invited their community partners. The work was exhibited in the FADA Atrium, before being packaged and shipped to Germany. The students were interviewed about their learnings from the project, extracts of which were video-recorded and screened at the colloquia, which gave members of the UJ FADA community and local partners an opportunity to see the work. The platform in Germany enabled an international audience and exchange. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 19
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjU1NDYx