{"id":6714,"date":"2024-07-23T15:33:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T13:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/?p=6714"},"modified":"2025-01-16T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T14:28:29","slug":"look-back-at-the-ifas-workshop-south-african-speculative-arts-creation-circulation-reception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/uncategorized\/look-back-at-the-ifas-workshop-south-african-speculative-arts-creation-circulation-reception\/","title":{"rendered":"Look back at the IFAS-Research Workshop: &#8220;South African speculative arts: creation, circulation &amp; reception&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the 11<sup>th<\/sup> of July 2024, IFAS-Research hosted the &#8220;South African speculative arts&#8221; workshop, co-organised by Indiana Lods (Univ. de Bourgogne, one of IFAS-Research\u2019s 2024 grantees) and Alan Muller (Univ. of Pretoria), moderated by Annael Le Poullennec (IFAS-Research) and Lawrence Lemaoana (visual artist, Occupy the Gallery).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1518-1-1024x716.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6716\" width=\"494\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1518-1-1024x716.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1518-1-300x210.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1518-1-768x537.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><figcaption>Annael Le Poullennec introducing the workshop (credit: L\u00e9a Jobard)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This workshop brought together scholars, booksellers, literary agents, curators, writers and visual artists \u2013 some combining several of these occupations \u2013 all tackling the notion of &#8220;speculative art&#8221; in their respective practices. The event aimed to foster a dialogue around the definition(s) of &#8220;speculative art&#8221; in a South African context and across different art forms (literature, cinema, photography, painting, etc). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The afternoon started with a short introduction setting the basis for epistemological reflection and exposing the guiding questions of the workshop: the relevance of the &#8220;speculative&#8221; concept in South Africa, in research and in artistic practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Indiana Lods presented her PhD research project based at the University of Bourgogne (France) on futuristic narratives from Afrofuturism in American literature to South African speculative fiction. Alan Muller\u2019s paper, based on his PhD project based at the University of Pretoria, explored the horror genre across literature, cinema and visual art in post-2010 South Africa. These presentations were commented by discussants such as Lawrence Lemaoana (Occupy the gallery), Esthie Hugo (Univ. of Wits), Micheal Titlestad (Univ. of Wits), Bibi Burger (Univ. of Cape Town) and M\u00e9lanie Joseph-Vilain (Univ. de Bourgogne). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1535-1024x676.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6717\" width=\"506\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1535-1024x676.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1535-300x198.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1535-768x507.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption>Lawrence Lemaoana discussing Indiana&#8217;s and Alan&#8217;s presentations (credit: L\u00e9a Jobard)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, Russell Hlongwane presented and screened the creative research film <em>Dzata: The Institute of Technological Consciousness<\/em> (2023) by Francois Knoetze, Russel Hlongwane (in attendance) and Amy Louise Wilson (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AfhIytlFUww\">available on YouTube<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Based on the scholars\u2019 papers and the film,\nan open roundtable sparked conversation between the public, discussants and speakers\naround issues such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>the broad understanding of \u2018speculative\nart\u2019 in South Africa as a fluid and evolving term;<\/li><li>the influence of personal experience, socio-economical,\ncultural and religious backgrounds when approaching speculative arts; <\/li><li>the temporality of speculative artistic\nproductions, establishing a coexistence between past, present and future, which\nmay allow for mending disrupted relationships with the past, and resonate with certain\nSouth African spiritual practices such as ancestor worship;<\/li><li>the methodological tension between artistic\ncreativity (and the need for artists and works to go beyond labels and\ncategories) and academic research (seeking to map, define concepts and analyse artistic\nwork).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1581-1-1024x624.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6720\" width=\"497\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1581-1-1024x624.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1581-1-300x183.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1581-1-768x468.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/><figcaption>Open roundtable (credit: L\u00e9a Jobard)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1575-1-1024x627.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6721\" width=\"488\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1575-1-1024x627.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1575-1-300x184.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_1575-1-768x470.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/><figcaption> Open roundtable (credit: L\u00e9a Jobard) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Participants expressed a desire to continue\nthe discussions in future workshops or events co-created by scholars and\nartists. If you\u2019re interested in taking part in these discussions and learning\nmore about the outcomes of this workshop, feel free to contact us: <a href=\"mailto:indiana.lods@u-bourgogne.fr\">indiana.lods@u-bourgogne.fr<\/a> ; <a href=\"mailto:comm.research@ifas.org.za\">comm.research@ifas.org.za<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the 11th of July 2024, IFAS-Research hosted the &#8220;South African speculative arts&#8221; workshop, co-organised by Indiana Lods (Univ. de Bourgogne, one of IFAS-Research\u2019s 2024 grantees) and Alan Muller (Univ. of Pretoria), moderated by Annael Le Poullennec (IFAS-Research) and Lawrence Lemaoana (visual artist, Occupy the Gallery). This workshop brought together scholars, booksellers, literary agents, curators, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6714"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7349,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714\/revisions\/7349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}