chr 500-0bchr 500-0bchr 500-0bchr 500-0b
  • Home
  • About
    • DSI-NRF Flagship
    • Partnerships
    • Funders
    • Staff
    • Reports
  • Research Platforms
    • Areas of Focus
      • Aesthetic Education and the Becoming Technical of the Human
      • Migrating Violence
      • Political Theory and Philosophy
      • Visual History and Theory
      • Kinetic Objects
      • Communicating the Humanities
    • NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory
      • Postgraduate bursaries and postdoctoral fellowships in Visual History & Theory
      • Postgraduate Module In Visual History, 2023 (HIS 735/835)
    • Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance
    • Factory of the Arts
      • About the Factory of the Arts
      • Convening the Factory of the Arts
      • Artists in Residence
    • Laboratory of Kinetic Objects
    • Other Universals
    • Seminar Programme
    • Publications
  • Greatmore
  • Fellowship Programme
    • Fellows
    • Winter School
    • Visiting Scholars
  • Media
    • Video
    • Podcast
    • Galleries
    • Film
  • Events
    • Workshops
    • Conferences
    • Lectures
    • Special Meetings
    • Colloquia
    • Seminars
    • Exhibitions
    • Arts Events
  • News
  • Contact
✕

Reboot Eden: The Art of Recovery

Written by Jane Taylor

For the past ten years the Centre for Humanities Research’s Laboratory of Kinetic Objects has been engaged in a mutual education and arts initiative (along with partners Net Vir Pret, Handspring Puppet Company, uKwanda Puppetry and Design Collective, and Magpie Collective) in the village of Barrydale some three hours outside of Cape Town. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this years Barrydale parade is set to convene remotely.
Reboot Eden Poster
For the past ten years the Centre for Humanities Research’s Laboratory of Kinetic Objects has been engaged in a mutual education and arts initiative (along with partners Net Vir Pret, Handspring Puppet Company, uKwanda Puppetry and Design Collective, and Magpie Collective) in the village of Barrydale some three hours outside of Cape Town.

In December 2019, the theatrical puppetry parade and performance in Barrydale was a harsh and urgent appeal from the rural village. The young people of Barrydale, together with the creative partners, chose to make a show about environmental disaster; staging a planet infected because of neglect, over-exploitation and carelessness. The show presented us with agiant robot that was spraying toxins across the fields in order to maximize profit; because all human life had ceased, it was up to the insects to get together to save the last remaining seedling, in order to have life continue. The show had something of the mood of a science-fiction project but the next year, 2020 has revealed the sense of crisis to be science fact.

Life imitates art. This past year we have all had to reckon with the effects of an exhausted and exploited world-system, an environment in distress and a global pandemic. Everyone around the world is battling with the impact of Covid-19. (Ironically, the Covid was first identified in the same weeks that this production was underway in the research-project in Barrydale – Covid-19 is named after 2019.)

2020 has been a year very troubled and distressing, with massive accelerating unemployment, and fear about human-contact and infection. The Barrydale initiative this year “Reboot Eden” seeks to honour the creative links we have held with care over the past  decade; where a regard for education through arts has been honoured. The creative cycle of the village has, for ten years now, been in a meaningful way, focussed around what is learned in this endeavour: with musical composition and performance, script-writing, costume design, acting and puppetry-design and manipulation all activities that engage the complex and diverse talents of school children. Large questions about social justice, the history of slavery, environmental responsibility, water security and endangered species have all been addressed through deft playfulness.

Given the enormous constraints around health and safety this year, we have had to adapt our methods and processes. In some ways, this has made everyone in the process more aware of the technical elements of communication, and the participants on the team have been engaging in online discussions. Curiously, this has meant that there have been several meetings possible between the rural and urban members of the program (although at times there has been a real problem around data provision highlighting the unevenness of access between city and country youth in South Africa) Nonetheless there has been learning and participation available through digital instruments, and we are aware that this is a journey that is now irreversible. The obligation on us all is to ensure that the advance into the ‘global’ arena of online communication is a positive and not a negative one.

Because this is the tenth year of the Barrydale Parade, we are planning a kind of ‘greatest hits’ event. There will be no Parade, as such, because of concerns about Covid; rather there will be four small-scale shows (although they still use the large-scale puppets). The scripts have been written through workshops, and will each be rehearsed and performed in small and medically safe groups of youngsters, mentors and educators; and these events will be filmed.

This has generated a great deal of interest in the processes of film-making, and Net Vir Pret has been working with a film and media activist who recently moved to the village. The young artists have been exploring the world of sound, and making soundscapes of Barrydale, as well as working on learning about documentary as they archive the history of the parade.

There will be four films made with and by the young people of Barrydale, as part of the arts education process, which this year expands from live performance and puppetry arts, to film and sound-composition. These films will be pre-recorded and live-streamed. There will no doubt be an impact on the income generated for Barrydale, but we have to hope that the gains in distribution and circulation of these small films will in the future draw visitors back to the village in greater numbers, once people observe for themselves what a wonderfully beautiful village this is, as communities try to come to terms with the legacies of apartheid in the region. The Net Vir Pret Barrydalers are environmental activists, with a deep commitment to the wellness of their region. This makes it a very special context indeed. The four films will engage old favourites- the life-sized elephant puppets; dassies (rock hyraxes), the giant red-fin fish, the eland, the ostrich, the secretary bird.

One production in particular explores the distress and loss of the past year; as its narrative arises out of a work written and conceived by the Net Vir Pret young artists who this year had somehow to work through the anguish of losing a young woman in the village through a violent crime. The film tells of a young woman afraid of a shadow that she feels pursues her, and how she is strengthened and helped through the intervention of a tortoise and a secretary-bird.

Each year of making is also a year of learning; in 2020 we are joined by a scholar from UWC, Dr William Ellis who will be documenting an archive of plant-memories. Young people from Barrydale will develop specific and personal archives of their relations to plants from the region that were either part of their family memory, or in some way integral to the sense of a geographically (and botanically) specific self, that emerged in a relationship to the living and growing world.

Centre for Humanities Research:

Barrydale Parade:

More about Barrydale


The Net vir Pret Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance: 18 December 2022

Rehearsals are full steam ahead in Barrydale for the 2022 Puppet Performance and Parade created and produced by members of the CHR and aesthetic education partner, Net vir Pret.

Read more

What A Wonderful World

The 2021 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance centres on a family living in Barrydale and the connection a young woman has with an ancient indigenous tree, Old Gwarrie, as well as with the wonderful world she calls home.

Read more

From the Office of the Vice-Chancellor: Statement on the Barrydale Reconciliation Day Festival

Statement from the University of the Western Cape Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Professor Tyrone Pretorius, on the Tenth Anniversary of the Barrydale Reconciliation Day Festival.

Read more

Reboot Eden: Celebrating Ten Years of Puppetry in Barrydale

The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (CHR), in partnership with Net vir Pret are celebrating 10 years of puppetry in Barrydale. Reboot Eden will be an online program of four new puppet performances that will be available online from the 16th -19th December 2020.

Read more

Die Virus

The song was inspired by a request made to Selanvor (who is fast becoming one of Barrydale’s celebrated young artists) from residents of the village, to create an artistic response to the virus and the time we are in now.

Read more

The Final Spring (Barrydale 2019)

The Centre for Humanities Research and partners Net vir Pret present the ninth annual Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade and Performance.

Read more

Net vir Pret at the Assitej Creative Arts Training Programme for After School Practitioners and The Future Focus Education Conference

Five new interns and three staff members from Net vir Pret participated in the week long workshops focused on Creative Arts development for After School Practitioners.

Read more

RIVER AND REDFIN

The CHR and Net Vir Pret Annual Giant Puppet Parade and Performance, Barrydale, 16 December 2018

Read more

Renosterbos: Barrydale Festival 2017

The end of each year, for Handspring Puppet Company and the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR, DST-NRF Flagship), has in the past eight years culmin

Read more

Olifantland

The Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, Handspring Puppet Company, Ukwanda, Net Vir Pret, Magpie Art Collective and Stanley John Films present […]

Read more

Olifantland – Trailer

A Film by Stanley John The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance, called Olifantland, a multilingual visual theatre show featuring five majestic life size elephant […]

Read more

Olifantland – Barrydale Parade 2016

The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance brings you Olifantland, a multilingual visual theatre show featuring five majestic life size elephant puppets by Adrian Kohler from Handspring Puppet Company in collaboration with UKWANDA Puppet and Design Collective.

Read more
Share
4

Recent News

Images: Nafasi Academy. Credit: Kim Gurney

September 21, 2023

Publication announcement: Dr Kim Gurney, ‘Epistemic Disobedience’.


Read more
September 20, 2023

Award Announcement: Aja Marneweck, “Best Faculty Academic Impact: Creative Arts Output Award 2022.”


Read more
September 7, 2023

Oscillations Workshop: Sonic Inquiries and Practices


Read more
September 7, 2023

Itumeleng Wa Lehulere Standing Stage Left at South African Theatres


Read more

Search

✕

Sign Up to our newsletter


Stay up to date with the latest news and developments from the Centre for Humanities Research.




Recent Media

  • Recording: Conversation on Undoing Apartheid
    July 20, 2023
  • RECORDING: Undoing Apartheid, book launch and panel discussion.
    March 23, 2023
  • CHR Winter School, 2022: On the question of the minor
    A reading by Emma Minkley and Kiasha Naidoo
    March 2, 2023
This message is only visible to admins.
Problem displaying Facebook posts. Backup cache in use.
Click to show error
Error: Error validating access token: The user has not authorized application 1123168491105924. Type: OAuthException
Centre for Humanities Research

3 weeks ago

Centre for Humanities Research
Tomorrow, Friday 8 September, Itumeleng Wa Lehulere will be giving a talk at the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Change. Titled ‘Standing Stage Left at South African Theatres’ and scheduled for 19:00 – 20:00 (SAST), Wa Lehulere will reflect on his artistic journey from the late 1970s; what he calls “his comrades marathon” and a “journey of brutality, grief, and healing; breaking and mending,searching and searching...and observing”. Please make time to listen to a conversation about art as a weapon of struggle and resistance. You can livestream by following this link: buff.ly/3P6zCTB. Itumeleng’s life in the arts and political fraternities spans over thirty years. Beginning as an activist in apartheid South Africa, he was renowned as a very influential figure that many young people listened to and followed. He played a significant role in the formation of COSAS in the Western Cape, while playing a prominent role in the church, being part of the choir and playing marimba for the St Gabriel’s Catholic Church. His artistic career started as a poet, musician and dancer who later worked with Gibson Kente Productions in Johannesburg, playing lead roles along side Brenda Fassie in “Hungary Spoon”. Affectionately known as Bra E, he has conceptualized and directed a number of prominent pieces of provocative pieces for theatre, like… “You strike the woman, You Strike the Rock” “Down Adderly Street” “Gap toothed Sisters “Roxy” the musical “Diaries of my Womanhood” “Red Winter” “Echoes of our Footsteps”, all of which were played out in the major theaters of South and abroad, spanning a period of over 20 years. After completing his performance Diploma under the prolific Professor Mavis Taylor, Itumeleng worked with many Directors in Theatre that include: Barney Simon, Janice Honeyman, Ester van Ryswerk, Mark Fleishman. Itumeleng has also worked intensively with the legendary Mike van Graan at the Community Arts Project School of Popular Theatre. His best work appeared at the Market theatre under owners of The Handspring Puppet Companies Basil Jones and Adrian Kholer in a production entitled “Carnival of the Bear”. Itumeleng was instrumental in the forming of the Market Theatre laboratory alongside Mark Fleishman under the leadership of Mannie Manim and Barney Simon. Itumeleng has taught at the following institutions: Alexander Arts Center(JHB), Fuba Academy(JHB,) New world Foundation(CT), Community Arts Project(CT), and tutored at the University of Cape Town Drama School. Itumeleng was one of few actors to be contracted to the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal(1990). He has since been commissioned by City of Cape Town (writer/director: Affirmative Action Education program) which was converted into a video drama also directed by Itumeleng. Itumeleng then moved on to found and direct for twelve years the multi award-winning Ikhwezi Annual Theatre Festival in association with the Baxter Theatre Center at the University of Cape Town under the astute leadership of Mannie Manim. The Festival was chosen as the Cultural Development Project of the year(2004). Itumeleng is also very interested and involved in writing, directing and acting in television series and movies, the latest of which was conceptualizing, writing and directing the acclaimed romantic comedy "Forced Loved" produced by Penguin Films. Itumeleng was the Artistic Director of the Jozi Bookfair, hosted by Khanya College at Wits University (2014-2016). Wa Lehulere is an intellectual who strives to tell current and thought provoking works, that speak to the times. His approach to theatre is avoiding the over use of props to encourage the actor to use his/her instrument(body and voice) to tell the story holistically. He is in residence with ICGC in August and September 2023. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Centre for Humanities Research

3 weeks ago

Centre for Humanities Research
We are thrilled to invite you to the keynote address by Gascia Ouzounian at our upcoming workshop, Oscillations: Sonic Inquiries and Practices happening rom Monday, 11 September – Thursday, 14 September 2023 at the Greatmore Humanities Hub in Woodstock. Please note that, although this is an open event, space is limited, so if you want to join us, RSVP via email to Miceala Felix at centreforhumanitiesresearch@uwc.ac.za by Monday 11 September. Gascia Ouzounian is a sonic theorist and practitioner whose work explores sound in relation to space, architecture, urbanism, and violence. She is associate professor of music at the University of Oxford, where she leads the European Research Council-funded project Sonorous Cities: Towards a Sonic Urbanism (buff.ly/44FZJXd). She is the author of Stereophonica: Sound and Space in Science, Technology, and the Arts (MIT Press 2021), and has contributed numerous articles to leading journals of music, visual art, and architecture, covering a range of topics, from sonic memories of the Armenian Genocide to sound in radical Black arts traditions to ‘counterlistening’ and women in sound art. Ouzounian’s recent projects include Scoring the City, which takes inspiration from the graphic score and other unconventional notations in experimental music to develop new modes of ‘urban scoring’ (buff.ly/3fXUFFZ); and Acoustic Cities: London & Beirut, which brought together ten artists in creating works that explore the sonic, social, and spatial conditions of two cities. Oscillations is a project by Akademie der Künste (Berlin) Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town) and Deutschlandfunk Kultur / Klangkunst (Berlin). Oscillations is funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). Supported by the DAAD Arts & Media Program, Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences in South Africa. For more information follow this link: buff.ly/3sMKrTC. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Centre for Humanities Research

3 weeks ago

Centre for Humanities Research
Mobile uploads ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Centre for Humanities Research

3 weeks ago

Centre for Humanities Research
#MemoryLaneMonday! Throwing it back to our Winter School in August. We even managed to get schooled by our very own Phokeng Setai at the @norvalfoundation's Berni Searle retrospective, 'Having But Little Gold'. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Centre for Humanities Research

3 weeks ago

Centre for Humanities Research
We had a wonderful writing workshop and masterclass yesterday with Eoin McNamee, the CHR's inaugural #Maxeke-Robinson Research Chair. If creative writing is, according to McNamee, ultimately an act of bearing witness, then “teaching” writing is really about teaching the art of careful observation, attentiveness, and deep perception; moving from the periphery to the centre and building each piece of writing from the negative space that surrounds characters and effects. Details matter and the writer's craft entails sharp attentiveness to the minutiae of a story in order to activate the reader's sensory faculties. We had the great pleasure of welcoming colleagues from the English Department’s Creative Writing programme and hope this workshop catalyses other opportunities for collaboration. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Research Platforms

  • NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory
  • Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance
  • Factory of the Arts
  • Laboratory of Kinetic Objects
  • Seminar Programme
  • Publications

Recently Added

  • Publication announcement: Dr Kim Gurney, ‘Epistemic Disobedience’.
    September 21, 2023
  • Award Announcement: Aja Marneweck, “Best Faculty Academic Impact: Creative Arts Output Award 2022.”
    September 20, 2023
  • Oscillations Workshop: Sonic Inquiries and Practices
    September 7, 2023
✕

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER


Stay up to date with the latest news and developments from the Centre for Humanities Research.



© 2017 The Centre for Humanities Research. All Rights Reserved. Designed By Spotkolours Design