Convenors:
heeten bhagat (A4)
Phillipa Tumubweninee (APG)
Facilitators:
A4 –
francis burger
Kyle Morland
APG –
Amy Thompson
Albert van Jaarsveld
Daniel Xu
Arthur Lehloenya
Matthew Dasneves
John Coetzee
Leon Coetzee
Shanali Govender
Michael Tietz-Geldenhuys
Students:
Rachel Abrahams, Marzuq Allen, Salaamah Arend, Jordan Arendse, Drew Bennett, Tafadzwa Bere, Nosihle Bhengu, Mmilisela Blaauw, Aobakwe Boikanyo, Jenna Bramley, Helen Brooke, Callum Cann, Matthew Carlton, Georgina Chappel, Thalia Coetzee, Thamsa Donald, Manuel Douglas, Benjamin Dufrene, Heinrich Engelbrecht, Zoe Foale, Michelle Georgieva, Katelyn Gouvias, Lungile Gwangwa, Anna Hauff, Tia Henderson, Robin Jordaan, Olivia Joseph, Vuyo Ketwa, Mlondi Khoza, Jin Kim, David Sebuyira, Eryn La Fleur, Vincent Lesch, Bea Liebenberg, Liam Lineveldt, Jemma Louther, Hannes Lups, Tsepang Mahlehla, Mosidi Mapheto, Rachel Marais, Ben Mason, Luyanda Mchunu, Shanay Meintjes, Rachel Michau, Nkosana Mncube, Keamogetswe Mojapelo, Keren Moyo, Timothy Mpofu, Conrad Muller, Mashudu Mutsila, Samkelo Ndaba, Esetu Nduku, Mashudu Nekhondela, Christian Nel, Eben Nel, Olwam Ngcobondwana, Megan Nicholson, Simamkele Nontenja, Asemahle Ntoyakhe, Fikile Nyezi, Josh Oates, Siwon Park, Sarah Parker, Kaashif Patel, Zanele Paul, Chad Phillips , Shané Pillay, Klaus Piprek, Hannah Plit, Gelaine Ramos, Luna Rech, Karin Reeves, Joshua Riddle-Du Plessis, Camron Saayman, Layla Schwellnus, Moeletsi Sekhabi, Sibongakonke Shezi, Lyne Slim, Margiet Smit, Liam Stoffberg, Melissa Tait, Qaaniet Taliep, Kezia Taylor, Siyanda Thabede, Jonathan Torrington, Tristan Turner, Elizabeth van Eeden, Mpumi Vilakazi, Thuto Vilakazi, Zoë Walker, and Farzeen Wookey
UCT's School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics (APG), A4 Arts Foundation, and artists francis burger and Kyle Morland created #unleash – an explorative course produced in response to the prompt and provocation: Can you rethink a building through the lens of an artwork?
Driving this prompt was the query of how to bring life to seemingly improbable ideas – and, taking another step in this direction, of welcoming the complexities of 'living things' into a speculative, digital design process. Alongside the task of reimagining the A4 building, a series of investigative assignments and playful 'creative reflections' encouraged students to engage their working process, as well as their immediate environments.
Conducted between August and September 2020, amid pandemic-related restrictions on any sharing of physical space, #unleash took advantage of our new virtual lives – splicing remote geographies and holding space for the novel tempo, glitches, and gaps of digital communication.
The online exhibition encompassed the different ways in which #unleash was made manifest – from PowerPoint presentations and PDFs shared over Zoom; to student-led collations of 'what if?' tasks and other brainstorming exercises; and an 'exhibition' of shared folders on Vula (the university’s ‘online collaboration and learning system’).
The students' explorations engaged their selected artworks as evocative of diverse materialities, social resonances, and symbolic possibilities. These engagements were shared on a website designed by francis burger, together with other signs of life – from process sketches, paper assemblages, recipes and doodles, to paving stones, plants, and parakeets.
