Spaces of sensation: The immersive installation and corporal literacy

This paper investigates the primacy of the corporal in understanding immersive environments. Writing from the perspective of an installation artist who takes this conceit as one of the founding principles of her work, which is predicated on developing immersive installations that are designed to be understood primarily through the somatic perceptual systems (e.g. www.sensedigital.co.uk/SG1.htm). the aim of the paper is to explore the notion that such installations can serve to enhance, or heighten corporal literacy. The installation iSensuous Geographies, created with Alistair MacDonald in 2003, is used to exemplify this practice. In this paper the terms ‘literacy’ and ‘literate’ are used in an extended sense, frequently transposing their original meanings (which pertain to the written word) into meanings which refer to those understandings we glean through our senses. Just as in the visual arts the term visually literate is used to refer to the ability to make fine discriminations in the detail, texture and structures of visual phenomena, and in music the term aurally literate refers to a highly refined ability to identify the detail, texture and structure of sound, the term corporal literacy is used to refer to the ability to discriminate equally subtle details of the structurings and textures of corporal sensation that emanate from the somatic perceptual system during interaction with the environment

The BPI - 50 years of palaeontological activity

Main articleThe Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand was established from an endowment made by Bernard Price in 1945. Now, a mere 50 years later, the Institute ranks as a prominent palaeontological research centre in Africa. It curates large collections of fossils including Karoo reptiles, mammals from the Makapansgat valley and other Plio-Pleistocene sites, invertebrates from the Bokkeveld and Zululand, and has a large palaeobotany herbarium. The Institute produces the journal Palaeontologia africana, the only journal in Africa dedicated to the publication of palaeontological papers. The BPI is closely affiliated to the Department of Palaeontology and Palaeoenvironmental Studies, the only department of palaeontology at a South African University. During the 50 years of its existence the BPI has played an important role in the advancement and dissemination of palaeontological knowledge in southern Africa.Non

Charles Kimberlin (Bob) Brain - a tribute

THE COUNCIL’S RESEARCH COMMITTEE, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND; NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION (NRF

A new vertebrate biozone at the base of the Beaufort Group, Karoo sequence (South Africa)

A new vertebrate biozone at the base of the Beaufort Group has been identified. This biozone is the oldest vertebrate biozone of the Beaufort Group and contains fossils of various therapsid genera which are more primitive than previously known related forms from the Karoo. The name Eodicynodon - Tapinocaninus Assemblage Zone is proposed as these two genera of therapsid are the most plentiful from this biozone and have not been found in the rocks of the overlying Dinocephalia Assemblage (Tapinocephalus) Zone.Directors and Board of Trustees of the National Museum; CSI

Diagramming movement between the cartographic and the choreographic: research report

"Diagramming Movement between the Cartographic and the Choreographic" was an experimental interdisciplinary research project, which in part was concerned with exploring a collaborative research methodology that had a heterarchical structure. Undertaken with geographer Dr Derek McCormack, from Oxford Univerrsity, PhD students and independent artists the project was strand of a larger research project, "Society of Molecules" run by the Senselab, a Research Centre with a global reach that was initiated by Dr Erin Manning of Concordia University, Montreal, and involved researchers from all over the world. "Society of Molecules" employed a global distributive participatory research model, which we echoed at a smaller scale in our UK 'molecule'. Each international molecule was invited to initiate aesthetico-political interventions. The theme that guided our research was the diagramming of movement between the cartographic and the choreographic, using Deleuzian-induced understandings of the cartographic, and introducing the notions of affect that emerged in Deleuze and Guattari's work. The research involved practice-based experimentations/interventions alongside readings of the work of geographers, philosophers and other theorists whose work addressed issues consonant with our concerns, conceptual traces of which could be detected in the practical results of the research experiment. The above are all described and reflected upon in this research report

Identity in Flux: A Theoretical and Choreographic Enquiry into the Identity of The Open Dance Work

This thesis presents a work of practical scholarship which re-examines issues of identity in the context of the open dance work. The debate takes the form of a symbiotic philosophical and choreographic enquiry into the identity of the open dance work. The philosophical enquiry examines the adequacy to the open work of theories of identity derived from two distinctive strands of philosophical theory, the first from the analytic tradition, the second from contemporary French philosophy. The choreographic processes which led to the creation of two open dance works constituted a central strand of the debate. Each work interrogates the adequacy of these theories of identity to the artistic theories which underpin open dance works. The first work, Intimate Memories, problematised theories of identity which were developed by analytic philosophers in the 1970s and 80s, and subsequently adopted by dance theorists, through an examination of their applicability to the open dance work. This strand of choreographic research revealed that, although these theories allowed open dance works to be individuated, they did not fully account for the particularities of the processual character of the open dance work. This interim conclusion led to an examination of the pertinence of Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology of the event to questions concerning identity raised by the open dance work. The second dance work, Halo in Performance, which was developed in the context of a collaborative engagement between choreographic and interactive digital arts practices, is an embodiment of Deleuze and Guattari’s process-oriented ontology of the event. This work indicates that theories of identity and/or individuation which are grounded in an ontology of flux are a more appropriate model to apply to the open dance work than those grounded in an ontology of substance

Virtually Sensuous (Geographies): Towards a Strategy for Archiving Multi-user Experiential and Participatory Installations

This paper explores potential strategies for the audio-visual documentation of a multi-user choreographic digital installation entitled Sensuous Geographies using VR technologies. The installation was interactive, fully immersive and participatory, with the general public initiating the details of the installation’s sonic and visual worlds. At the time of the making of Sensuous Geographies, the means of documenting participatory installations in action was limited to video documentation and photographs, which represent a third-person perspective. This article suggests that new forms of technology provide an opportunity to archive interactive choreographic installations in such a way that the choreographic forms and embodied experience they generate can be re-presented in audiovisual form to historians and audiences of the future. This article expands on a conference presentation of the same title given at the DocPerform2 Symposium, City University. London in November 2017

The skull and mandible of the South African baboon.

This Thesis is submitted to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Surgery. The examination for this degree was completed in 1947.The skull and mandible of the baboon. This is a morphological study of the skulls and mandibles of 102 specimens from known localities in Southern Africa. A detailed reference book on the anatomy of the baboon is particularly important because of the increasing use of this animal in medical science. The skulls and mandibles of captive animals are referred to but are not included in the comparative study since animals in captivity are subject to dietetic disturbances and other factors not yet fully understood. The cranium of an adult male skull is described in all normae. Comparisons are made with the crania of seven adult male baboons from widely separated known localities. This study shows that two main craniofacial types, with intermediate types, occur among the crania of South African baboons. Type 1. crania have small maxillary ridges, shallow maxillary fossae, ventrally directed zygomatic bones, large ventral orbital apertures, well developed superciliary ridges, high temporal lines and sagittal crests. Type 11. crania have large flared maxillary ridges, deep maxillary fossae, ventrolateral ly directed zygomatic bones, small ventral orbital apertures, large supraorbital tori, low temporal lines and no sagittal crests. This apparent1y supports the specific and subspecific claims of some observers. However, a critical examination of the crania of six adult female baboons from the same troop at Bindura, Rhodesia, shows that similar craniofacial types occur among female baboons. It is possible to associate mandibular types with the craniofacial types in adult male baboons. This is not the case with female baboon mandibles.WHSLYP201

The postcranial skeletal anatomy of the therocephalian Regisaurus (Therapsida: Regisauridae) and its utilization for biostratigraphic correlation

The postcranial morphology of the therocephalian genus Regisaurus from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of South Africa is described. The remarkably complete state of preservation of the vertebral column has, for the first time, provided a full vertebral count for a therocephalian and demonstrates that it is possible to differentiate between cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral and caudal vertebrae. It is demonstrated that some postcranial elements can be used to identify particular therocephalian groups and will be of use in biostratigraphic studies in areas where cranial remains have not been found. A slender scapula, low scapular ridge, shallow scapular depression, short and broad interclavicle, oval sternum, and a small obturator foramen are characteristics of therocephalians known from the Cistecephalus, Dicynodon and Lystrosaurus assemblage zones of the Beaufort Group of South Africa.The University of the Witwatersrand, Transvaal Museum, National Research Foundation of South Africa and the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST

Dicynodont (Therapsida) bone histology: phylogenetic and physiological implications

The bone histology of humeri of a number of taxonomically well established and easily definable dicynodont genera is described and compared. The bone of Aulacephalodon, Cistecephalus, Dicynodon, Endothiodon, Lystrosaurus, Kannemeyeria and Oudenodon consists of alternating fibro-lamellar and lamellated bone tissue, while that of Diictodon consists only of fibro-lamellar tissue. The presence of fibro-lamellar bone in all the genera studied, indicates that the bone was deposited rapidly, but the occurrence of lamellated bone tissue suggests that all the genera except Diictodon, also had intermittent periods of slow growth. This is the first time that a comparative study of bone histology of different dicynodont genera has been attempted by using one particular bone element to standardise intergeneric comparisons