Research Niche:  Visual Narratives and Creative Outputs through Interdisciplinary and Practice-Led Research (VINCO)

Tracking creative creatures (2007-2009)

Tracking creative creatures is an interdisciplinary exploration, which originated out of a need for research possibilities within the creative disciplines, specifically visual arts and creative writing. The graphic works which formed the core of the project, and which served as creative stimuli for the various artists, originated in the imagination of a five year-old boy and were subsequently illustrated by his artist father. The project entails various components, including a flagship project with invited artists, a teaching subproject and a community subproject, which were showcased at the Aardklop National Arts Festival,

2007.

Transgressions and boundaries of the page (2009-2011)

Transgressions and boundaries of the page, a interdisciplinary investigation into the genre of the artist’s book manifest our belief that the creative disciplines need to negotiate and establish a sustainable and rigorous research context that circumscribes and values artistic practice (which emanates from tacit knowledge) as well as textual outputs (described as explicit research). In order to address this pursuit, 40 artists from diverse creative fields such as visual arts and creative writing as well as related spheres of practice were invited to create artist’s books for the project. The participants included artists and researchers from academic institutions such as the University of Johannesburg, the North-West University and the University of Pretoria. The project also included a community dimension – most notably the Tambani community project located in Venda. The artist’s books produced by participants were shown at dedicated group exhibitions in Stellenbosch, Potchefstroom and Johannesburg during 2010.

Reflective conversations (2012-2014)

Reflective conversations is an interdisciplinary project aimed at the creative exploration of the relation between typography, topography and typology.