Since April 2015, Prof. Lenore Manderson has organised an art-science programme, Earth, Itself, through the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES). IBES supports research to understand the interactions between natural, human and social systems. Our teaching programs prepare future leaders to envision and build a just and sustainable world. We cultivate strong research in five disciplinary areas: Conservation Science, Land Change Science, Climate Science, Environmental Health, and Institutions and Human Behaviour.
The aim is to facilitate conversations and build collaborations across creative arts practice and theory, the humanities, and the social, natural and physical sciences.
At Brown, Manderson drew on the elements earth, air, fire, and water and aligned each element with an art practice and research component. Thinking the Earth featured dancers who performed on a sprung dance floor covered with wet clay to demonstrate impact. Air was coupled with music and sound to produce Atmospheres; Fire with ceramics and glass blowing to forge what fire does; and Water and Ice with text to transcribe Water’s edge.
From 10 to 21 September, Manderson brought the programme to Wits as WATERSHED: Art, Science and Elemental Politics. This research-enmeshed celebration of water included interactive art installations, engineering and scientific displays, and academic symposia across disciplines and faculties highlighting water on the continental divide.
“The artwork is about getting people working outside the academy to engage with water in a way that they haven’t before. If you’re a dancer, for example, you may never go to a seminar by an earth scientist on palaeogeology, but finding ways to bring together artists and scientists opens up how you understand the world and what you understand to be the issues,” says Manderson.
As at IBES with Water’s edge, collaboration across disciplines defines WATERSHED at Wits. Several artists participating in WATERSHED are visiting fellows in the digital arts, fine arts, and theatre and performance in the School of Arts at Wits.
“The conceiving of the Watershed: Art, Science and Elemental Politics project and its precursors have always understood artists to be central to the ways in which knowledge production and enquiry takes place. This intersects with the University’s commitment to artistic research, the Wits School of Arts’ leading role in deepening understandings in and around artistic research, and the ways in which newly imagined futures are generated through inter- and cross-disciplinary practices,” says Associate Professor David Andrew, Head of the Division of Visual Arts at Wits.
10-21 Sept 2018
University of Witwatersrand
Johannesberg, SA
Across the university and beyond, among others: Tegan Bristow, Reghana Burns, Blossom Catling, Ferna Clarkson, Robin Drennan, Michelle Gallant, Emma Ketzie, Boniswa Khumalo, Ndhuvazi Kubayi, George Mahashe, Beverley Manus, Deborah Minors, Pam Moodley, Magcina Nyoni, Tanya Schonwald, Oupa Sibeko and Bie Venter. And especial thanks to the creative artists, humanities scholars and scientists, policy makers and activists, who joined us in this unique programme.
There was free access to the Origins Centre from 10-21 September, for the two weeks of Watershed.
The new Sibanye-Stillwater Digital Mining Laboratory (DigiMine) was open to the public at select times. Guided tours of the facility took placr at 15.30 and 16:00 Tuesday September 11, 14.30 Thursday September 13 and 13.30 Friday September 14.
September 10-21, Anthropology Museum, Robert Sobukwe Block, poster display; poster presentation Thursday September 13, 12:00-13:00
September 10-21, Chamber of Mines Atrium
Atul Bhalla
10-21 September, Old Chamber of Mines Atrium
Looking for Lost Water (Explorations at the Cradle). Photographs and performative photographs, video with sculptural and textual interventions, performances
Yvette Christiansë
13-14 September, WiSER
Poetry Reading and Words on Water: Southern African Literatures and the Oceans
Hannelie Coetzee
10-21 September, Spirit World Room, Origins Centre
Synanthrope Series II: Hyena. Sculptures, reclaimed and found wood; guided walk Saturday September 15
Christine Dixie
10-21 September, NE Gallery Space, First Floor, Origins Centre
Below the Sediments. Mixed media (polymer, brushed steel), 5 panels 560 mm x 1200 mm
Brian House
31 August – 9 September, Fak’ugesi Festival, Tshimologong Precinct
10-21 September, Watershed
Acid Water Resonator. Installation sculpture, digital sound
Richard Ketley
10-21 September, Foyer, Anthropology Museum, Robert Sobukwe Block
Oo | 32o. Acrylic, tracing paper
Mark Lewis
10-21 September, Central Gallery Space, First Floor, Origins Centre
Watermark. Photography, 2 sets of 8 photographs (16 photographs, each c. 420 x 594 mm)
Zen Marie
17 September, 18:00, fem of colour | intersectional studio platform 39 Gwigwi Mwrebi Street Newtown (enter from side alley off Quinn Street, between Carr and Gwigwi Mwrebi)
Paradise Fallen. Photographic, paper-based, video, and performative work
Lehlogonolo Modise
10-21 September, Anthropology Museum, Robert Sobukwe Block
Metsi ago koropa. Clay sculpture
Lucia Monge
10-21 September, SW Gallery Space, First Floor, Origins Centre
Mi Niño, Your Dry Spell, Their Waterfall. Sculpture and photography installation
Marcus Neustetter
11 September, from Yale Road to Chamber of Mines Atrium
Against the Shed. Performance
Tania Olsson
10-21 September, Anthropology Musuem, Robert Sobukwe Block
Waterpas (spirit level). Mixed media
Stacey Rozen
10-21 September, Anthropology Museum, foyer and courtyards, Robert Sobukwe Block
Drink at your own Risk.Tap, empty water bottles, yarn bomb
Raymond Shihawu
10-21 September, Anthropology Museum, foyer and courtyards, Robert Sobukwe Block
H2Woe-Mati. Acrylic paint
Myer Taub
Wednesday 12 September (16:00) and Sunday 16 September (12:00)
Tracing the Spruit. Performance/walk
Duration: Approx. 2 hours (1 hour of walking to the view point + 1 hour of performance at the view point)
Wendy Woodson
10-21 September, Africa’s Creative Explosion Alcove, Ground Floor, Origins Centre
Sourcing the Stream. Video installation and original sound, text and voice.
Guided DigiMine Tour
15:30 and 16:00 Basement 2, Chamber of Mines Atrium
Walkthrough:Meeting with the Artists
15:30-17:00 Origins Centre First Floor Gallery
16:00-16:15 Christine Dixie will speak about her work, Below the Sediments, with time for Q & A.
Dixie superimposes two visual registers or languages: the first register a depiction of a Karoo landscape in which over two-thirds of the image depicts the earth below; the second register from the realm of science and engineering. The collision and collusion of the two “languages” in Below the Sediments reveals the different epistemological strategies of art and science.
16:15-16:30 Lucia Monge will speak about her work, Mi Niño, Your Dry Spell, Their Waterfall, with time for Q & A.
Monge’s works are part of a long-term project that focuses on the tools used to collect, treat and transport water in different parts of the world. Starting with South Africa and Peru, Monge is interested in these tools as an expression of our anthropogenic touch and of the way water touches us back, shaping gendered, social, economic, and political structures. The morphological adaptations in groups of plants have respond to the challenges of water scarcity in areas such as the Namaqualand desert. Plant-inspired design has become the focus for this stage in the project.
Watershed: Opening and Reception
17:00-19:00, Chamber of Mines Atrium, West Campus
Tracing the Spruit (Southern Performance Research Under Interesting Themes) Performance : 16:00
As part of an ongoing performance project on an embodied ecological investigation into the counter urban narratives of the city and wate, join performance artist and playwright Myer Taub walking the spruit in Waverly and Melrose.
Workshop: Digital Ethnography and Environmental Crisis
09:00-12:00 Anthropology Museum, Robert Sobukwe Block
Facilitators: Thomas Pringle, Brown and Christo Doherty, WSOA
How can digitally networked devices help visualize and broadcast regional crises? Does the documentary visibility gained by digitally networked devices work to reproduce structural inequalities driving the problems?
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please email christo.doherty@wits.ac.za to reserve a place, and to receive copies of reading material and access to a vimeo.
Flash Lectures and Presentations
12:00-14:00 Anthropology Museum, Robert Sobukwe Block
Chair: David Andrew
Guided DigiMine Tour
14:30 Basement 2, Chamber of Mines Atrium
How Johannesburg and Gauteng can Avoid a “Day Zero” Experience
15.00-17.00 Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry, Seminar Room, Engineering
Chair: Mike Muller, Wits School of Governance
Participants:
The speakers will outline the challenges of achieving water security in the city and province, and discuss how they can be addressed and what the people of the province can do to help avoid the dramatic water restrictions as experienced in Cape Town.
Poetry Reading, Q&A and Reception
17:00-19:00 WiSER, 6thFloor, Richard Ward Building
Chair: Isabel Hofmeyr
Poetry: Yvette Christiansë (USA), Professor of Africana Studies and English Literature, Barnard College, New York
Yvette Christiansëis a South African-born poetand novelist. She lives in New York Cityand teaches at Barnard College. Christiansë’s published work generally deals with South Africa, and contains post-colonial themes such as slavery and displacement.[ She is the author of a novel Unconfessed (2006) and poetry collections Castaway (1999)and Imprendehora (2009).
Symposium: Words on Water: Southern African Literatures and the Oceans
10:00-12:30 WiSER Seminar Room, Richard Ward Building Level 6
Yvette Christiansë will talk about her work on slave registers. This will be followed by a discussion with Charne Lavery, Sarah Nuttall and Isabel Hofmeyr.
Guided DigiMine Tour
13:30 Basement 2, Chamber of Mines Atrium
Panel and Roundtable: Under the Surface: 140 years on
14:00-16.30 Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry, Seminar Room, Engineering Building
Mining has dominated Johannesburg’s history, as Atul Bhalla and Mark Lewis have documented. How has the management of land and its resources changed in the 21st Century? What challenges do we face?
Watershed Walkabout
10:00-12:00, 5 km, approx. 2 hours.
Artist Hannelie Coetzee will lead a walk from the Origins Centre, following the continental watershed running through Johannesburg to the site where the Juskei daylights in Bez Valley. The walk will end at the Water for the Future Collective office at Victoria Yards.
Participants should bring hats, comfortable walking shoes and water. The walkabout can be booked at hannelie@hanneliecoetzee.com at R100 per person.
Tracing the Spruit (Southern Performance Research Under Interesting Themes) Performance : 12:00
Aspart of an ongoing performance project on an embodied ecological investigation into the counter urban narratives of the city and wate, join performance artist and playwright Myer Taubwalking the spruit in Waverly and Melrose.
18:00-19:00 Fem of colour | intersectional studio platform, 39 Gwigwi Mwrebi Street Newtown (enter from side alley off Quinn Street)
Zen Marie, Paradise Fallen. Private viewing of Zen Marie’s work at this new gallery.
Symposium Decolonizing Water
10:15-12.00 Exhibition Area, First Floor, Origins Centre
What does it mean to decolonize the narratives of water, the science disciplines that structure what we know and by what means, and the role of people in the everyday management, governance and stewardship of water?
Symposium Territorial Waters, Politics and Regional Commons
13:00-14:40: Exhibition Area, First Floor, Origins Centre
Globally, regionally and locally, water is at the same time a commons, a public resource and often a privatised resource. Populations are suppressed and nation states controlled through water management and its abuse; economies are built on its sale or diversion. Panelists draw on their experience as researchers and civil activists to examine water politics and the implications of this for Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and their neighbours.
Symposium Action on Water: Climate Justice and People’s Charters
15.00-17.00 Exhibition Area, First Floor, Origins Centre
If water is a commons, what does it mean when access varies? How do we address the social inequalities that distort access to water? And how do climate change, drought, and water regulations and entitlements magnify social inequality?
Book Reading and Reception: Writing on Water
17:00-18.30 Exhibition Area, First Floor, Origins Centre
Jacklyn Cock, Writing the Ancestral River
Book display: Origins Bookshop
JACKLYN COCK, Professor Emeritus at Wits. has published widely on issues relating to gender, environmental and militarisation issues.She will discuss her recent book, Writing the Ancestral River an illuminating biography of the Kowie River in the Eastern Cape. This tidal river runs through a formative meeting ground of peoples who have shaped South Africa’s history: Khoikhoi herders, Xhosa pastoralists, Dutch trekboers and British settlers. The latter introduced a new form of accumulation “settler capitalism,” which commodified both land and labour with devastating consequences for the Xhosa.
Walkthrough: Meeting with the Artists
2:30pm – 6:30pm Fem of colour | intersectional studio platform, 39 Gwigwi Mwrebi Street Newtown (enter from side alley off Quinn Street)
Zen Marie will engage in a discussion of his installation Paradise Fallen.
Paradise Fallen is a cycle of work that includes photographic, paper-based, performative and video components. The work was initiated in 2016 on a residency at Cité des Arts on Île de la Réunion, and continued while working through the residency and academic programs at the RAW Material Company on the peninsula city of Dakar, Senegal in 2017 and 2018. Paradise Fallen explores conceptual and geographic ambiguities of islands, as they offer much imaginative potential for dreams, desires, fantasies, fears and anxieties to be rehearsed through them. The work plays with narratives that float on the Indian and Atlantic Oceans as personal, emotive, historical and political registers that are courted, teased and provoked.
This will be the third iteration of the work, and is a collaboration with ideas, politics and people at fem of colour.
Symposium: Water Futures, Digital Imaginations
10.00-12.30 IBM Conference Room, Tshimologong Precinct
How do we bring together government and various publics to take account of climate change and water security. How does modelling future environments, use of big data anddigitally generated visuals provide policy makers with models of the future
Talk: Looking for Lost Water – Atul Bhalla
10:30-11:30 Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus, University of the Witwatersrand
As part of the Watershed: Art, Science and Elemental Politics programme, artist Atula Bhalla will give a talk on his work Looking for Lost Water (Explorations at the Cradle). The installation comprising photographs and performative photographs, video with sculptural and textual elements was created specifically for theWatershed: Art, Science and Elemental Politics programme in the Chamber of Mines Building on West Campus, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Atul Bhalla is Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Design and Performing Arts at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi, India. He is a conceptual artist whose work has been exhibited widely including in the United States; the Pompidou Centre, Paris; Valencia, Spain; London, United Kingdom and in India. In 2012 he was a fellow of the NIROX Foundation and began exploring in particular illegal mining and water sources around the city of Johannesburg.
Roundtable on Watershed: Reflectionson the Arts-Sciences Engagement at Watershed
1:30-3.30 Tshimologong Precinct
The curation of the Watershed Conference deliberately brought together art works, in the form of installations, sculptures, photographs, video, and performative interventions, with scientific and activist discourses. In this concluding panel, a group of participants including artists and scientists from the conference will reflect on the implications of these engagements, including in furthering of Arts-Science collaborations in an African context.
Walkthrough: Meeting with the Artists
10am – 4pm Fem of colour | intersectional studio platform, 39 Gwigwi Mwrebi Street Newtown (enter from side alley off Quinn Street)
Zen Marie will engage in a discussion of his installation Paradise Fallen.
Paradise Fallen is a cycle of work that includes photographic, paper-based, performative and video components. The work was initiated in 2016 on a residency at Cité des Arts on Île de la Réunion, and continued while working through the residency and academic programs at the RAW Material Company on the peninsula city of Dakar, Senegal in 2017 and 2018. Paradise Fallen explores conceptual and geographic ambiguities of islands, as they offer much imaginative potential for dreams, desires, fantasies, fears and anxieties to be rehearsed through them. The work plays with narratives that float on the Indian and Atlantic Oceans as personal, emotive, historical and political registers that are courted, teased and provoked.
This will be the third iteration of the work, and is a collaboration with ideas, politics and people at fem of colour.
Watershed was supported financially by and through collaboration with Wits University: Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research; Centre in Water Research and Development (CiWARD); School of Public Health; Faculty of Science; Faculty of the Humanities; the Wits School of Arts, Divisions of Digital Arts and Fine Arts; Oceanic Humanities for the Global South, School of Literature, Language and Media (SLLM and WiSER); Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences; Sibanye Stillwater Digital Mining Laboratory (DigiMine); and Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment.
Watershed also included collaboration with the Fak’ugesi Festival; and the financial, administration and scholarly support of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES), Brown University, Providence RI. Participants also received support from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Amherst College, University of the Western Cape and Sibanye-Stillwater.