Imagine

It was a crazy week, working towards the presentations that happened this morning in KwaThema. Somehow, with very little sleep, we managed to complete all the work required by the brief, despite its coming to us only on Sunday afternoon. Ironically, the postponement of the presentation of our individual research which we proposed when we got the brief actually happened because we were running late. Our group managed to get to KwaThema at the stipulated time of 8.30am despite most of us having worked in the CAD labs until 3 and 4am. We then negotiated a new venue – because the seminar room which had been booked would not have worked. Hannah, Tseleng and Jennifer Beningfield arrived well after 9am and the other group even later. And then the proceedings were held up further by the projector cord not being long enough to use with the white board which we’d obtained and set up for projection. For our zombified group, all this chaos represented precious stolen sleep time. We finally got under way with our beerhall presentation first and our frustrations were swept away by an extremely positive reception. Not only was Hannah very complimentary and supportive, but more importantly the debate which followed among us, community members and council representatives was extremely constructive. The notion of our project awakening a consciousness of the potential value of the beerhall structure became clear; in fact, as ambitions and ideas developed, people had to be reminded of our small budget and the community’s ultimate ownership and ability to drive the project. The project, despite its lack of weighty, permanant programme, seemed to be working on a level that was beginning to fire people’s imaginations and evoke possibilities. One of the powerful ideas that emerged was the notion of transforming the angry, destructive energy of children and youth of the 1976 era into a more positive, balanced and normalised dynamic in which play and recreation took the foreground. A representative from the arts and culture department, Eddie Coetzee, became quite enthusiastic about council involvement and future funding, if we were to include a formal performance space. We have set up a meeting for early next week to try to take him up on his suggestions and offers in terms of possibly supplying bollards and similar help. The presence of the ANC Youth League was intriguing and there is some indication that they may assist with a clean up as that now appears to be necessary – a quick drive-past the site before the presentations shattered our illusions that Elmah was going to solve our solid waste problems... Kasia and my paired project also seems to be taking shape. The basic philosophy behind it has to do with the notion of people taking ownership of public spaces. Nico, the artist, was at the presentations and we went afterwards to show him the site and discuss his involvement, before the ritual of pasting up newspapers and then heading home. On getting back to Wits we met up with Kasia and Tom at the Origins Centre restaurant for a late (celebratory) lunch.