[…] Special Issue: Johannesburg Lasts
Issue Editorial
Editorial: Last, Lasting, Lost
The specter stands for that which never simply is and thus escapes the totalizing logic of conventional cognitive and hermeneutic operations. It cannot be reduced to a straightforward genesis, chronology or finitude and insists on blurring multiple borders, between visibility and invisibility, past and present, materiality and immateriality, science and pseudo-science, religion and superstition, life and death, presence and absence, reality and imagination
(Esther Peeren, 10).
What are Johannesburg’s spectres and whom do they haunt? What spectres of late capitalism inhabit a city hastily erected on top of the rich seam of gold that lay beneath? How do legacies from Johannesburg’s past mingle with its future
Johannesburg Lasts is a research collection that seeks to uncover, unpack and deepen investigations into spectres of Johannesburg, it’s toxic legacies, its facades and the residues of its disturbed surfaces. Our initial impetus was sparked by the last remnants of an archive: The 1976 book Johannesburg Firsts by librarian Anna Smith. Johannesburg is a city young enough for Smith to keep a biased score of its firsts. She presents a vast amount of information, from the city’s large industrial debuts all the way down to the first chicken hatched in Johannesburg. This story not only loses key details and facts in Smith’s retelling, but is charged with the racist assumptions of that era in apartheid South Africa. It left us wondering about what it would mean to consider Johannesburg in terms of its lasts.
Through the framing of the last and the lost, we ask questions of how to imagine a city in terms of its ends, its spectres – those which are “both revenant, that which returns from the past, and arrivant, that which is to come…” and its continued and future hauntings (Peeren 2014: 14). Here we think of the remnants of apartheid spatial planning, the facades of Johannesburg’s suburbs and enclaves, and the “emergence of diverse urban worlds within the same territory—strange mappings and blank figures, discontinuous fixtures and flows, and odd juxtapositions” (Mbembe 2004: 375).
Johannesburg is an exquisite corpse, collaged from other times and other places, “characterized by an unmediated adjacency” a “hybrid composition” that “betrays an attempt at synthesis” (Comaroff and Ong 2013: 85). It is a city that operates through forms of mimicry and mimesis “evident in the city’s contemporary architectural forms […] in its mania for wealth, for the sensational and the ephemeral, for appearances” (Mbembe 2004: 376).
We ask questions of appearance, surfaces and residues, the visible and invisible, the sonic, tactile, emotional and radioactive. We ask questions of what lives above the surface, what legacies can be resurfaced and revisited, and what logics govern the cities operations – it’s roads, it’s policies, it’s building codes, it’s highways, and the rivers of mine dust floating off the top of dunes scattered around the edges of the city, settling in to the fine tissue of our lungs. What reenactments of dark colonial and patriarchal legacies continue to govern our present interactions with and future imaginings of this city?
In a city weighed down by extreme inequality and infrastructural breakdown (Myambo 2019: 2), during a time of cataclysmic global environmental and health crises, how do we catalogue, capture and research a city’s lasts?
Johannesburg’s construction and collapse occurs simultaneously alongside projects of regeneration and renewal. In many spaces, the remains of old buildings stand beside temporary structures, “this psychic life inseparable from the metropolitan form: its design, its architectural topographies, its public graphics and surfaces” (Mbembe 2004: 375). Johannesburg’s old and new CBDs (developed in the 1930s and 1970s, respectively) attest to a crass modernist urge to expand new ground rather than adjust to the shifting stakes of city space.
Land-locked and without obvious natural resources to draw people to it, Johannesburg has relied on extraction, artifice and novelty. From its very beginnings, “Johannesburg was fashioned as the ultimate city of the nouveau riche capital, luminous and exciting, yet superficial and unforgiving … with no historically consistent aesthetic sensibility or genuine commitment to the cultural heritage of the past (Murray 2011: 9). Johannesburg is now an amalgamation of densely layered and built upon historical space, loosely attached to swathes of urban sprawl. It could even be described as a city that has nostalgia for the future rather than the past (Malcomess and Kreutzfeldt 2013: 18).
A central question that haunts this landscape is one of boundaries. What are this city’s physical boundaries and where are its edges? Ever more ingenuous security fences, wires and walls clearly outline who feels they have something that needs protecting and who does not. What of the rewritten CBD, the emergence of satellite financial districts in the north, like Sandton, and the superficial smart enclaves like that of the unrealised Modderfontein fantasy? What of the hollow ground underneath and the dusty atmosphere of constant construction and ruination above? Perhaps the most pertinent question this special edition of Ellipses asks is: In an “elusive” city that refuses definition, what can be pinned down as being specifically of this place, belonging enough to last? (Nuttall and Mbembe 2004).
The specters of Johannesburg are territorial: sticky and stubborn. In this special edition and with contributions that blur the lines of disciplinary practice; realised through code, static and moving images, 3D models, digital maps and interactive interfaces. All made with the intention of being accessed through screens and through them, we hope to engage with the specters that continuously create new bridges between past, present and future.
Territorial edges, dusty surfaces and sticky histories:
This city, like so many others, is threaded with encounters of lasts and losts. It is scattered with attempts to ensure its history remains, spread out across blue plaques and monuments. In the following collection of projects we see the messiness of official and unofficial histories play out. As the different projects take us along streets, under the earth, into forgotten places and future musings, there is a restlessness across them all. An undertone that says perhaps something refuses to be settled. This speaks to the haphazard assemblage of moving parts that make up Johannesburg. The projects here all, in different ways, pay close attention to the movement of people, plants, dust, data and the very visible and invisible workforces that make the city work. Overall, there is a sense of agitation and unease throughout.
Projects like those of Counterspace, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt and Brett Pyper are tied to the legacies of specific sites in the old CBD. We are drawn into potential versions and visions of Kwa Mai Mai market, a burnt and later demolished demolished building, and an historic cultural Jazz landmark. Where Pyper’s former Bantu Men’s Social Club is now an echoing heritage site, Kreutzfeldt reflects on the end days of The Bank of Lisbon through an unsettling video and sound piece. In close proximity to these sites geographically, Counterspace delves into the psychic and radioactive vibrations of a possible future Kwa Mai Mai market, where the toxic legacies of the mining industry mingle with the business savvy of Johannesburg’s vibrant informal market. Each of these projects render the aesthetics of the surface as hypnotic, and reach into the underworld of voices and messages: from the past or the future we don’t fully know.
Nkgopoleng Moloi draws us away from such histories and futures, with multiple (often conflicting) narratives, to pull us into her own vulnerable personal position walking the Braamfontein streets as a black womxn. These social and political architectures are all evocatively conjured with sound and movement.
Throughout this special edition, the senses are important. Nina Barnett and Jeremy Bolen make us aware of our skin and the surfaces of our devices, through a meditation on the ubiquitous dust that is, perhaps, the one intimate element that all inhabitants of Johannesburg must live with. In opening up the world of stones beneath the built and building city, Brigitta Stone-Johnson expands on the make-up of not only dust, but the deep time of continental shifts beneath the Braamfontein Ridge.
Riley Grant and William Shoki take disembodied experience into the realm of Marx and Zoom, questioning the always-on workforces of late capitalism. They pull into focus the labour practices behind the shiny surfaces and projections of Sandton, its digital interfaces and its hypnotising blurring of life and work. Lastly, the interruptions of DigiCleanse’s advertisements highlight the ubiquitousness of capitalism operating through the wellness industry, preying on the citizens of polluted and toxic cities who seek refuge in new age cleansing tools, both for mind and body.
Dusty Futures:
The events of the past year have shifted how we think about traces, effects, marks, and remains. On both a micro and macro scale, from the surface of our lungs and groceries to our travel routes and movements, Johannesburg life has changed. Through the sightings and soundings of aspects of the city presented here we hope to draw attention to the screens which display, frame, code, render and augment our interaction with the idea of the city and its people and their uncovering through this creative research.
Bibliography:
Comaroff, J. and Ong, K-S, 2013. Horror in Architecture. California: Novato
Malcomess, B. and Kreutzveldt, D. 2013. Not No Place: Johannesburg. Fragments of Spaces and Times. Johannesburg: Fanele.
Mbembe, A. 2004. “Aesthetics of Superfluity” in Public Culture 16(3). Duke University Press, pp 373–405
Murray, M. 2011. City of Extremes: The Spatial Politics of Johannesburg, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Myambo, M. 2019. “Introduction: Jo’burg’s spatial dilemmas resonate globally” in Myambo, M. (ed), Reversing Urban Inequality in Johannesburg, London and New York: Routledge, pp 1-9.
Nuttall, S. and Mbembe. A. 2004. ‘Introduction: Afropolis’ in Nuttall, S. and Mbembe, A. (eds). Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Durham and London: Duke University Press. pp 1-36.
Peeren, E. 2014. The Spectral Metaphor : Living Ghosts and the Agency of Invisibility. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Smith, A. 1976. Johannesburg Firsts / Johannesburgse Eerstes, Johannesburg: Africana Museum.
Articles by
Brett Pyper
Articles by
Brigitta Stone-Johnson
Articles by
Dorothee Kreutzfeldt
Articles by
Jeremy Bolen
Articles by
Karin Tan
Articles by
Nina Barnett
Articles by
Nkgopoleng Moloi
Articles by
Riley Grant
Articles by
Sarah de Villiers
Articles by
Skye Quadling
Articles by
Sumayya Vally
Articles by
William Shoki
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Andrea Hayes
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Brigitta Stone-Johnson
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Glen Mudau
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Laura Seal
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Paul Sika
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Andrei van Wyk
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Jarrett Erasmus
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Karin Tan
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Naadira Patel
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Ruth Sacks
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Skye Quadling
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Tara Weber
And so we may feel echoes
Johannesburg as an origin-point, an archive and a site of detection for particles of many kinds.
"Alive and dead, recently released, about to settle or uninhibited for eternity."
Abstract
And so we may feel echoes is a film and research essay focusing on particulate and the ways in which particles interact with humans, non-humans and landscapes. This researched-based exploration considers Johannesburg as an origin-point, an archive and a site of detection for particles of many kinds: those created by human movement, extraction and industry, and those which are formed as part of biological systems. Through examples as varied as pollen, neutrinos, mine dust and the Saharan Dust Plume, the piece asks: how do we detect or sense these particles and what do they have to offer? How and where do they travel and what impact do they have on the humans and non-humans they interact with? Do particles have memory?
Authors
Nina Barnett
Nina Barnett lives in Johannesburg. She uses drawing, printmaking, photography, moving image and installation to examine particular locations in relation to the body, deep time and vertical scale. Her work seeks connections between the geographical, the experienced and the materiality of surfaces, and questions the relationship between theoretical, surmised and accidental logic. She received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her BFA from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her work has been widely exhibited. Notable residencies include the Cite des Arts in Paris; AIR in Bergen, Norway; PROGR in Bern, Switzerland and Summer Forum, Joshua Tree.
Jeremy Bolen
Digital Editor
Peer Reviews
Peer Review
General Note:
[…] Ellipses Journal for Creative Research endeavours to make bare the process of research and development in creative and artistic research. This is for readers / viewers an opportunity and mechanism to see the types of academic critique engaged with creative research and to make visible the responses and development.
The following peer review was produced blind and in process, the artist / author has subsequently been given the opportunity to respond and develop both the theoretical and interactive parts of the article before publication. What you see published has been edited post this review.
Peer Review 1: And so we may feel the echos (2020)
Reviewer: Anonymous
Which aspects of the submission are of interest / relevance and why?
'And so we may feel echoe' takes up the subject of dust, it’s material and scientific composition, various situated interpretations, and affect. Engaging with a substance so ubiquitous it evades perception and fades into obscurity is both an ambitious and relevant project. The question posed in the video, “where did it come from? where is it going?” is central to both the research question and method. Ultimately, by structure and presentation of outcomes, the idea of origin and endings are thrown into suspension. The topic selection is extremely relevant to the thematics of this issue due to the way it troubles categories of last implying finality or fixity. Dust, by nature, is unsettled and disruptive. With the “first” neutrino as a point of departure, the research calls to attention that which is often overlooked : pollen, neutrinos, mine dust, are cast as actors and inheritances of the city. This is generative for the idea of “lasts” in Johannesburg. Documenting a mine trip, collecting imagery of related themes, and writing a research essay, the submission asks us to reconsider the industry, land, and movement through this lens of settled and unsettling residue. The outcome is evidence of several layers of the city’s past, present, and futures -connecting its reach to fingernails, airports, New Zealand –while also situating the research in a mine shaft in Boksburg, pollination and seasonal allergies.
How are the artistic and research outcomes represented?
The relationship between the subject and the research is most interesting in terms of knowledge production. The voice over on the video calls in the “I,” both the viewer being called to reflect on the prompts and also the narrator herself. Integration of the subject in inquiry is helpful to navigate the many interwoven themes and sources being drawn upon in this work. In the essay, the almost-instrusive-like-dust italic text operates as if it blew in from another place. Indeed it locates Georgia, far from the mines in Johannesburg. In terms of the central questions, the research itself is more heuristic than methodical or outcome-oriented.
The essay concludes with many questions, similar to the introductory piece on the main web-page. The effect is that I came away from the work with an attunement for the dust in my immediate surroundings and a curiosity about its origins and destinations.
How well does the design support the submission?
The design of a video at the top, an essay underneath, and dust cursor-activated simulation provides an effective experience of layers. I appreciate the cursor bit greatly. Pieces of the essay are hidden when viewing the video and I wonder if there might be an intention about which parts of the essay can be viewed while watching the video. As a note, I wanted to copy the text to paste quotes here and noticed that feature is not possible.
Are there any ethical or legal concerns?
None that I am aware of.
Conclusions and and pre publication revision:
Overall, I really enjoyed this submission. It opened many possibilities and avenues for continued reflection and possibility. It does a wonderful job of inspiring wonder, disgust, and awe in the prolific nature of dust, neutrinos, pollen, etc. The persistence, unquantifiable, dispersed nature of dust holds so much. Yet so vastly decentralized and often ignored, it’s accumulation makes a great research topic.As a possible revision, I might provide captions or make text from the video available for accessibility reasons. Another point of revision might be the essay’s conclusion. I am left curious what the author thinks about the questions they pose, especially the concluding questions about the lungs and the impact of dust. It may be implied in the tone but it could benefit from being explicit. Dedicated engagement on the question of where dust settles, even if it is unsettled, might support this submission’s research questions.
Peer Review
Second reviewer declined to publish the review.
Article
Credits
Web development:
Mitch Said