Research interests and aims in the Jeppe Research Project
The Jeppe Research Project was a project in which the Wits School of Arts (WSOA) participated alongside the WITS School of Architecture and the WITS School of Law within the Jeppe Street Ethiopian and Eritrean business sector. The intention of the Jeppe Research Project was project was twofold. First it was to make contact with some of the Ethiopian and Eritrean business people of the Jeppe Street area, and to engage in a narrative research process. Second it was to use this site specific and participatory research process to probe practice-led research methodologies within a Johannesburg context.
I partook in this project while studying towards a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. My individual research project for my masters degree was intended to expand my practice from a mainly studio based practice to one that included site specific interaction as mode of research production. These two projects, therefore, had many shared research interests.
This project started in July 2011 and continued until December 2011. The visual arts research was lead by Dorothee Kretzfeldt and the project was initiated by Professor George Pfreunder. Quinten Edward Williams and Amber Jade Geldenhuys were two postgraduate students from WSOA who participated in this research project. Other contributors to this leg of the project included Bettina Malcomess (WITS School of Visual Arts), Taku Kaskela (Head of WITS School of Film and Television) Amel Belay (WITS School of Film and Television), Fitsum Solomon (WITS School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Jeppe Community) and Kassa Gebrehana (Jeppe Community).
A sustained presence by using a logic of the area: making and talking as research
A point when I started having sustained conversations with people was when we moved into our shops. In my shop,…
A social space in-between business practices
Some of the most insightful moments I have had about Ethiopian and Eritrean activities in Jeppe Street have been from…
Brand products, cultural branding and its policing
Most of the product in the area is directly imported goods from China. There are global business such as McDonald’s.…
Money, proxies, and participation
Showing support for this project or not seemed to be a contentious issue in the area. The general response to…
A community of proximities and spies
What has struck me is that this community of Ethiopians and Eritreans, regardless of their past conflicts in their home…
Understanding stories as relational: the human and the non-human
People's anecdotes, greetings, excuses, lies, jokes, invitations and questions certainly did captivate much of my attention, but so did the…