The launch of the sixth book in the Ebifananyi series took place at literary festival Writivism 2016, that was themed ‘Restoring Connections’. The book is based on negatives that are part of the collection of the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Kisubi, the ‘Facebooks’ of classes of boys available at St. Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK), and part of the entomological collection of the school’s biology lab, established in the late 1920s. More information about the book will be posted soon.The exhibition takes place in the Natural History wing of the Uganda Museum. The display cases are charming but static and dated. One of them gives credit to Sebastiane Nsubuga and Brother Adrian. Nsubuga is still the lab technician of the boys only Catholic boarding school, that exists since 1906.No better place then to link the museum, that is in its current state not only a museum that familiarises the visitor with the country Uganda, but also of the ideas about how a culture, a history, a natural history should be displayed.
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Ebifananyi 4, based on the Ham Mukasa Foundation Archive that HIPUganda digitised, has had several exhibition versions. This one puts a strong emphasis on the works produced by Ugandan artists and Dutch and Ugandan art students for the project. In this other exhibition creating an opportunity to explore Mukasa’s stories through various images and objects was the lead.See this short film for thoughts on the translation of the title of Ham Mukasa’s book on the three Kings; Simuda Nyuma, and the Luganda word Ekifananyi by curator Robinah Nansubuga and Artist Nathan Omiel.Participating artists in this exhibition are Achola Rosario, Eria Nsubuga, Fred Mutebi, Ian Mwesiga, Lwanga Emmanuel, Nathan Omiel, Papa Shabani, Sanaa Gateja and Violet Nantume. The Ugandan students followed Eria Nsubuga’s painting course at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, while the Dutch students were part of an elective I taught under the name ‘Illustrating (for) others’ at Academy Minerva in Groningen.
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From: Handbook of Transnational Economic Governance Regimes edited by Christian Tietje & Alan Brouder, (Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany), Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009, 1073 pages, Chapter Transparency International by Michel van Hulten, p. 243-252, ISBN 978 90 04 16330 0.. Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, the Netherlands.
MULTIFILE
A series of elective courses and exhibitions in which students at Minerva Art and Uganda Christian University are in dialogue about and through portraits they make
The question we have chosen – and been invited – to answer is “What is Europe: Past, Present, and Future.” This sits within the resilient societies theme of the NWA call. The reason for our choice of the ‘resilience’ theme is based on the many disciplines working on the project, which stretch beyond the historic (living history theme) into the societal.It has a deeper conceptual basis, however. It springs from an assumption that a shared sense of belonging and inclusion is one foundation for and aspect of resilience – just as a rope braided together from many strands is stronger than one where the strands are fraying apart. Positive and inclusive expressions of belonging and affiliation are present in education, sports, and music – highly visible sites of representation that have profound reach and impact in society. Racialisation, othering, and selective or stereotypical representations, however, work against resilience. They are circulated widely and generate exclusion and hurt. In these linked work packages, then, we take up the question’s invitation to expand and disrupt, what the NWA’s call itself defines as a normative prior understanding of Europe. In the words of the question, this definition emphasizes Europe’s nature as white, Christian-secular, bounded by the geographic limits of Western Europe, shaped by Greco-Roman heritage and tradition, democratic, and home of the enlightenment. Our consortium seeks to analyze this representation, research and present more expansive and accurate ones in consultative reflective and co-creative processes. Through the process, the new knowledge, and our highly participatory research and dissemination models we will change societal understandings of the bounds of Dutch, and European identities. This will forge a greater sense of belonging across all of the communities, including academia, involved in our project.This project is vital for building resilience through tackling sources of fragmentation and alienation in past and present. It is much needed as we look forward to an increasingly diverse and mixed demographic future.
Postdoc research project Transformation through Interactive Narrative DesignMedia psychologist dr. Christian Roth's postdoc project Transformation through Interactive Narrative Design (TIND) is part of the Professorship Performative Creative Processes, the school Games & Interaction, and the Expertisecentrum Onderzoek, Innovatie en Internationalisering (OOI). Here, Christian interweaves education and practice-oriented research. He studies the artistic, pedagogical and academic perspectives regarding the power of transformation through applied Interactive Narrative Design (IND).Within the two-year postdoc research project TIND, Christian studies the training of interactive narrative designers with the goal of developing teaching methods and learning tools for artists and designers, such as game and interaction designers, to enable them to create more effective artefacts.Why interactive narrative design?IND offers agency, defined as the ability to influence narrative progression and outcomes in a meaningful way. As such, it carries the potential to create and emotional impact and spark transformative change. This enables interactors to explore different points of view and to feel the weight of their own choices and consequences. This, in turn, allows for a more thorough understanding of complex multi-stakeholder issues, which could have a significant impact on the success of emerging artistic, and learning applications.The TIND project will enable designers through an interdisciplinary approach, including applied game design, immersive theatre, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and the learning sciences.A good example for offering different perspectives on a complex topic is the narrative simulation Mission Zhobia: Winning the Peace, which is used for the training of peacekeepers. Or the news game, I am Mosul, which aims to raise awareness around the effects of war by bringing it close to home: choose your Dutch city and make choices on how to survive if the war was there. And the interactive story Adventures with Anxiety offers a new understanding by letting interactors play anxiety embodied within a wolf. IND is a complex and challenging interdisciplinary field in which design knowledge from other media can often not be directly transferred. As a new medium, it introduces new affordances in technique and user experience. This requires practice-based research for further development of the educational format, demonstrating its potential while identifying and overcoming common learners’ challenges. This project aims to develop a framework for the design and evaluation of meaningful interactive narrative experiences that effectively stimulate a variety of cognitive and emotional responses such as reflection, insight, understanding, and potential behavior change. It provides tools, methods and activities to enable aspiring or practicing narrative designers through an interdisciplinary approach, including game design, immersive theatre, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and the learning sciences.HKU education means to prepare students for success in the creative industries and IND plays an important role for current and future jobs in education, arts and entertainment. IND has the potential to create an emotional impact and spark transformative change by offering agency, defined as the ability to influence narrative progression and outcomes in a meaningful way. This enables interactors to feel the weight of their own choices and their consequences, to explore different perspectives, and to more thoroughly understand complex multi-stakeholder issues, which could have significant impact on the success of emerging artistic, and learning applications.The planned output is a collection of design tools and methods for interdisciplinary workshops and courses, which can be integrated into different curricula at the HKU, thereby enhancing existing programs while enabling the refinement of training methods. Once completed, this postdoc project delivers a training method with multiple applications designed to harness the power of interactive storytelling for transformative personal and societal impact.ColloborationsThe research project is directly embedded in the curriculum of the HKU schoolGames & Interaction with annual educational offerings such as the Minor Interactive Narrative Design (MIND) and HKU wide broad seminars. Course evaluation and literature research will be used to create new and adjusted training for different HKU schools and the industry.More informationAre you interested to learn more about the postdoc research project Transformation through Interactive Narrative Design? Get in touch with Christian Roth: christian.roth@hku.nl
