| Summary: | Submitted to The University of the Witwatersrand to the School of
Architecture and Planning
February 2018 === In its wake colonialism left behind tangible and
intangible traces on our physical and psychological
landscapes. The research seeks to look at the interrelationship
between the intangible landscapes and their
affect on tangible ones, locating it somewhere between the
boundaries of heaven and earth.
Using post colonial theories the paper intends to
interrogate the supposed importance and historical
valuing of (western forms of cultural documentation)
physicality and written history over historically under
represented concepts of culture and identity. Suggesting
that between what is documented exists the shadows
and traces of all that was not. The research assumes
that what is undocumented in written histories and
architectural form can be made visible and is evident by
it’s absence.
Central to this research is the use of language as a
implement of colonial power and control. A primary
concern is how physically the language of colonial rule
manifests itself spatially and architecturally.
Using the deconstructivist typographic tool of erasure
the project attempts to recontextualize the documented
by bringing into greater consciousness suppressed and
forgotten memories. Within the technique of erasure or
‘sous rature’ meaning is defined by its difference.
In the literary arts erasure has been used as tool to
accurately re-represent written documentation, the art
form seeks to highlight areas in text where concepts are
self-undermining (Derrida, 1967). It does not remove
inaccuracies but rather recontextualizes them, noting
that these terms are “inadequate yet necessary” (Sarup,
1988). This can be asserted as a possible challenge to
over-dominant over documented western discourse === MT 2018
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