Wits School of Arts students have developed an experimental website which explores the "Armed Response" theme using the capabilities of the online medium. View the creative results of workshops, funded by the Goethe-Institut, with audio artists from Potsdam and an interface designer from the International School of Design in Cologne.
Armed Response Art Works (Flash PlugIn required)Download Plugin
The website is the work of the Interactive Media students in the Digital Arts division of the Wits School of Arts. They were responding to the issues surrounding the privatization of security in South Africa. During this project the seven postgraduate students were taught by Wits Digital Arts lecturer Andre Venter and assisted by the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg who arranged a week of conceptual and technical input by experts from Germany. Professor Philipp Heidkamp, Director and Professor of Interface Design at the Cologne International School of Design, led workshops about information architecture and website design. Professor Arthur Engelbert and Andreas Klisch from The University of Applied Sciences at Potsdam ran workshops focusing on sound design.
This site acts as a container for a number of Flash animations and interactive works by each student around the Armed Response theme. Some works are satirical and playful; some deal with the psychology of people living in fear; and some deal with daily rituals of self- preservation. The site's architecture and navigational design draws strongly on these themes. Music created from found security sounds adds a further dimension to the Armed Response experience.
Digital Art Works - The Making Of
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| Prof Philipp Heidkamp, Director and Professor of Interface Design at the Cologne International School of Design explaining a concept to Digital Arts student, Evans Netshivhambe. Photo by Christo Doherty |
Visitor, Andreas Klisch, a technical manager and sound artist from the University of Applied Sciences at Potsdam, enjoys a joke with Stephen Hobbs from Trinity Sessions, Johannesburg. Photo by Christo Doherty |
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| Three Digital Arts students, Debbie Rogers, Cathy Bland and Dareen Farghaly during the intensive listening exercise which was conducated by the visitors from Potsdam around the Johannesburg inner city. Photo by Stephen Hobbs |
Further audio awareness exercises. Photo by Stephen Hobbs |
Prof Arthur Engelbert, Professor of New Media in Theory and Practice at the University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam, explains a point about the sound design of the Armed Respose project to Andre Venter, Lecturer in Digital Arts (WSOA) and Johannes Hossfeld from the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg..
Photo by Christo Doherty
