[PeDAGoG] Decomposing the Corporate Colony

Tue Jul 30 15:23:02 CEST 2024

Good day all,

I am writing to you from Stellenbosch in South Africa, after some 
encouragement from a member within this network. I am currently in the 
process of identifying opportunities, possibilities and limitations for 
doing interdisciplinary practice based (post-grad/MA) research and 
creative work in the visual arts and design fields, conducted primarily 
within a de-colonial frame. I am seeking scholars, artist, legal 
professionals, designers etc., as well as institutions and collectives 
that I may partner/network with and build communities around in support 
of the work that I intend to engage with, starting in 2024/'25. I am 
particularly seeking connections in, or about regions and ecologies in 
the Indian Ocean basin and the African continent that have historically 
engaged with the (V.O.C) spice trade as well as contemporary 
(neo-colonial) trade discourses along/via the 'Cape of Good Hope'  and 
the Suez canal.

Please find below a broad description of my work and research interests, 
as well as my own positionality.

About My Research & Practice:

I am a (2021) BA Fine arts graduate from Stellenbosch University with a 
professional background in architectural design and natural building 
technologies. Since 2021 I have been seeking out interdisciplinary 
academic spaces and opportunities across the globe (particularly Africa 
& Indian Ocean basin) which support critical practice based research 
methodologies for exploring and developing effective decolonial 
strategies based within an ecological frame through artistic -/ design 
praxis.

My early professional practice began in the Architectural field, 
focusing on passive systems design and natural building technologies. In 
my personal capacity I have also designed and built dry composting 
toilets -/ and systems for large festivals and residential use. These 
explorations along with my early exposure to the work of Vandana Shiva, 
Michael Perenti, Naomi Klein and Donna Harraway would later activate and 
inform my creative work and this inspired me to pursue academic studies 
through a BA(Hons) degree in fine art. My student research focused 
primarily on early colonial -/ and settler colonial histories within the 
Cape and Indian Ocean basin during the 'Spice Trade' era. My creative 
practice often culminated into site-specific immersive experiences using 
natural phenomena / physics that include camera-obscura installations, 
light projections, improvisational soundscape performances and 
sculpture.

I am motivated by perceptions of abject histories of negative 
multinational corporate externalities. Particularly how these phenomena 
are/were manifested, facilitated and perceived throughout the 
development of 'Western' economic, political and ideological hegemonies, 
as experienced today. By revisiting my past work in composting toilet 
systems design I would like to further explore and develop creative 
strategies towards immersive cathartic experiences to this end. I have a 
particular interest in studying fundamental legal constructs and 
colonial ideologies that guide and regulate global corporate trade 
legislation since the V.O.C from the 17th century to the present. My 
work will respond to these factors and the urgency of its geopolitical 
and material expressions across the globe today. My creative practice 
aims to explore effective strategies to deconstruct / decompose these 
ideologies, constructs and systems through studies of soil ecology and 
natural ecologies of decomposition as a creative medium and bio-mimetic 
guide.

About My Positionality:

I was raised during the 1980's as a (Cape Creole, aka 'Coloured') male 
within a small community called Pniël between Stellenbosch and 
Franschhoek. Pniël was established in 1843 as a Christian mission 
station (and labour pool) for previously enslaved individuals, 
immediately after the abolition of slavery in the Cape colony. Most of 
my ancestry is woven into the historical fabric of 17th cent. Cape 
agricultural slavery, settler colonialism, indentured labour in the 
early diamond mines of Kimberly, as well as indigenous groups along the 
Cape coast.

Growing up in a rural 'working class' village surrounded by über-elitist 
wine farms with a high land ownership turnover of mostly foreign 
nationals and consortia tugged my interest in socio-economic inequities 
from an early age. Observing and engaging with these wine farms and 
other dominant local institutions added to a direct lived experience of 
how ecological (incl. humyn) inequities and trauma are embodied within a 
postcolonial landscape and the mechanisms that enable it to persist.

These immediate inequities along with my own specific challenges have 
significantly contributed to the delay and disruption of my personal and 
academic development. At 43 I have managed to successfully complete my 
undergraduate studies with minimal debt, however, I feel quite isolated 
and vulnerable in the pursuit of my particular research interests, 
especially within an increasingly hostile neoliberal environment.

Thank you for taking the time to read my email. Please reach out if you 
feel compelled to and if think there might be opportunities and 
possibilities for us to work together or if you know of 
programs/projects, particularly within Afrika or the Indian Ocean basin 
that might be relevant to my work. I look forward to hearing back from 
some of you very soon.

Bright regards,

Charles Palm
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