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<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: #242424;">Good day all,</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: #242424;">I am writing to you from Stellenbosch in South Africa after some encouragement from a member within this network. I am in the process of identifying opportunities, possibilities and limitations for doing interdisciplinary <span style="text-decoration: underline;">practice based</span> (post-grad/MA) research in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">arts and design fields,</span> conducted primarily within a decolonial frame. I am seeking scholars, artist, legal professionals, designers etc., as well as institutions and collectives that I may partner/network with and build a communities around in support of the work I intend to engage with, starting in 2024/'25. I am particularly looking for connections in, or about regions and ecologies in the Indian Ocean basin that historically engaged significantly with the V.O.C as well as contemporary (neo-colonial) trade discourses through/via the Suez canal and the Cape. <br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: #242424;">Please find below a broad description of my work and research interests as well as my own positionality.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: #242424;"></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #242424;"><strong>About My Research & Practice:</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #242424;">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) that support critical practice based research methodologies for exploring and developing effective decolonial strategies based within an ecological frame through artistic -/ design praxis. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I began my early professional practice as an interior designer, CAD technician and builder, focusing on passive systems design and natural building technologies. In 2009 I started a personal genealogical study of my family and the (Pniël) community where I grew up, with the aim of working towards a future creative project. During this time I also began gardening and started designing and building dry composting toilets -/ and systems. These explorations along with my earlier discovery and interest in the work of Vandana Shiva, Michael Perenti, Naomi Klein and Donna Harraway activated and informed my creative work and 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 from the Cape and Indian Ocean basin during the 'Spice Trade' era. My (BA) research-based practice often culminated into site-specific immersive experiences using natural phenomena / physics that include camera-obscura installations, light projections, improvisational soundscape performances and sculpture.<br /></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">My 'post-grad' research interests are motivated by abject histories of negative multinational corporate externalities, and how these phenomena are/were manifested, facilitated and perceived throughout the development of 'Western' economic hegemonies (ie. Europe). By revisiting my past work in composting systems design I aim to explore and develop creative strategies towards immersive cathartic experiences. I have a particular interest in studying fundamental legal constructs and colonial ideologies that guide and regulate global corporate trade legislation since the VOC in the 17th century to the present. My work will be primarily informed by these factors and its geopolitical and material expressions through archival / historical research as well as indigenous folklore. My creative practice aims to deconstruct / decompose these ideologies, constructs and systems through studies of soil ecology and decomposition as well as its application as a creative medium, reference and practical guide. My past work with ecological architecture, composting toilet systems design and colonial Spice Trade histories may inform future praxis in this regard. </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #242424;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #242424;"><strong>About My Positionality:</strong></span></p>
<p class="v1v1v1p1"><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="font-size: 9pt; color: #242424;">I was raised during the 1980's as a (Cape Creole/'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, immediately after the abolition of slavery in the Cape colony. Most of my ancestry is woven into the historical fabric of Cape agricultural slavery, settler colonialism, indentured labour in the early diamond mines of Kimberly, as well as indigenous groups along the Cape coast. </span></p>
<p class="v1v1v1p1"><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Growing up in a picturesque rural working class village surrounded by über-elitist wine farms with a high land ownership turnover of foreign individuals 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 are embodied within a postcolonial landscape and the mechanisms that enable it to persist. </span></span></p>
<p class="v1v1v1p1"><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="color: #242424;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">These immediate inequities along with my own specific socio-economic 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 socio-economic environment. </span><br /></span></p>
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<p class="v1v1v1p1"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="color: #242424;">Thank you for taking the time to read this email. Please reach out if you think there might be opportunities and possibilities for us to work together or if you know of programs/projects, particularly in 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.</span><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="color: #242424;"></span></span></p>
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<p class="v1v1v1p1"><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="color: #242424; font-size: 11pt;">Bright regards,</span></p>
<p class="v1v1v1p1"><span class="v1v1v1s1" style="color: #242424; font-size: 11pt;">Charles Palm</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">--c</span></p>
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