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DUT’S FACULTY OF ARTS AND DESIGN HOSTS A WEBINAR ON THE ACADEMIA OF DESIGN

DUT’S FACULTY OF ARTS AND DESIGN HOSTS A WEBINAR ON THE ACADEMIA OF DESIGN

The Faculty of Arts and Design at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) hosted a webinar themed: The Academia of Design with Claire Dongo, on Microsoft Teams, last Friday, 7 May 2021.

Dongo is a multi-talented digital artist, who took the DUT community on her academic research journey in digital art, grounded in exploring the fragmented image. She has over 15 years’ of working experience in both the commercial and educational sectors of digital art. She is extremely passionate about mentoring talent as she has done and continues to do at various institutions. She specialises in Digital Animation and has produced an award-winning short animated film titled: Amoeba. She is currently working on her Doctoral research in Digital Art.

She relayed on how her journey into such a career all began, saying that her passion was to always draw.

“For me, I just had this burning passion within me that I wanted to draw and draw. My parents were very encouraging and would bring me back crayons and recycled paper from work to support me. All the schools that I went to did not offer art as a subject but I just knew that I loved art and drawing,” she said.

She added that later on she was able to find opportunities and when the environment was starting to change that afforded her opportunities that led to where she is right now.

She spoke on her study path which began at the Zimbabwe institute of Digital Arts which was the beginning of her career, opening her eyes to so many aspects within digital art.

She then spoke of her involvement in The Joint African Animation Group (JAAG) which was conceptualised in March 2007, and is composed of individuals involved in animation and visual effects with a focus on developing a viable visual effects and animation industry in Africa.

“In 2010, JAAG launched the Zimbabwe Festival of African Inspired Animation (ZIMFAIA), which was the first Animation festival in Sub-Saharan Africa,” she said.

Dongo spoke proudly on her short film titled: Amoeba, which came about as a component of her studies to complete her Masters’ degree in animation at Wits University.
“The story is about a lonely amoeba called Fred who lived in the vast empty expanse of the petri dish. He played on his own everyday until he decided to end his lonely existence leaving this cruel world behind. I was part of a team of four people who worked on this project, two of us being Zimbabwean. I was primarily in charge of managing the production and guiding the team’s direction. I worked on every aspect of the production pipeline from concept to the final product but took a particular lead in modelling, texturing and technical tests,” she said.

This short film was entered into various international film festivals and has won a silver medal at the New York Film Festival in the United States. It was also selected for screening at the Stuttgart Animation Festival in Germany, Toronto Film Festival in Canada and Kinematifest in the United States.
She then spoke on her Thesis for her Master of Arts research titled: The Use of Interactive Educational Animated Series to Enhance Second Language Development in Preschool Children.
She said that this research report aims to encourage the research, development and production of interactive, educational, animated series in Southern Africa such as the highly successful US series Dora the Explorer, specifically to teach southern African languages. “Animation has been a leader in children’s entertainment as it has the power of expanding their imaginations and at the same time captures their attention. Animated series such as Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues have been popular with preschool children and impart valuable lessons. The research takes a look at how children acquire a second language and how animation can aid the process of learning. Various theories on how children learn reveal the link between language, age and play,” she said.

She then spoke of her current PHD research thesis titled: ‘The Fragmented Image’: An Exploration of Visual Fragmentation in 20th and 21st Century Art Practice with an emphasis the Post Medium.
“For the last three years, I have been concentrating on the practical side because my research is on practice-led research, so I have been working on quite a number of practice aspects,” she said.
She then spoke on her development art work in 2019, as well as her involvement with online art movements and how she applied her art techniques with the online movements and competitions she participated in such as the Green Movement and #Zimbabweanlives Matter.

“As I reflect, initially I thought all I needed was just to learn the skill of how to draw. Looking back now, I’m glad research has been a huge part of the journey as it has motivated me to continue taking my knowledge to the next level, provided me with a platform to grow my professional network and also provided me opportunities to further my career,” she said.

Pictured: Claire Dongo

Waheeda Peters

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