By Buhle Andisiwe Made
After six gruelling, personal and emotional weeks, the final-year Journalism and Media Studies students presented their final-year projects to the Rhodes University community, showcasing their work through different mediums. The students exhibited their creativity by styling portfolios, clothing designs, video games, short-form films, and books.
Brian Garman, the programme coordinator and lecturer to the group of students, mentioned how proud he had been to see the dedication and effort put into their final work. Garman emphasised that the students put in a lot of effort in creating the projects, which is a great deal, especially considering how personal they were to the students.
One of the projects of the display was from student Ponagatso Mhlongo, who chose a visual medium where she showcased her longer-form video, a film. Ponagatso says she wanted to challenge herself with her visual abilities. The Drama and Photography student says she took a jab at videography adding that her inspiration for her project came from her love for drama and her character from the popular show MTV Shuga: Down South as she encapsulated “The Mind of a Dancer”. The personal documentary follows a dancer chasing her dreams whilst facing an internal war. Ponagatso’s film is titled, ‘Sole in Motion, the Mind of a Dancer’. She explains that the work of her film had been overwhelming due to having to conceptualise a starting point and deal with using alternative equipment.
Perra Dox’s creator, Tlamelo Malabo, describes the past six weeks as stressful but is very proud and happy of how far he’s come. The TV Journalism student explains that branching out into clothing is an easy journey due to his talent and work in the arts. Tlamelo’s creativity allows him to apply a concept to different mediums. He states, “The birth of all of this goes beyond multimedia”. With audiences coming in to view his creative, Tlamelo feels as though the exhibition is overwhelming but takes the feedback as research to continue going forward and hopes to see Perra Dox develop in different areas.
The exhibition runs for a period of three days, from 25 to 27 October, in the Africa Media Matrix building.