The
Library and Information Service has a visual redress journey within the context
of the broader SU visual redress project, but also within the context of its
mandate of preserving knowledge and providing access to information. Two major
projects coincided with the University’s visual redress project initiatives
after 2015, namely the name change of the JS Gericke Library to Stellenbosch
University Library and the Visual Arts student project described below.
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1.
Book Mural in the Learning Commons
This
Book Mural forms part of the visual redressing of Stellenbosch University’s
landscape to provide spaces that acknowledge and represent the multitude of
stories and identities in our shared history and was installed in the courtyard
of the Wimbledon Cluster and a smaller version installed during June 2023 in
the Learning Commons, Stellenbosch University Library. Over 100 book title
submissions were submitted, and suggestions were reviewed and voted upon by a
committee.
2.
Special Collections
The
Stellenbosch University Library underwent a peer review in 2022 and as part of
the report of the external panelists, a recommendation regarding the aesthetics
surrounding Special Collections was made. It was stated that there is potential
in the Special Collections area to explore how to make space more welcoming and
inclusive, including drawing on visual redress work.
We
are happy to announce that the project in Special Collections is also now
completed and that you are most welcome to view the room. We are busy brainstorming ideas around the
name of the room which will shortly be announced. The room will also be
available for bookings by students and staff in future. An announcement will be made in this regard.
A
reminder of the background to the project: The collection comprises works on
the following theme: Visualisation of the Africana Section of Special
Collections in the Stellenbosch University Library. The works are a result of a
second year Visual Communication Design students' project in 2018 in which they
were required to inter-react with the Africana collection. Students were
required to research or investigate a person or event in South Africa’s history
that did not fall into the main canons of South Africa’s history or
people/events that had been erased or misrepresented. After researching the
person or event they were required to design an imaginative poster or
illustration of the event or person that incorporates both image and text. The
outcome of the project was a fully designed, produced and hand pulled
screen-printed poster that could function as an informative poster/design of a
historical figure or event.
For more information on the background of the project, visit:
http://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/15462
