College of Art and Built Environment

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    Impact of land use / land cover changes on African Savannah elephant’s (loxodonta africana) use of the Red Volta valley corridor
    (KNUST, 2019-11) Sumaila, Haruna Acheriga
    The Savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) is one of the threatened mammal species in the world and listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red lists criteria as its population has drastically declined. Its population decline is largely as a result of habitat loss due to agriculture extension and other human related land use changes. The Red Volta Valley is one of the important migratory corridors established to connect the elephant ranges in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, and Togo. This study therefore aims to assess the changes in land use/ land cover systems and its effects on the savannah elephants use of the Red Volta Valley Corridor. Field survey and community participatory GIS methods were used to mark locations of elephant’s presence. Using MaxEnt algorithm and 8 explanatory variables (), elephants habitat use within the corridor were modelled for 1988 and 2018. The study revealed a significant land use/land cover changes within the thirtyyear period as bare soil increased by 174.9 km2 representing 233.8% followed by a reduction of 169.1 km2 representing 26.6% in open savannah /Agricultural Land. Riverine vegetation also reduced by 55.1km2 depicting 38%, with water indicating a reduction of 2.3 km2 that is 9%. Contrary, to expectations, Close Savana however increased by 51.3 km2 representing 32%. Suitable habitat predicted by MaxEnt in 1988 reduced by 155.54km2 . The study revealed a reduction in the suitable habitat of the elephant by 15% as a result of the changes in land use / land cover types. Also, most suitable path used by elephant across the frontiers of Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso showed significant changes in the vegetation cover types on it and increase in length by 1km from 1988 to 2018.
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    A-Signifying Allegory. Art as an Act of Folding and the Circulation of the Sensible
    (KNUST, 2023) De Marchi, Rebecca
    A-Signifying Allegory. Art as an Act of Folding and the Circulation of the Sensible is a wandering around the epistemic trope of how beings make experience and knowledge of the Earth, and how, consequently, a variety of worlds and ways of inhabiting and using them are conceived. Taking a generative, planetary, decolonial, and posthuman posture, the researchbased artistic practice is carried on under the double lens of the academic and materialspiritual cultures. The metaphor of the fold that Deleuze reads from Leibniz has been pivotal among the various means that connect the Leibnizian incompossible worlds animating the entire project. With Leibniz, it has been tenable to say that all incompossible worlds are possible, and though not together, shape a different scenario for a best possible world in common. The enquiry further interrogates the extraction-driven consumption of the neoliberal system. The approach is not a critique, complaint, or denouncing of situations; rather, it is to let the deep and hidden other voices arise as a form of dissent. So, the means of working and the artworks that emerge contribute to the fabrication of an allegorical archive of the future shaped by attentive listening to the organic libraries of ‘persons’, as centres of intentionality, living or not, organic or inorganic, which precedes and includes the concept of the human. The practice incorporates an experimental research process in collaboration with several actants and organisms, institutions including KNUST Departments, students, artists, practitioners, and more constituting a curatorial entity of mutual care, Zoe KɔKɔɔ, who does not generate a community. In its becoming and a-signifying results, the practice is taken open to the appropriation of whoever encounters it, who simultaneously participates in the circulation of the sensible. Consequently, there is no conclusion, if not this attitude of mild equivocation embedded in any form of translation, as the discovering of new ways of folding
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    Asante Folklore and Kumasi Kiosk Architecture:a Visual Exploration of Hybridity and Mythography
    (KNUST, 2009-02) OPPONG, E. T.
    This studio-based research improvises on the architectonics of Kumasi kiosks. I present the ensuing body of artefacts as a working prototype which joins on-going cultural conversations on hybridity in contemporary art. The typical Kumasi kiosk is referenced as a site for negotiation of boundaries in its design, setting and function, but I have also made allusions to suggestions of hybridity and boundary negotiation in the polyvalent structure of Asante myth and folklore. I made a close study of three hundred kiosks located in the urban quarters of Kumasi. I also engaged such thinkers on hybrid spaces as Homi Bhabha , Jacques Derrida, Michael Foucault, Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, etc, to discourse on Asante mythology. I laid emphasis on the myth of ɔhyeεni (ɔhene-king), a patriarchal figure who negotiates boundaries, Asante and Akan filial kinship narrative from Asante history. I employed a personal technique of painting, -Aberphoh, which is a reconfiguration of abstract expressionist and surrealist genres. Asante art forms laden with their myths, some of which visually portrayed mythology, especially the totems, were also studied as the basis upon which art works were recreated in the form of paintings on sculptural structures created with plywood. I used the Asante myth of Abubu-mmabaa to explore the structural dialogue of inside and outside in my hybridized artefact. I have also presented an iconographic catalogue of totems and symbols which appear on the inner and outer surfaces of my structures. I present my project as an artefact to be contained in a gallery space as well as a structure or site which contains other artefacts. Like the Kumasi kiosk, these structures are not intended to be permanently site-specific. Each is collapsible and foldable and thus portable to any possible location for re-erection and exhibition. It is a cross genre installation interfacing painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry and performance.
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    Construction of a Texturing Device for Managing Surface Defects of Locally Produced Vegetable Tanned Leather
    (2017-11) Sefaah Tabi, Jennifer
    Leather surface quality is very vital when it comes to leather artefact production. Leather surface defects reduces the surface quality of leather thereby affecting the value of the leather products on the market. In view of this, this research emphasizes the need to utilize leather surface defect management techniques which is keen as it tends to improve the surface quality of the leather and its products at large. The study identified various defects and management methods which are currently implored by leather users to manage surface defects. The research further designed, produced and tested the efficacy of an alternative leather defect management device. This intervention was adopted based on the assertion made by Allman (2012-2016), Deines (2014) and Anon (n.d.) that texturing contributes quality to surfaces and their appearance by improving and correcting surface imperfections. By employing the qualitative methodology to address the problems identified the research used arguments and suggestions to advance the fact that texturing truly improves and corrects surface imperfections in some leather defects. Defects which could be corrected include grain loosening and wrinkled surface defects. Defects like holes and patched remained as they are after the intervention. Cuts, molds, and parasitic infections were slightly nullified. The study further recommended other researchers to take it upon and develop different textures to test effectiveness of varying textures for various leather surface defects.
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    Art Therapy in Special Needs Education: A Case of Autism in New Horizon Special School in Accra
    (KNUST, 2017-08) Esi Saah, Gracevictoria
    Inclusive Education (IE) has become very necessary in education today, and the increasing prevalence of cases such as autism and the fear of autistic individuals missing out on quality education to assist them attain their full potential as they get integrated into society cannot be denied. Unfortunately, the Special Educational Needs Policy of Ghana does not include a curriculum for teaching autistic children. Autism schools and teachers in Ghana are compelled to use curriculums that may not suit the needs and learning styles of autistic learners or adopt curriculums of other jurisdictions. This study investigated how autism teachers teach and autistic learners imbibe instructions, and the therapies used at the New Horizon Special School at Cantonments in Accra, Ghana. The study also explored the world and characteristics of autistic learners and how they function, and how the inclusion of Art Therapy as an intervention may be helpful in teaching autistic learners at the New Horizon Special School, as studies have proved its efficacy in this regard. The research being qualitative was quasi￾experimental and descriptive in nature, and adopted observation and interview as data collection instruments. These helped to identify and describe the characteristics of autistic learners at the school, the instructional strategies and existing therapies employed in the school, and their influences or impact on the education of Numeracy and Literacy. It also facilitated the description of Art therapy sessions, processes and outcomes on the behaviour and coping skills of autistic pupils were also described. Purposive, cluster and simple random sampling techniques were adopted for the study; sampling 21 participants comprising 9 autistic pupils each in the senior and junior autism classes, 2 autism teachers and 1 sensory coach. The study identified art therapy as a worthy inclusion in the education of autistic individuals. Therefore, a series of art therapy sessions were conducted for autistic learners in groups and individually during which their behavioural differences were observed. The art of the autistic learners was interpreted for the development of an art therapy inclusive teaching model for autistic individuals. The model was pre-tested and was found to enhance the communication and personality of the autistic learners while improving classroom management. Typically, aggressive and hyperactive pupils had better control of their emotions through art therapy in Numeracy and Literacy education. Therefore, Art therapy was proposed as a worthy intervention in the education of autistic learners at New Horizon Special School