Social Pointillism and Starry Nights: Making Points to Make Connections in the Sudanese Civil War

Abstract

The Pointillists – notably Georges Seurat and Paul Signac – were à la mode in the late 19th century. Their paintings relied upon a brushwork that placed points of colour to construct their representations. These points were placed such that when looked at as a whole they revealed a picture of some reality. This article argues the possibility of social pointillism, where the picture one is attempting to paint is of what happens in global social realities. Points in pointillism were daubs of colour. They painted pictures on canvases. Points in social pointillism are forces with powers. They create analytic canvases that reveal fields of power in the starry nights of human being. In order to make this argument, discussion begins at the Otello restaurant; proceeds to presentation of social pointillism; explains how social pointillism is relevant to a starry night ontology, and ends by identifying a virtue of employing such pointillism to paint pictures of starry nights.