Tag: Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival

  • Film, music and art events to attend in 2018

    Get out your diaries. Here is our list of not to miss film, music and art events for 2018:

    Inxeba (The Wound) is on circuit in South Africa

    When: From 2 February

    Where: Throughout the country

    Inxeba (The Wound), South Africa’s official entry to the 2018 Academy Awards for best foreign language film, will be released in South Africa from the 2nd of February. It will be screened at a number of independent movie theatres as well as mainstream movie houses. The film focuses on bringing questions and realities around homosexuality and tradition together. It stars SA musician Nakhane Touré who has received much praise for his performance as initiate Xolani. The movie’s engagement with gender, sexuality and tradition makes it a worthwhile watch.

    Gaika performs in South Africa

    When: Johannesburg – 8 February

    Cape Town – 9 February

    All the way from Brixton in the UK, the dystopian style of Gaika will be greeting South Africans for the first time in February. His childhood was surrounded by various forms of tech and scientific innovation. His current mode of production is inspired by the digitization of humanity. You can look forward to a live performance of some of his recently released tracks, including ‘BATTALION’.

    Click here for more information about the artist.

    Drop in Drawing

    When: 10 February

    Where: Wits Art Museum

    From: 12:00 – 13:00

    For their Valentine’s Day Edition WAM will be hosting Drop in Drawing, and just as the title of the event suggests, all that is required from participants is to come by the gallery during the allocated time slot. No experience or booking is required.

    If a cheesy Valentine’s Day events such as a film screening or dinner is not quite your thing, we’d recommend giving this one a chance. Let your hand lead your chosen implement of mark making and experiment in a gallery environment. Honestly, what could inspire creativity more?

    ‘Cape to Tehran: Re-imaging and re-imagining personal history in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-revolutionary Iran’

    When: 13 February – 29 March

    Where: Gallery MOMO Cape Town

    Opening Tuesday, 13 February at 18:00

    For this group show a diverse set of artists have been selected largely from South Africa and Iran by the curatorial hand of Sepideh Mehraban. The featured artists engage with complexities surrounding their individual country’s histories and legacies of trauma. Emphasis is placed on personal experiences of both conflict and change through their work resulting in the presentation of a multifaceted discussion. This discussion takes on areas of cohesion and divergence between post-apartheid and post-revolutionary Iran.

    ‘Cape to Tehran’ does not take the form of a sole narrative but instead acts as full-bodied conversation amongst artists from varying geographies and generations. This show serves to juxtapose personal encounters of socio-political turmoil experienced by the artists in their motherlands. They create art as a way of reflecting instead of simply representing their experiences of change and conflict.

    Featured artists:

    Kamran Adl | Shagha Ariannia | Patrick Bongoy | Stephanie Conradie | Rory Emmett | Thulile Gamedze | Black Hand | Svea Josephy | Francois Knoetze | Wonder Marthinus | Sepideh Mehraban | Emmanuel de Montbron | Sethembile Msezane | Neda Razavipour | Kathy Robins | Roderick Sauls | Berni Searle | Rowan Smith | Jo Voysey

    Petite Noir & Slow Jack perform at Kirstenbosch 

    When: 21 March

    Where: Cape Town

    As part of the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts, Petite Noir and Slow Jack will be performing on the 21st of March. For those who are feeling a little out of the loop, Petite Noir is a Belgian-born Congolese musician and songwriter now based in South Africa. His EP The King of Anxiety and his album La vie est belle / Life Is Beautiful demonstrate why watching him perform live should be on everyone’s bucket list. Slow Jack was formed in 2015, and has grown to include some of Cape Town’s best musical talent. Be sure to have a listen to their Soundcloud as a warm up for the concert. Access tickets for the concert online. The availability of tickets at the venue is dependent on online ticket sales.

    ‘Bakhambile, Parktown’, 2016 by Zanele Muholi

    Stevenson group show BOTH, AND: commemorating 15 years of the gallery’s existence

    When: 7 July – 24 August

    Where: Johannesburg and Cape Town

    The Stevenson gallery turns 15 this year. A commemorative group exhibition titled BOTH, AND will take place from 7 July to 24 August. This exhibition reflects on the foundations that continue to allow the gallery to stand tall in South Africa’s art scene – being a space that has its finger on the pulse of the art market while remaining dedicated to art history and the development of ideas. Two new directors, Sisipho Ngodwana and Alexander Richards, aim to unpack this through their curation of the show. They will look back and look forward, outlining the history of the gallery, its unique publication programme, local presence and global perspective. The show will include artists who began the journey with Stevenson, namely Zanele Muholi, Deborah Poynton, Nicholas Hlobo, Pieter Hugo, Wim Botha, Guy Tillim and Nandipha Mntambo, and those who joined the gallery’s journey at a later stage, like Robin Rhode, Meschac Gaba, Barthélémy Toguo, Penny Siopis and Moshekwa Langa. New and existing work by these artists will tackle the questions, “How have we, over the past fifteen years, collectively navigated the paradox inherent in the commercial gallery model? And what might the future hold?”

    Red Bull Music Festival

    When: 3-8 April

    Where: Johannesburg

    Just when the weather will be getting a little cooler, Red Bull plans to bring the heat to Johannesburg with the Red Bull Music Festival. Trompies, Oskido, Moonchild Sannelly, Moozlie, Stiff Pap and Distruction Boyz are among the musical stars who will be performing at this exciting explosion of sound. The festival has something for everyone, with artists from genres such as jazz, hip hop, electro, gqom and kwaito. Different spots throughout Johannesburg’s inner city will come to life at varying points throughout the festival. These spots include The Orbit, Newtown Music Factory, Republic of 94, Great Dane, and Kitcheners. Be sure to get your tickets online.

    2017 Fak’ugesi theme

    Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival

    When: September

    Where: Tshimologong Prescinct, Johannesburg

    This year will mark Fak’ugesi’s fifth consecutive run in Johannesburg. The festival is due to take place in September, hosted at the Tshimologong Prescinct in Braamfontein in partnership with British Council ConnectZA. It offers an interactive space to celebrate digital technology, art and culture in Africa. Events and projects that should not be missed at the festival include the Digital Africa Art Exhibition, Market Hack, ColabNowNow, A MAZE and Block party. Dates are subject to change.

  • PAINTING W/ MUSIC – Creating a visual footprint for music

    PAINTING W/ MUSIC – Creating a visual footprint for music

    When you are in the mood to dance, there is nothing better than walking on to the dance floor and feeling the vibrations of the music coming through the speakers. Cukia Kimani and Yann Seznec found a way to enhance this experience by creating visual permanence to music.

    Cukia has a background and Computer Science and Digital Arts while Yann has a background in music composition. With their project titled Painting w/Music, they let curiosity and their willingness to experiment take the lead. When asked about how this was done, Cukia replied, “Coming from a Computer Science background I know about all of these different algorithms and then I did visual arts. You know, how to put algorithms to make circles appear all over the screen based on random numbers. But then I was like ‘What happens if I just change this one value to be midi data or frequency data?’” And this was the foundation of the project.

    When Painting w/Music was originally pitched to the British Council, the idea was for Cukia to create visuals based on music that Yann would compose. This would be done by feeding the music into the programming code that Cukia had written. However, as the months passed and Cukia and Yann became more familiar with each other’s work, they decided to add in a new element to their project – a custom controller.

    The controller creates room for a performative, interactive level to their larger project. This allowed those who were interested in the project to be more than just passive observers. Instead they would be able to experiment with how the project works. When reflecting on this addition to the project Yann explained that, “The main thing was moving towards a performance tool which is something I really like working with so I guess this is what happens in a collaboration. You start with an idea and each person involved brings or pulls the project in a way that they are interested in exploring. I think we both ended up being really interested in this idea of building a tool that was kind of applying these ideas of kind of visual permanence of music to a performance. It is also fun because then it means that we can do a performance at the end which was a cool focus for the project.”

    This evolution of the project made it possible for them to be on the lineup at this year’s Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival. With Yann taking control of the music and Cukia managing the coding side of the performance, the audience was drawn on to the dance floor by flashing colours and shapes dancing across the screen along with them. “The core concept was to play a whole set of music, tunes and improvisations that were created entirely with this custom controller box that was built for the project. And then all of that, the music and my actions, the buttons I pressed and the things that I twisted and pulled, all of that created these visuals,” Yann explains.

    Excited by how far their project has evolved since their initial idea, Cukia and Yann expressed that this is unlikely the end of the project. Their curious nature will more than likely see them pushing their project even further.

    Check out their YouTube to have a look at some of the visuals they have created.

  • Alt Reality // Where art and tech meet

    Alt Reality is a technology studio focused primarily on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. The studio investigates other technology forms by looking at their ability to move into virtual reality and augmented reality. These technologies include 3D Printing and iOT data to name a few. I had an interview with Alt Reality creative technologist Rick Treweek to tell me more about the workings and history of the tech studio.

    Rick has worked in mobile game and app design for the last 15 years as well as 3D printing for the last 5 years and expresses that VR and AR were the next likely steps in his career. Rick tells me that within this space of virtual reality, augmented reality and investigation, a great deal of high-level Proof Of Concepts and Projects is executed. With a love for experimentation and art the tech studio makes time to focus on this sector.

    When asked about the kinds of worlds that Alt Reality creates Rick explains that by utilizing AR, VR as well as Mixed reality in amalgamation with one another, they create projects with digital overlays of real worlds in AR and building environments in VR that imitate the real world with the use of 360 cameras. “We often look at developing projects that showcase potentials of how things in the future will look once the technologies have moved away from devices and into wearables like glasses and contact lenses.”

    When asked how Alt Reality started Rick tells me that their journey began started 2 years ago in the Tshimologong Precinct Makerspace. “The idea initially came when I bumped into another maker called Phathwa Senene. I was busy working on a 3D Printed VR headset and bumped into Phathwa who had also just been making a 3D Printed set. We decided to look at getting into VR specific hardware and having a background in Apps and Games it was natural to then start looking at what could be done on the software side.” Gareth Steele joined the team while they were on an IBM research project. His talents as an illustrator, designer and Creative Director took the tech studio’s software to another level. With a resilient curiosity in VR Gareth became the Creative Director of the company.

    In my interview with Rick he took some time to explain tech terms to me. One of these terms that have become synonymous with tech is disruptive software and, as Rick explains, this refers to technologies that challenge rigid notions of how things should be done. An example of this is 3D Printing that challenges traditional manufacturing methods.

    According to Rick a creative technologist is a person with an interest in exploring new technologies with the aim to look at new methods in which technologies can be used. Another term that circulates in the tech realm is Augmented Reality and this refers to technology that overlaps digital data on to actual reality.

    When asked about their involvement with the National Maker Movement Rick expresses, “We are part of the Collective involving maker related events nationally as well as teaching skills and technologies from what’s called the 4th industrial revolution. Through conferences, talks and teaching we are exposing these technologies to a larger public audience, sharing what we have learnt to grow the sector.”

    The kind of work that the studio produces is based around Research and Development, Proof of Concepts and the exploration of technologies. “We do this mainly within Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 3D Printing, along with all the new emerging technologies around this sector.” The work that the studio produces is often showcased and utilized during events.

    “We develop a lot of software within VR and AR and also develop a lot of hardware to go along with our projects, such as our 3D Printed Handle headsets. We do this through collaboration with people such as Phathwa who is an electronics and 3D Printing Ninja.” With their diverse nature the studio also works on many collaborative projects, art related activities and exhibitions.

    Alt Reality has worked with IBM Research Africa, WITS, the Origins Centre, SAP, Jaguar, Accenture and Samsung.  “Our main passion falls within the art sector where we are constantly exploring options in this sector and trying to figure out the monetization of this area of work…Currently one of our most exciting projects is working with William Kentridge and The Centre for the Less Good Idea where we are exploring new technologies and their impact on South African Artists.”

    Rick states that the vision for Alt Reality includes how they can align research and development through the merging of art and technology. “We have a vision of a technology building within the heart of Johannesburg where we can make this happen. Ideally a building with each floor focusing on new sectors within these fields such as Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, iOT, 3D Printing, Robotics and AI. Using Art as the main driving force behind the research. Using these new discoveries, we can then look at scaling what we have learnt to make social impact projects and initiatives that could change the face of Africa. We want to show the world that South Africa, and Africa can be a technology powerhouse.”

    Alt Reality’s innovation, technical expertise and love for art is pushing the way that art and technology is viewed together. They are no longer regarded as separate entities with the emergence of more and more digital artists, festivals such as Fak’ugesi and Alt Reality the barrier is being knocked down and we are moving into an era of hybridity. Rick’s aspiration to show the world what a powerhouse we are can be accomplished with virtual reality and augmented reality at their fingertips.

  • A MAZE. // Gaming and Playful Media Festival

    For its 6th year A MAZE. is welcoming African and international game developers, digital activists and digital artists to Johannesburg in order to trade ideas and techniques related to indie game development and playful media. A MAZE. / Johannesburg forms a part of the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival and includes talks, workshops and a games arcade.

    The three day event will feature over 40 international and African artists, game designers, game creators, media artists, researchers, forward thinkers, coders, musicians and speakers who will exhibit their talents to the public in a dynamic and interactive way.

    Tim Flusk’s topic for the festival, ‘Lesbians and Apartheid: The stories that gameplay doesn’t tell’ is one of the talks at A MAZE. this year that grabbed my attention. Tim studied game design at Wits and is currently working as a programmer at 24 Bit Games. I asked Tim where the title of his talk originated from and he explained that he has had an eternal curiosity about how games convey emotion, stories and concepts to its players. Tim continues by saying that he has been prototyping in a group setup how to present other narratives and experiences in the gaming platform such as harassment targeted at femmes and the economic systems and policies of apartheid.

    “My title is possibly misleading. The talk that I am putting together is focused on the broader view on how to subvert certain tropes and mechanics in video games to tell marginalized and vulnerable people’s stories better.” Tim tells me that there are games tackling subjects about racism and sexual orientation such as Dys4ia and Ladykiller in a Bind.

    Another thought provoking talk at A MAZE. this year is ‘Studying game dev culture as an insider-outsider’ by Crystal Farmer. Crystal is a Social Anthropology Masters Student from Stellenbosch who centered her masters around game development culture. When asked why this peaked her interest she responded by saying that she was in a focus group in a research methods class in which the group consisted of a few people who enjoyed playing video games. She discovered the complexity of this world that she did not have much background on and was intrigued. Finding out about the fast-growing game development scene in Cape Town, she jumped into the field and made it her topic of research. “I wanted to study something that was playful, but also foreign to me so that I could maximize learning and stretch myself beyond what was comfortable.”

    Crystal explains that game development culture is relevant to social anthropology as it meets with new forms of commerce,communication, creativity, and social interaction due to the rapid development of technological innovation. “Video game development culture’s complexity gives me insight into a rich variety of social phenomena. It provides an interesting angle from which to observe and understand different manifestations of social issues.”

    Crystal’s talk will focus on her being an outsider initially and then moving into an insider role in the culture as well as how it has provided her with different understandings of her own field of research.  Her talk will cover her findings during her study of game development culture and highlight how her own subjectivities and sensitivity may have had an influence on her conclusions with a keen focus on inclusivity and identity.

    A peculiar topic to approach is the talk by Ben Rausch this year titled ‘Videomancers: Bending Reality with the Magic of Games’. Ben is a game developer, illustrator, animator and event designer based in Cape Town. He is currently co-running the Cool Your Jets creative studio, making game trailers with Cowabunga Industries and helps creates DIY games for TeamLazerBeam. Ben’s talk will look at how game developers can become modern day sorcerers, alchemists and witches and with their craft, change the world positively. Ben continues to say that he will consider how the act of playing a game can be regarded as a magic ritual. Ben came up with the term videomancers that he explains refers to people who create change via channelling their intent and use interactive media in order to bend reality. Ben believes that games can bend reality as they are “one of our most emotive and immediate art forms” and have the ability to inform how people think and could lead to positive change in the world.

    A MAZE. will be showcasing a huge variety of indie games this year as a part of the festival. The South African games include ALONE by Jason Sutherland and Richard Pieterse about self reflection and patience and Dress To Express Dancing Success by TeamLazerBeam – a dating sim and dancing sim hybrid exploring identity, social anxiety and shaking your booty in front of strangers. Another exciting game that will be showcased this year is LAMP OF TRUTH from Algeria developed by Diaa ElHak Guedouari – a puzzle game about existential illusions where lanternsare used to illuminate reality and the player’s path to the next level. “Remember, anything that you can’t see, doesn’t exist.”

    A MAZE. gives to the public a different insight into games culture and highlights how technology can be used for artistic expression as well as experimental interaction with audiences. At A MAZE.expect to see games with serious narratives approached by its developers with new and playful viewpoints.The festival brings together international culture and unites playful media and games.

  • Inciting a sense of energy and a feeling of action // A conversation about Fak’ugesi’s visual identity

    As a digital innovation festival which hopes to encourage young digital makers to be leaders in technological spheres, the visual identity for the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival was born out of the energy that students were emitting while Wits lecturers Tegan Bristow and Christo Doherty were building their vision for the festival. Teaming up with Vincent Truter and illustrator Michale Tymbios, lightning bolts, clenched fists and illustrations mimicking wires in a circuit board are the visual signifiers that have been carried over as the festival has expanded each year. This pays homage to the spirit of youth and the cultures on technology that continuously develop within different city contexts. I interviewed Vincent and Tegan to explore how they have translated this into a visual identity that is easily recognizable and disperses this electric energy.

    When you first started Fak’ugesi, what was your thinking in how you wanted to visually represent ideas around digital innovation? How did you carry this through in the 2016 and 2017 posters?

    VT: At the time when Fak’ugesi started we sensed a strong political and revolutionary climate on the Wits campus. There was a lot of very political and revolutionary iconography on student and other posters and stickers. This sense of a revolutionary mind-set would later culminate in the Fees Must Fall campaign.

    We drew on the beginnings of this energy and started looking at poster designs and icons from the past revolutionary movements. Drawing on a Russian constructivist print style we developed the hand as the central metaphor, and secondly we brought in the lightning bolt – to metaphorically represent what Fak’ugesi does and means – to set things alight, to strike with a bolt of energy. We did not want to take the route of bringing the tech element foreground in a kind of sci-fi way, rather we rooted it in a very human form, with a revolutionary metaphor and crisp clear iconography. As you know the fist has also been a strong symbol in SA for Amandla and associated with many revolutionary sentiments. We added a circuit board texture that celebrated the digital. The founding imagery was developed in collaboration with illustrator Michale Tymbios. So the main ingredients were born. The human hand, the lightning bolt, the circuitry that acts like veins. Its energetic, bold, and always a sharp stab to the senses.

    The first illustration was inspired by the cut-out and mis-print aesthetic of Saul Bass. The second years use of multiple feminine hands was inspired by hands at the Fees Must Fall rallies holding up phones to document the event. This year the hands were inspired by a softer set of hands giving, sharing.

    The colour palette is also always a mixture of a tonal set of hues with a really wack uncomfortable colour thrown in. It’s actually not a very easy palette on the eye – and we love it for that reason. It needs to agitate a bit.

    The slogans you have used on the posters over the years have been “Rise Digital Africa”, “Afro Tech Riot” and “Brave Tech Hearts Beat as One”. Would you like to share a bit about the thinking behind these slogans and how they tie into the visual language you have used to symbolize these?

    VT: We wanted to keep the conceptual and thematic language uncomplicated and direct. No fluffy highfalutin phrases that try and say so much and end up saying so little. In the first year we actually developed a type of copy-driven praise poem to add the sense of movement and pace through the language. This was then distilled in a short punchy slogan “Rise Digital Africa”. Like a great rally slogan in a march, the Fak’ugesi slogan should incite a sense of energy and a feeling of action.

    TB: Each slogan is almost like a challenge that we pose with the Festival each year. We iterate this every year, drawing on how people are working with the space of technology and culture. In 2015 there was a lot of focus in the media on what was being called the “Digital Revolution” in Africa, we were skeptical about this and wanted to ask questions about where that power really existed, so the “Rise Digital Africa” and the old use of the black power first came into being.

    After that the hand and the fist stayed in our iconography. In 2016 I used “Afro Tech Riot” to reflect the really important student upraising around #feesmustfall, which pretty much ran from Twitter and was largely led by strong female figures. Therefore rather than have one fist, we introduced three hands: a fist – to continue the tradition of uprising; a hand pointing up to the gods – representing spirituality; and a hand holding the phone with the slogan “Afro Tech Riot” on it – to reference how the revolution was being led in twitter and via images and videos. These hands where all very feminine, with soft hands, jewellery and flowing garments.

    In 2017 I wanted to represent a more global engagement with technology. 2017 was the year that Trump won his US election through targeted social media, it’s is also the year that followed a major global recession. I felt that all the kids that had started amazing things with tech and innovation in 2017, where still out there alone and with not really enough engagement and support. So “Brave Tech Hearts Beat As One” was to ask questions about unity and the role of supporting and collaborating with each other through difficult times. Our hands therefore became supporting and protecting, holding this beating technological heart – a very brave heart.

    The slogans and icons you have used evoke thoughts around revolution, taking a stand, courage and being heard. Was this intentional? How does this relate to the direction you see African digital innovation going?

    VT: Africa has the ability to use technology to leapfrog through developmental challenges, to use its revolutionary energy to break down ineffective systems and really envision and create new ways of being. This spirit is at the heart of our festival and innovation in Africa.

    TB: Yes absolutely, we all know that Africa is culturally disenfranchised in the globalised information economy. The slogans act to challenge this and also allow us to claim our own knowledges – cultural, subaltern and insurrectionary.

  • Music and Technology at Fak’ugesi Festival

    Now in its 4th year, the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival is a celebration of technology, creativity, collaboration and innovation from across the African continent. The festival includes a range of seminars, talks, exhibitions, workshops, hack-a- thons, films, artists, games, innovation riots and music. With highlights including the Fak’ugesi Conference, Making Weekend as well as Fak’ugesi Beat, a new curatorial partnership with WeHeartBeat that focuses on beats, music and technology.

    The Fak’ugesi Beats program is multifaceted and includes the week-long Fak’ugesi Beats Lab workshop, the curation of panels at the Fak’ugesi Conference and the Fak’ugesi Beats Bloc Party which sees the festival outcomes come to life. Red Bull Studios Johannesburg at the Tshimologong Precinct will play host to the workshop which includes Soulection’s Hannah Faith, videographer Foxy Neela, French Soulection beatmaker Evil Needle, Swiss beatmaker Melodinsfonie, alongside the local Mante Ribane and the Dear Ribane collective working on a collaborative piece the result of which will be showcased at the Block Party and also see the work pressed to vinyl.

    Two of the panels at the Fak’ugesi Conference will be examining the influence of technology on music. ‘Future Beats’ features Joe Kay, founder of Soulection and pioneer of the Future Beats sound, Evil Needle and trap jazz pioneer Masego. The conversation will look at how the digital age as influenced new genres in music and what this means for musicians and artists as a whole. The second panel discussion ‘Sonic Visions’ will be an examination examination of collaboration between film, design and music. With a panel that features singer Nonku Phiri & Rendani Nemakhavhani who collaborated together on a music film, Foxy Neela, Hannah Faith, Mahaneela Choudhury-Reid of WeAreInBloom, and Benoit Hicke of the French F.A.M.E Festival the aim is to have a playful conversation that engages with the audience.

    The Free Workshop Program at the Making Weekend allows the public to gain hands on experience in areas from programming and creating gaming controllers, to robotics and music & film. Led by French/American artist Yann Seznec, the workshop ‘Room to Play’ explores the world of DIY musical controllers and instruments. Making use of everyday objects the workshop will challenge attendees to reimagine what a an instrument is and placing limitations on its function thus challenging the design strategy of commercial controllers. “How do you make a digital instrument that’s more difficult to play? And then thus what kind of questions does that open up?” asks Yann Seznec.

    According to Seznec DIY musical controllers and instruments have had a large impact on the performance of electronic music. “It means that you can do electronic music performances that are more meaningful to an audience. One of the big changes in electronic music in the last 10/15 years was that everything could be done on a laptop. With the downside of it being pretty uninteresting. I think what’s nice about DIY instruments is that it brings new methods of performance to the world,” notes Seznec.

    The Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival will culminate with the Fak’ugesi Beats Bloc Party which will feature the outcomes of the festival’s various collaborations as well as a selection of some of the finest local and international artists including Masego, Joe Kay, MNDSGN, Melodiesinfonie, Evil Needle, Hannah Faith, Nonku Phiri, Christian Tiger School and Petite Noir. “We’re trying to setup an international beat festival and present artists that we feel are making headway internationally and deserve platforms and deserve to be heard. So we feel like we’ve put together a really beautiful lineup,” says Dominique Soma of WeHeartBeat. “We’ve worked with artists that apply the traditional analog way of music making in terms of playing traditional instruments but then creating it in a digital space or through a digital process,” she adds.

    Unique on the continent in its offering, the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival highlights the importance of the cross-over between culture, creativity and technology in Africa. With the addition of Fak’ugesi Beats the festival is examining the relationship between music and technology and this program will expand over the coming years. “We’re still looking to explore the relationship between the two spaces in the long term. Over the next few years you will see that crossover coming to life a little bit more,” notes Dominique Soma.

  • A GUIDE FOR FAK’UGESI AFRICAN DIGITAL INNOVATION FESTIVAL 2017

    “Iba nesbindi ne-Technology” | “Be Tech Brave”

    For the fourth time in succession the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival runs from the 6th until the 16th of September in Johannesburg’s Braamfontein. The Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation has once more conceived to offer an interactive space for creative intercommunions amongst Africans all over the continent. Launched as a “celebration of digital technology, art and culture”, the festival is intended to embolden its audience to reconsider their eyes for digital technology on the one hand, as well as a way to expand their creative and cultural working procedures with(in) digital innovations on the other hand.

    Using the “Upgrade To Brave” theme, Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation 2017 embodies a ten day long festival platform – located in Braamfontein’s recently envisioned tech hub Tshimologong on Juta Street – for inter artistic exchange between creative minds of different directions to (re)create an innovative collaboration of artful creativity and sustainable technology. In the course of this, it proposes numerous events around exhibitions and installations, workshops and talks, performances and parties. Employing favoured events of the previous years, this year’s Fak’ugesi entrenches furthermore new inspiring projects.

    The Fak’ugesi Digital African Residency (from the 14th of August until the 16th of September) annually hosts young digital artists all over the African continent as its residents. Supported by its partner Pro Helvetia Johannesburg with the ANT Fund, it invites creative individuals to exhibit their work and participate in further events like workshops and talks in order to both explore and represent the Festival’s theme through professional eyes. This year’s residents are Komborarai Chapfika and Dananayi Muwanijwe both from Zimbabwe and Julia Hanjo from Namibia.

    In partnership with British Council ConnectZA, Fak’ugesi Festival inhabits a Digital Africa Exhibition, running from the 8th until the 16th of September. Aimed to emphasizes the relevance of digital arts through over the African Continent, it focuses on New Media and Technology Art made by Africans for Africans.

    Likewise as a first, Fak’ugesi 2017 adds the one-day long Fak’ugesi Conference (14th of September – 9am until 5pm) as an inherent part of its program. On the basis of the thematic framework “The Future of Creative Innovation and Technology” the conference – led by diverse professionals of technical and digital innovation spheres – majors on relevant questions of the development of artistic and technological transdisciplinary in Africa, in order to prioritize the importance of collaborative work even across national and vocational borders.

    Intended as a thematic access to the Festival’s theme, The Making Weekend, taking place from the 8th to the 10th of September, allures the visitors to practically experience the thrilling diversity of technological innovations through offering a variegated workshop program such as ‘Making A Talking Roboter’ (8th of September – 10am until 12pm) with IBM Research Africa, which – as the name suggests – encounters to create a pronunciation skilled Robot. Including ‘DIY Game Controllers’ (9th of September – 10am until 3pm) with Bear Season teaching to design individual controllers of various materials. Conclusively, The Making Weekend’s aim is to improve already technically accomplished skills as well as to help (yet) non-technical user to delve deeper in technological features.

    In addition, Fak’ugesi 2017 includes its annual Market Hack (9th of September – 10am until 4:30pm), as one of its favourites event. The Market Hack – in cooperation with South African Maker Collective and Accenture Liquid Labs – is a daylong annexation of Braamfontein’s popular Neighborgoods Market – connected with various playful activities and games around electronic and digital applications.

    As a further project, Fak’ugesi 2017 presents – once again in partnership with British Council’s ConnectZA – ColabNowNow, a collaborative project aimed to combine different digital works to an interdisciplinary level. Proceeding from the 6th until the 16th of September, ColabNowNow engages 10 artist as well as 5 digital storytellers, picked from diverse African states from the East, South and West and the United Kingdom, to flourish inter artistic networking connections.

    Fak’ugesi Beats Lab (7th until 16th of September) – as a weeklong boot camp curated by Weheartbeat – builds a space for various artistic minds of technological, musical and filmic spheres to cooperatively work together in order to amalgamate unique developments and creations. As a clou, all upcoming results will be seen at the Fak’ugesi’s final event, Fak’ugesi Beats Bloc Party on the 16th of September, which embodies the crowning glory of those 10 days, supported by both national and international musical highlights such as Masego, Nonku Phiri, Petite Noir and much more.

    Moreover, from the 13th to the 16th of September, Fak’ugesi features A MAZE. Since 2012 in cooperation with Goethe Institute Johannesburg connects both international and national developers, entrepreneurs and artist of the gaming and playful media sector. A MAZE functions as a networking platform for gamers all over the world to connect through various projects around the thematic framework of virtual reality, such as digital installations, game designs and much more.

    Since 2014 Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, founded by Prof Christo Doherty and Tegan Bristow from WITS Digital Arts including Prof Barry Dwolatzky from the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), initially  created a platform to mobilize Braamfontein’s Tshimologong Innovation Precinct. Nowadays this has since evolved to celebrate the relevance of technological innovation and creativity by and for Africa’s youth. Harnessing a foundation that births a platform for future African digital innovative leaders to explore and leave their footprint in the world of technology. According to its name – Fak’ugesi” – a Zulu expression for “put on the electricity” let’s put the future development of Africa’s technological front into Africans hands, let’s turn on the young minds.

    For further information about the Festival in detail check out their website.