Hi-tech creativity in Africa

With the bold theme of “brave tech hearts beat as one”, the 2017 Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival will once again pioneer uniquely African technology and creativity in an electrifying 10-day programme from September 6 to 16 showcasing the power of innovative collaboration.

This year’s festival promises an exciting line-up of events, including the first Fak’ugesi conference on September 14. This one-day event, the Future of Creative Innovation, will focus on highlighting important conversations on the role of collaboration and interdisciplinary practice for creativity, technology and innovation in Africa.

The 2017 conference will take a closer look at the present and future of collaborative practices and digital culture in Southern Africa and the sub-Saharan region.

Panellists and keynote speakers will also engage questions around inter- and multidisciplinary digital practices in support of the growth of creative and community-led innovative technology in South Africa and beyond.

The day’s events will be introduced by one of SA’s most well-established fine artists, William Kentridge, in a keynote address.

Kentridge’s immense intellectual generosity and interest in young Johannesburg artists, through the Centre for the Less Good Idea, will lead to the first panel discussion.

This will feature Kentridge and the centre’s season 2 curators, Jamal Nxedlana, Nthlanthla Muthlangu and Tegan Bristow, chaired by Bronwyn Lace.

Two panels will address the state of virtual reality and mixed reality, their current uses and industry focus in Southern Africa. The first, supported by Maxum Digital (Innovation Hub), engages new South African practices in VR. The second, supported by Ericsson, takes a bold look at new mixed reality technologies and community-led urban design.

These will run parallel to panels exploring the intersections of music, film and new technologies in a double panel series curated by Weheartbeat in an extension of the Fak’ugesi Beats Lab.

Each Fak’ugesi Beat panel features the cutting edge beat-makers and videographers who have come to contribute to the 2017 Fak’ugesi Beats Lab and Festival Finale.

As one of the most distinguished ambassadors of digital culture and engagement in Africa, Jepchumba, will deliver the second keynote address.

Jepchumba will then lead an extensive Pan-African conversation on questions facing digital culture on the continent.

These discussions will also include contributions by participants in the ColabNowNow project, a 10-day programme of digital storytelling and making that will take place during this year’s Fak’ugesi Festival.

Festival director Tegan Bristow says: “The Fak’ugesi Conference and Festival not only allows for vital skills development and exchange, but also acts as a platform where digital practices can be interrogated, questioned and collaboratively produced.

“It’s thanks to the Fak’ugesi Conference partners Tshimologong, Ericsson, Maxum Digital & Innovation Hub, French Institute and British Council Connect ZA that this is possible.”

The conference will close with a celebratory performance and beats demo by Fak'ugesi Beats Lab residents, Masego from the UK and EvilNeedle from France.