Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Twelve days of total tech and sharp design
Access to many of the festival events is free
A FEAST of technology, including virtual reality and design innovation, is set to enthral Cape Town next week.
The fourth Open Design Cape Town festival – 12 days of talks, technology exhibitions, film screenings, performances and workshops – begins on Wednesday.
Capetonians will be able to attend 140, mostly free events, from talks by the likes of Julia Anastasopoulos and Ari Kruger – the creative team behind the hit YouTube DIY series Suzelle DIY – to experiencing the latest in virtual reality headsets, and even having a go at designing a computer game.
The Cape Town City Hall on Darling Street will be the festival’s main hub, but events will take place throughout the city.
The festival’s creative director Y Tsai said in a statement Open Design Cape Town sought to showcase the realworld benefits of design.
“Design is no longer the exclusive domain of the privileged elite,” he said.
“It touches every part of life, addressing basic human needs in multiple applications across every sector.”
But the festival is also about cool stuff.
One studio exhibiting at City Hall is Lightscape VR, a Cape Town-based company that does “virtual reality architectural visualisation”.
The studio promises to let attendees “wander through a virtual world”, based on the technology it uses to create architectural designs.
Festival- goers will be able to experience the latest in 3D scanning – and have themselves scanned – courtesy of Ambient Animation, and learn how augmented reality is changing computer games.
Meanwhile the Hero Expo is an exhibition of sneaker skates – that’s takkies attached to roller skates, which professional illustrators have customised after super heroes.
As in previous years, a highlight of the festival is likely to be the Talk100 sessions, which are on Thursday between 11am and 4pm at City Hall.
Speakers will delve into the latest tech trends, such as whether the time is ripe for the so-called “fourth industrial revolution”, if health care is the new gold rush, and what makes tech pioneers like Steve Jobs tick.
Further afield, there will be graffiti and street art tours in Woodstock, a kids’ design workshop in Salt River and films screened at the Labia Theatre on Orange Street.
On Thursday evening, the theatre will host the African premiere of the feature- length documentary about crowd-funding, Capital C, which was itself produced and funded by 586 people from 24 countries.
Cape Town acting mayoral committee member for tourism, events and economic development, councillor Xanthea Limberg, said the festival would bring tourists to the city.
“Open Design also serves to counter seasonality experienced during the colder winter months and to entrench Cape Town’s position as a yearround, value-for-money events destination.”
For more information and a full programme visit opendesignct.com.
jan.cronje@inl.co.za