Editor’s Note

We’re getting a little obese on the titbits of information and scraps of entertainment fed to us all day. We’ve become aware of the health risks of eating too many carb-heavy, sugary snacks and have started to learn to resist the temptations of pre-packaged, non-nutritious convenience foods. But, as Guardian writer Rolf Dobelli, says, “Most of us don’t understand that fast news is to the mind what sugar is to the body.” We’re constantly fed nuggets of trivial matter, brain junk food that doesn’t really concern our lives and doesn’t require us to think. That’s why we experience almost no saturation when clicking through online stories, videos and social media posts. “Unlike reading books and long magazine articles (which require thinking), we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, which are bright-coloured candies for the mind,” says Dobelli.

Most of us can waste hours unthinkingly absorbing videos or still images in lieu of reading long-form articles or books — or going to museums or art galleries. These days, getting out and about is starting to seem like hard work, especially for those of us raised on a diet of quick social media fixes. But it didn’t seem that way at Lukhanyo Mdingi’s latest iteration of his Provenance series, which opened at the Women’s Jail exhibition wing at Constitution Hill last week. Crowds of funkily dressed, hip and cool fans arrived to support Mdingi and his collaborators, Trevor Stuurman and Banele Khoza, in their quest to make Bantu literature, music and textiles more visible. Read about it in our main feature.

In other sensational news, the Oscar Pistorius trial has been turned into an opera. Unfortunately for me, Conrad Asman’s Trial by Media is showing only at Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre, but if it comes to Joburg, I’ll give up any number of hours on Instagram to go and see it. Comments, criticism or praise can be sent to nagela@sundaytimes.co.za.