THE second Creativate Digital Arts Festival, which runs across all 11 days of the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (27 June to 7 July), offers a vast and exciting menu of innovation, creativity and inspiration.
“This festival is not just for artists. It’s not just for geeks. It’s for the insanely curious… those who want a glimpse into the future of creativity and who want to know more about the brave new world we’re entering, and how technology is giving artists more ways to tell their stories,” says Festival CEO Tony Lankester, who has co-curated the programme along with Toby Shapshak and Lauren Fletcher. It is sponsored by Standard Bank.
This year, Creativate moves to the Monument (Thomas Pringle Hall), where pride of place will be held by the Creativate exhibition. Here, daring South African and international artists will exploit the spaces where creativity and technology meet, inviting visitors to experience the present through new eyes, explore the possibilities of our future, and encounter the past in ways yet to be imagined.
Leading thinkers in innovation, music, social media and creativity will be giving talks and visitors will also be able to learn new skills in Creativate’s hands-on workshops, which will cover a range of topics including interactive arts, social media, digital soundscapes, augmented reality, Arduino programming and so much more.
Creativate Stage Productions
I AM SOMEBODY: The performers of Sirqus Alfon weave an infectious spell of unbridled insanity.
CELLIST WITH RABIES: A new South African play from multi-award-winning team Jemma Kahn and Jaco Bouwer, pushes the boundaries of kamishibai to tell a story of disease, failure and breakfast.
ERSATZ: Julien Mellano’s freely fantasised projection of a future man.
FROGMAN: curious directive’s coming-of-age drama, supernatural thriller and pioneering integration of live performance and virtual reality.
Creativate Exhibitions
African Robots (Ralph Borland with Lewis Kaluzi); The Art of Play (Michaella Janse van Vuuren); Digital Spirits and Ancestry (Gerald Genie Khumalo); Electric Lady (Cadelle); eMsamo (Londiwe Mtshali); Games and Politics (Presenting company: ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut); Giving Poetry Wings 2
(Thuthukani Ndlovu / The Radioactive Blog); Googly Eyes (Wesley Swanepoel); Graffiti Hyper Realism 2 (Terance Nzuza / Yeolihood Studios); HERE (Shelley Barry / twospinningwheels & Electric South); The Other Dakar (Selly Raby Kane / Electric South); Paroxysmal (Constantino Brito Grek); Touch Me Hard (Obett Motaung); Ukubekindlebe (Sanjin Muftic); Will and Shane (Brent Meistre and Russell Bruns).
Creativate Talks
The Art of Engineering (Presenter: Dr Michaella Janse van Vuuren); Dubship 1 – Black Starliner (Presenter: Ralph Borland); Exploring Tech in Theatre Storytelling (Presenter: Justin Wilkinson); From Rectangle to Circle (Presenter: Shelley Barry); The Future of eMobility (Presenter: Dr Joost Kessels); In the Footsteps of the Electric Ladies (Presenter: Caddelle); Is Artificial Intelligence the next revolution in music? (Presenter: Segodi Leshalabe); Long Walk to App Development (Presenter: Litha Soyizwapi); The New Creative Utopias (Presenter: Julius Wiedemann); The Power of Purr (Presenter: Gary Baseman); Songsmith & the Living Will of Technological Artworks (Presenter: Jenna Burchell); Train Jam Gaming Talkshop (Presenter: Train Jam Gaming Developers); Ukubekindlebe (Presenter: Sanjin Muftic); World Building through animation (Presenter: Ree Treweek)