#DigiFest for Dummies

Durban - Intersections is the theme of the 24th International Symposium on Electronic Art playing out in Durban this week creating a city-wide showcase of dozens of workshops, exhibitions, presentations, talks, events, installations, walks, festivals and activities, and a major global conference on new media art. Here's your guide to the events

Academic programme

24th International Symposium on Electronic Art

DUT City Campus: 25-27 June - Delegates only

An academic symposium at DUT which comprises peer-reviewed papers, panels and keynote presentations for registered delegates travelling from around the world. ISEA symposia are coordinated by ISEA International. Founded in the Netherlands in 1990, ISEA International (formerly Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) is an international non-profit organization fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science and technology. ISEA International Headquarters is supported by the University of Brighton (UK).

DigiFest

DUT City Campus: 25-27 June

In its fifth year, the Durban University of Technology’s Arts and Design Digital Festival is a celebration of the arts and technology. It seeks to facilitate inter disciplinary teaching and learning practices in design, creative and performing arts, as well as to showcase student and staff work. This year Digifest will be incorporated in the 24th International Symposium on Electronic Art alongside Innovate Durban’s 2018 Innovation

Festival in a strategy to build a local partnership and legacy.

PechaKucha

Distillery 031: Friday 29 June, evening

Delegates and public: R30 at door

PechaKucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each. The format keeps presentations concise and fast-paced. It will host a sample of speakers from ISEA2018 and IF Durban allowing guests an overview or highlights package of some of the presentations from the week’s sessions.

Interpret Durban #ID9

City Hall: Saturday 30, evening

Delegates and public: R50 at door

Held annually, Interpret Durban aims to create a platform for Durban artists to showcase their talent. Participants are chosen on a competition-basis which is open to all art-makers in various categories: visual arts, video, photography, illustration, spoken word, short story, and youth. For #ID9 there will be about a dozen installations and showcases of some of the best of the ISEA2018/ Digifest05/ IF Durban projects. #ID9 will be the closing event of the week.

Cultural Programme

Most events are open to the public, are family friendly and are free of charge.

Tuesday 26 June: Life Hacking

Natural Science Research Centre, 151 KE Masinga Rd, 5.30pm

Under the direction of Dr Jill Scott, the project showcases wearable technology that allows visually impaired performers and choreographers to express themselves through movement and sound and in so doing, enabling them to share their experiences with sighted people. Seven visually impaired students from the Lincoln Mason School in uMlazi will work with Durban choreographers/dancers Lorin Sookool and Thobi Maphanga to create a dance piece which explores this technology.

Tuesday 26 June: Life Hacking

KZNSA Gallery and surrounds, 7pm

Gallery Take Over is a project of fun, innovative and quirky exhibits – all with a strong social consciousness message. The public opening is at 7pm and visitors can meet some of the “Free Sunshine!” little solar-panelled protest robots created in public workshops; the “World After Us / Server Farms” which uses discarded computer hardware as a basis for up-cycled garden installations; and some “Gambiologia” projects – which is the Brazilian practice of makeshift, the art of resorting to improvisation in order to repair what doesn’t work or to create what you need with what you have and African style robots by Ralph Borland. Participatory public interventions designed to re-imagine public space in Durban presented by PS2 – a group of German media artists.

Tuesday 26 June: Life Hacking

Bulwer Park, 8pm

Ozma a French electronic jazz band will performing to the movie The Lost World - a grainy old black and white silent film about dinosaurs. If the weather is good, the band will perform in adjoining Bulwer Park. Bring blankets, picnic and family. There will be other activations and food vendors in the park.

Wednesday 27 June: De-colonising Futures

Denis Hurley Centre

Of special interest is a talk about Africa in Space – imagining the future and considering Zambians’ involvement in the space race; Waiting for a Revolution – an interactive installation with a portable cardboard voting booth; and a sound installation highlighting citizens of Durban’s sonic memories. There will be a culture walk exploring the important sites around the DHC in the inner city with activations along the way, and

projections on the outside of the Cathedral. Hope to See is a local art project combining basket weaving craft with stow-away graffiti.

Thursday 28 June: Arts, Science, Us

uShaka

A beach installation involving banks of TVs, sand sculptures and video installations. uShaka is also the site for an interesting project – “Nonument” is rooted in a protest installation from Detroit about the destruction of a public fountain which was demolished despite a public uproar. The artists created an app which explores the architecture, site and location of where the fountain used to be, pushing the boundaries of architecture, history and virtual reality.

Friday 29: Intersections and Innovations

Station Drive

ISEA heads to Durban’s Station Drive at S43 for a series of events which celebrates the unlikely bedfellows: “Arts – Science – Beer and Spices” in an evening of performances, projection and installations… and beer. Veranda Panda will perform.