Design Indaba and Alexander’s Band, a South African agency that represents illustrators, are collaborating to produce an exciting new illustration feature for Design Indaba Expo 2015. Paper Planes – a talent-packed group exhibition of illustration – focusses on the theme of Southern African mythology and folklore from all of our diverse cultures.

The exhibit features an all-South African talent pool of more than 40 artists, who have produced once-off illustrations that represent their favourite local story. 

Paper Planes is the first show of its kind to be hosted at Design Indaba and will appeal to lovers of visual communication and South African folklore.

We're thrilled to have been offered this opportunity by Design Indaba. With their support and collaboration we're presenting something new to the Expo. We're huge believers in and supporters of illustration, and we're thrilled to present some of the best local talent in the context of some of our favourite local myths and legends.

 - Emma Cook and Arnelle Woker, Alexander’s Band 

The exhibition includes once-off illustrations and actual print sales in posters and postcards. Visitors are invited to participate in mini-workshops on the Expo floor that will ultimately create a massive collaborative comic. Look out for work by top young creatives such as Adam Hill, Anja Venter, Chris Valentine, Muti, Toby Newsome and Hylton Warburton.

Take 2: Second Life of Objects, a Design Indaba project, is a curated selection of furniture and functional homeware design, both local and international, that celebrates the creative ability to breath new life into old things.  

Each element on this exhibition stand – even the stand itself – is an embodiment of designers' vision to give defunct, redundant or discarded objects a second life by reconceptualising their function or reprocessing materials. 

From Quazi Designs’ cluster of pendant lights made of old newspapers to The Red Dog's shopping trolley-cum-lounge chair, the work represented here makes us stop to consider our endless consumption of so-called "new and improved" stuff.  The exhibition begs the questions: Do we need more new things when the old present such endless possibilities? How do we reincarnate products that already contain the DNA of their first life?

Visit Take 2 at Design Indaba Expo 2015 and help answer the question: Is trash the new raw material?

“My main goal in life is to create spaces where people can safely articulate their experiences,” says South African storyteller, musician and videographer Kyla Philander. At Design Indaba Conference 2014 Philander highlights the deep-felt issues she faces in post-Apartheid South Africa and reveals how she turned to creativity to overcome these issues. 

When Philander was in grade eight, she faced her first experience of being shut down by dominant Western structures. The entire topic of African colonisation was to be covered in one 45-minute lesson. She tried to process the little bit of information she was given and became increasingly hurt and distressed.

“What would make people who have no origin in Africa come to the continent and disrespect the place and its people in such a malicious and violent way?” she thought to herself. She raised her hand and asked: “What if white people never came to Africa? Imagine what it would be like and how we would have evolved”. Her question was dismissed and never answered. 

In order for the world to reach a more sustainable state, we have to start addressing the great inequalities we face on a global scale, says Philander.

Over time, Philander became increasingly angry by the way many non-whites are still treated in post-Apartheid South Africa. After realising she needed an outlet for her anger, she turned to creativity. “I needed a way to transfer that energy into productive and positive forces.”

Equality is a major theme in my life and my work. My main design tool is empathy, says Philander.

She continues to explain that her creative work is about retelling the stories of her people, unlearning Euro-centric teachings and using emotional landscapes to connect with people on a larger scale. “I don’t adhere to common modes of storytelling. I express a thought as it comes to me in any medium that feels appropriate at that particular moment.” 

Philander hopes slowly to shift the consciousness of her audience and to break down the violence, low self-esteem and hurt caused by structured racism. 

Maria Uys, one of Design Indaba Festival's Emerging Creatives 2015, is a surface designer from Cape Town. Uys was attracted to the craft of felt making in her final year of University and she undertook an internship with the University of Cape Town drama department creating felted jewellery pieces for a stage production.

At Design Indaba Expo 2015, Uys will be exhibiting her product range, Afri-Garde, which was created as part of her thesis. It is a collection of hand-felted, African Ndebele-inspired neckpieces that acknowledge their traditional origins while also creating a new aesthetic. The organic felt material contrasts with the modern geometric shapes of the pieces.

For Uys, the beauty of surface design is in its versatility; so although she is exhibiting her jewellery range, there can be no knowing where she might turn her designer’s eye next.

What is a surface designer?

Surface designers are trained in various skills. We learn to apply materials such as paper, wood, plastic, ceramics and textiles in new and innovative ways. Surface design can refer to what the surface is made of and the properties of the material, or what can be applied to the surface, such as screen or digital printing, design elements and textures.

How did you get into making felt jewellery?

I opted to specialise in felt making because of the abundance of possibilities the medium presents. I decided to create a range of jewellery because often creative individuals want to project the artistic aspect of their personality in the way they dress and present themselves to the world. It can almost be seen as a means to carry the artworks one collects around with you rather than being limited to displaying them on a wall or in a gallery.

Do you do the felt making process yourself?

Yes, the Afri-Garde range is completely handmade, from the building of the base structure to the wool felt finish. For this exclusive range, only the wool was bought new. For everything else I used recycled materials.

How do the shapes you use contrast to the materials you use?

Although some of the pieces are asymmetrical and others symmetrical, the shapes that create them are mostly geometric. This is in stark contrast to the organic nature of the felt material. I think that this is what makes the pieces so interesting, because you have this very rigid, linear structure surrounded by a soft, natural, handmade fabric.

Do you think your pieces connect to an African jewellery heritage?

I do believe that the pieces are reminiscent of the bold, colourful and sometimes flamboyant style that ceremonial jewellery in many traditional African cultures have.

How does culture inspire you?

Initially I was inspired by the concept of “alien”. What seems strange or foreign to me might be normal to someone else, and this is often based on cultural biases. This led me to research specifically the Ndebele tribe of Southern Africa, who project their unique style onto practically every surface that creates part of their daily lives - from the geometric, colourful murals they paint on the walls of their houses and ceramics, to the body adornment that initiates wear as they go through various stages of their life. The rings and hoops that married Ndebele women wear around their necks might seem strange and foreign to people from other cultures, but in this same way the wearing of a white wedding dress and veil as westernised women do might seem just as strange or “alien” to them.

Why did you choose orange as a colour to use against the whites and grey? Does the colour have any significance to you?

If I had to sum up Africa in one colour, it would have to be orange (or at least a warm palette of oranges, yellows, reds and browns). Think of the sands of the Kalahari. Think of the sun setting over the Serengeti. Think of our fauna and flora, our fruit exports, our bustling cities at night, gumboot dancers and orange ice-cream lollies on the beach! Think of the vibrant culture, a nation of people who are bright, cheerful and passionate. All of these are things that make up our unique South African heritage. Orange might not be one of the colours in our flag, but it is definitely one of the colours in our hearts. 

Tell us a little more about the process of making a single piece? How long does it take, how is it made, etc?

I start by constructing the base out of foam tubing and wire to create the straight lines and geometric shapes. This takes up to an hour, after which the piece is ready to undergo the felting process. This particular form of felt making happens in two stages: the first is pre-felting, in which I apply raw, carded wool to the piece by using a special felting needle. This can take up to four hours and is quite physically draining. After this, the felting process can begin in which the wool is wetted and rubbed with the hands. By doing this, the friction causes the fibres to start sticking together and shrink slightly to form a fabric that cover the base structure. The rubbing takes up to an hour and the piece can then be left to dry overnight before it is ready to wear.

Do you now consider yourself a jewellery designer?

One of the things about being a surface designer is that it is all encompassing. For this particular project I can be considered a jewellery designer, a fibre artist or even someone dabbling in the fashion and accessories field. For my next project I might become a graphic designer, a street artist, a woodworker or a print maker. The possibilities are endless and you are not limited to one principle. Furthermore, I believe that design is subjective, and even better if everyone can make what they want to of the products I create.

Would you like to use wool and felt to create other products?

After working on the Afri-Garde range for a year, I now feel much more comfortable and capable with wool and handmade felt. This natural, sustainable material is versatile and strong, and there are various felt making techniques which can be used for numerous products. I have many new ideas for projects which I will be working on throughout the year.

The Workers is a digital product design studio that strives to question and subvert current technology to create delightful and surprising experiences.

Ross Cairns studied Interactive Media Design in Dundee and met Italian Tommaso Lanza – a trained industrial designer – at the Royal College of Art in London, where both were undertaking a Design Interactions MA.

The studio has since designed and produced projects across many mediums, from native and web-based applications to physical installations and live events for clients such as Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Visual Editions, Nike, University College London, Sainsbury’s Centre for Visual Arts, The Space, Lisson Gallery and many others.

In the summer of 2014, The Workers produced After Dark at the Tate Britain and were awarded the inaugural IK Prize for excellence in digital creativity. During five consecutive nights, the project saw more than 100 000 people from across the world go online to watch and control four robots taking over London's Tate Britain by night.

Recent projects also include the website where-you-are.com, a digital interpretation of Visual Editions’ storybook, presenting 17 essays and unique interaction concepts combined with real-time visualisations of the readers' activity on the site.

Collaborations with other creative agencies have an important role in The Workers' process. They provide diverse contexts and opportunities that challenge the studio constantly to evolve their use of cutting-edge digital technology to support and push design into new territories, through algorithmic playfulness, interconnected systems, real-time broadcasting, interaction and visual design.

Imagine the inside of a gallery at night: deserted, dark and quiet. Imagine the art works in shadow, except for perhaps a little moonlight. Then imagine having exclusive access to that. For five consecutive nights in August 2014, The Workers were able to take more than 100 000 people wandering through the Tate Britain after hours. And they achieved it all with the help of four robots. 

After Dark, the name they gave the project, won the IK Prize 2014. The IK Prize celebrates digital creativity, supporting ideas that present a new way of enjoying art. The project allowed viewers all around the world to control the robots as they roamed around the Tate Britain between the hours of 10pm and 3am. The Tate’s resident experts also provided live commentary on the art through the web. 

The Workers sought the help of RAL Space (who are currently working on the Mars Rover) to build the four robots, which made for a rather extraterrestrial experience. Fittingly, famous astronaut Chris Hadfield was the first to test drive one of them.

Each robot was outfitted with intelligent sensors and sonar navigation devices that would prevent them from bumping into any illustrious pieces of art. Two low-light LED torches and cameras were fitted to the robots’ heads, which stood no higher than that of a small child, and could be pivoted up and down and swiveled from side to side.

After Dark transformed the Tate into a vault of treasure that anyone could explore with the robots’ eyes and torches. The viewer doesn’t get a perfect view of the art works, but what they do get is the opportunity to see the Tate’s collection in a different light.

Had you ever worked with robots before?

This was our first time. Thankfully the After Dark robots are quite simple from a robotics standpoint. We like to think of them as a creative solution to a well-defined problem. The few things they are asked to do, they do very well.

What was the project you were working on in the Tate before After Dark?

We were heavily involved in the creation of Bloomberg Connects for Tate Modern, for which we designed and wrote all the software. It is a multi-faceted installation spread across three floors of the gallery. The system allows visitors to post feedback about their experience in the gallery, take pictures of themselves, make drawings on a giant projected wall, etc. Some of this data (photos, drawings, quotes) then trickles back into tens of screens arranged over the stairs that connect all levels of the gallery.

How large were the robots? Were they the height of a man or a child? How fast could they move?

The robots are about 1.2m tall. Besides technical reasons, the view from that height does instil a sense of childlike exploration. The robot’s head can also tilt up and down, which sometimes contributed to quite dramatic viewing angles with some of the artworks.

What kind of emotional response did you get from people watching?

The response form the audience blew us away. The excitement on Twitter was palpable. People sent us beautiful messages as they were waiting in the virtual queue, hoping to be handed control of a robot. We also allowed people to leave a message upon entering the queue. Some of those messages were true expressions of excitement and others were quite moving, in particular those from people who didn’t live near a museum or hadn’t seen one in a long time.

What surprised us was seeing the robot's behaviour change starkly from person to person, just by looking at the live video feed. Some people were more cautious, others more curious, some more interested in the art, others just piercing through the dark in search for the next doorway. And the robots absorbed and exaggerated these expressions of personality.

As per ourselves, it was a turmoil of emotions, from excitement to concern, to awe and surprise. We only had a few chances to run full-scale tests before going live, so you can imagine what it felt like when hundreds and then thousands of people started watching the event.

How long did After Dark take, from its conception to the nights the robots went wandering?

We had six months from the initial announcement, and it took us a solid four months of production work. There is a lot more to it than software and hardware. Thankfully the Tate team has been an incredible partner throughout.

Where else would you like to send the robots? 

If you can think of any place that is access-restrained, that would be it. Although the robots were customised for Tate’s specific environment, our dream is to see them deployed in many different places, and not necessarily in their current form.

It may be more museums, scientific organisations, theatrical performances and spaces, or even live TV broadcasts. The level of openness, interactivity and control that the system creates can be lent to almost anything.

Where are the robots now? Are they being used?

We left one at the studio watching over the other four disassembled ones. As we write this we are in Berlin setting up an installation for the Fashion Week.

What was the biggest lesson you took away from After Dark? 

In a way it proved that we can trust our instincts. There were a lot of things that needed to be answered pragmatically. Building five machines and a complex software stack in four months, plus all the ancillary tasks in between – all of it with a team of three. The technical and creative possibilities are endless and it is all too easy to get carried away. It happens to everyone, and this was a lesson in reduction and simplification for both the concept and the execution. We had to narrow our focus on the core idea because of the combination of limited time and the profile of the project, and the final result owes much to this.

The project also shows how accessible some of the technology involved has become, and how independent small teams can now produce amazing feats that would have previously required much larger commitments. 

Do you think it is strange that the path to intimacy with art was through a machine?

Great question! Some people who wrote about After Dark thought that we were trying to build a way of experiencing art “from the comfort of our homes”, as a window to the future of museums or a surrogate of a real visit.

Instead what we were looking to create was an open-ended experience. A means to break into a restricted location. A unique occasion to experience the gallery in a way that is not comparable to a traditional visit. And we know After Dark made people feel very close to the space they were exploring. In those short 12 minutes the audience owned the gallery as they were wandering about, pointing their avatar’s eye to the artworks and the darkened doorways and rooms.

During one of our first tests we walked into a room to see a robot staring up to a 500-year-old portrait. The subject in the portrait appeared to be looking back at the robot and it felt like an oddly personal exchange. Two distinct ways of portraying reality were colliding in the same space.

The machinery in After Dark is the interface to an experience, much like the oil on a canvas is an interface to someone else’s vision. In many ways After Dark is an open medium rather than a tool built for a particular task.

Do you think that to help people experience something in a new or profound way it is useful to alienate them first (with the unfamiliarity, the robot, with the darkness, etc.)?

That can help, although there wasn’t a conscious intent to alienate. The experience of controlling a robot from the web is per se alien to most. If anything we tried our best to make it as easy as we could so that people could enjoy most of the short time they were allowed in. There was limited time for each person and we wanted everyone to enjoy the most of it.

When the two of you work together, do you split tasks equally or do you find that you naturally take different roles?

It depends on the project we are working on. For more complex projects we tend to plan in advance to avoid doubling up on tasks. Sometimes each of us is responsible for a single project and others it’s a very organic, less structured process.

How do you complement each other?

While we have gently overlapping skills across the board, each of us has different areas of expertise. Ross is very comfortable with code experimentation, unafraid of breaking things to make them better. On the contrary I tend to have more of an analytical approach, which perhaps stems from the highly constrained world of industrial design. This creates a strong creative and intellectual tension and it feeds each other’s curiosity.

The Workers will speak at Design Indaba Conference 2015, which takes place from 25 to 27 February 2015. Book here.

Design Indaba is a private company. We’re not a government agency. We’re not an international conglomerate. We’re not a charity. We’re not an NGO. We are a commercial enterprise and we need to make sure our annual conference is priced accordingly to allow us to continue to run it. As it is, putting on the DI Festival is an event of such logistical and financial magnitude that we seek the sponsorship of major corporates to make it possible.

Without the annual conference, whose ticket price has created outrage in a recent flurry of tweets by a collective called the “Change Agents”, there would be no event at all. In turn, you as the public can vote with your feet. You can stay away if you find it overpriced, or you can attend any one of a number of events ranging in price that we offer during the two-week period of the festival – as droves of people do year after year.

Let’s once and for all put this claim to bed that we are an “elitist” institution. Yes, the main hall conference ticket of R7 900 is expensive for South Africans. But there are no annual South African conferences in any sector that can be compared with Design Indaba – three full-day events that feature more than 30 international speakers and performers.

The Integrated Marketing Communication Conference is a local two-day advertising, direct marketing, public relations meeting that features eight speakers – all South African. Full price tickets for that cost R4 500.

Comparable conferences in Europe and the States are commensurate or many multiples of our ticket price. One need only to look at the price for the TED conference to verify that. The five-day Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference is held annually on the west coast of the United States with more than 70 speakers. The next one is in March in Vancouver. The “conference standard” ticket costs the equivalent of R97 000 (rounding down) – equivalent to almost R20 000 a day.

What Design Can Do is a two-day conference in Amsterdam with about two-thirds fewer speakers than appear at Design Indaba. Non-early bird tickets cost the equivalent of R4 700 (rounding down) – equivalent to about R2 350 a day. One-day conference tickets for Design Indaba are R3 065.

We face the same baseline costs that these prestigious US and Europe-based conferences face: global aviation prices for air tickets, top hotel accommodation, luxury transport for the speakers while they’re in town. In fact, we have a much more expensive proposition than these conference organisers as we are a long-haul destination for almost everybody invited to speak and our currency is a supremely weak one in comparison with the dollar, sterling and euro. These costs rise every year and therefore so too does our ticket price. That’s the cost of production.

Having said all of that, there are ways to cut down on the main hall conference ticket price dramatically. Early bird tickets are discounted by R1 000 – more than 10% off the ticket price. If delegates include Design Indaba in their workplace skills plans, they can claim up to 60% of the costs back from SETA. Alumni to the conference (those who have attended at least twice before) get 15% off.

For the “99% of creatives who cannot afford Design Indaba”, writes Deon Robbertze on our Facebook page, that we are “forcing” to buy a R7 900 ticket, we ask who exactly are we forcing? We don’t expect students to be able to afford the main hall ticket which is why we offer simulcast. And for those that can’t afford simulcast, we offer, in due course, unbridled online access to all of the talks from the conference. Until then, young creatives can access every talk from the conference of the past decade, not to mention exclusive interviews with the speakers and other leading international designers. This is offered, on our website, for free, gratis and for nothing.

Just one look at our website – a totally free resource rich in articles, interviews, video talks (from the past decade of conferences) – will reveal the stories of established and emerging locals and foreigners doing extraordinary things with design: pursuits that are changing their communities. It also acts as a comprehensive online catalogue of makers. There is no publication like Design Indaba in South Africa. And it’s a free public resource.

We don’t charge a subscription service; we don’t have a pay wall. You can watch and read absolutely everything Design Indaba has ever created content wise for free, as much you want. You can even download the talks in high resolution and watch them on your television set. For those who don't have Internet access, you can download the app for free and go to a library or coffee shop with WiFi and download the talks in low res.

We challenge any of the Change Agents to identify another media outlet that offers so much substantial, exclusive content – augmented daily –­ for free, all the time?

To explain why we only open Cape Town simulcast ticket sales at a later stage, we need to fill the main auditorium in order to make the simulcast possible. This is to answer Camilla Garay on our Facebook page, who wrote that she is “Feeling insulted and somewhat mocked by the Design Indaba Conference ticketing this year” for operating in this way – main tickets first, simulcast tickets later. There can be no simulcast without the main conference, Camilla. It’s as simple an operation as that.

Might it not have dawned on our critics that without the money raised from the conference ticket sales, we could never attract the calibre of world-class thinkers that we do? Without them, we have no conference and no event at all. The conference is the cornerstone of the whole festival: without heavy-hitting designers, people will not come to the conference. And in order to get the heavy-hitting designers to come to the conference, we need to make a commercial calculation regarding ticket prices so that it’s a feasible event to organise. 

We host the simulcast in a handful of South African cities and, from this year, at our initiative, the conference content broadcast at the simulcast will form part of the curriculum of each of the universities where the simulcasts are held. Hosting these simulcasts also eases the financial burden on young creatives in or near Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Potchefstroom: they’re relieved of the costs of having to fly to Cape Town to stay there for the duration of the event.

And if one breaks down the cost of each presentation at simulcast by the sheer number of presentations, it amounts to less than R30 per presentation. Panel discussions at the Franschhoek Literary Festival and the Open Book Festival – Cape Town’s two premier annual literary festivals that feature a mix of local and international authors ­– cost R60 and R50 per session respectively.

On the Thursday of the conference, all delegates – main auditorium and simulcast ­– gain free access to the expo. Main ticket holders also get lunch and multiple refreshment breaks daily, free access to Design Indabar (a bar across the street from the conference centre that hosts live musical entertainment) as well as free entry to the Design Indaba Party with a glorious lineup of African musical talent.

During the time of the conference, we host a film festival along with the music festival. The films are sourced from all over the world and have never been screened locally before. Similarly, the African musicians we round up to perform during three consecutive nights would otherwise likely not make it to South Africa  – both for the cost of such an exercise and for lack of an organiser to showcase them in the way we do. We add South African musicians to the programme to bolster their exposure too. And all for considerably less than the cost of a ticket to a commensurate music festival held locally. Again we challenge any of the Change Agents to say the cost of the tickets for a roundup of musicians like that isn’t affordable and eminently reasonable.

We’re also puzzled how we can possibly be “scaring away more talent, up-and-comers, underprivileged, independent quirkiness, than before,” as Camilla Garay also writes on our Facebook page, when every year we offer 40 up-and-comers prolific of “independent quirkiness” the opportunity to be Emerging Creatives. The cost of their exhibiting at the expo is free and they get mentored by professional designers, to boot, at our arrangement. That we have hundreds of applications for these 40 places is testament to the fact that we are an attractive platform for the very people she describes.

At the Design Indaba Expo of 2013, Kat Pichulik was one of the Emerging Creatives. She was quoted recently in the Cape Argus: “To have a weekend with R65 000 worth of accessories sold really allowed me to expand. Afterwards I could up my production, buy more materials in bulk and I hired another person.”

In 2013 Pichulik rented a trestle table in a shared studio space with six other designers. In 2014 she moved her team of ten into a 106-square-metre space that’s all their own.

Pichulik was one of 486 exhibitors at the expo in 2013, of which 116 other designers were also new. At the expo last year, there were 509 exhibitors of which 254 were new. For the expo in February, a quarter of all confirmed exhibitors so far are first timers. There have been countless other reports of the expo catapulting these cottage industry players into small and medium sized business ownership. For designers who have yet to showcase their wares in public, it’s a unique opportunity to interact with thousands of potential customers and network with hundreds of their design peers. Design Indaba does not levy a turnover-based fee on our exhibitors. Apart from providing a promotional platform, which they purchase for the duration of the expo, we do not earn any income from their sales or any other ancillary fees.

The expo attracts international buyers, largely because it is linked to a world-class international design festival. Last year there were 509 exhibitors and 806 buyers, 211 of which were international. And, again, without the cost of the conference ticket and the attendant masses in the conference centre, this would be an impossible expo to stage from a cost point of view.

According to a report compiled by Barry Standish in association with UCT’s Graduate School of Business, exhibitors at the expo in February last year earned R201.9m in total income from business orders from buyers and sales to the public. Design Indaba created 575 direct jobs and 571 indirect jobs last year. In the past six years, Design Indaba has generated R1.7 billion to SA’s GDP.

So, to answer the Change Agents' tweet:

“Design Indaba price is eliminating disadvantaged from any access. Where’s the skills development?”

The staging of the expo and the Emerging Creatives platform is our skills development, not to mention access to a multimedia portal created for the general public’s daily consumption where we seek to expose them to world-class thinkers and ideas.

So, to say that Design Indaba is not deeply committed to developing young, up and coming, disadvantaged people in this country is a deeply disingenuous claim. Promoting entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of what we do. It’s also the very definition of what we are.

Design Indaba is a company that came about because one South African had a vision to promote design in this country, to help drive awareness of the importance of design: not only in the creation of small and medium sized businesses but to illustrate how design used cleverly can effect revolutionary social and environmental change.

Through hard work and hustle, Design Indaba is now a medium sized business itself. It’s a company that is an entrepreneurial success story in its own right. Where there was nothing, there is now a thriving company providing employment, paying taxes and putting on an annual festival that is unrivalled in South Africa.

As for Change Agents' call to “Occupy Design Indaba”, to make a comparison with Occupy Wall Street is odious indeed, misinformed and in poor taste.

We find it ironic that the tagline on the website of Change Agents reads: “To create change you need to communicate solutions that prove that change is possible, profitable and achievable. Our wish is that we all become CHANGE AGENTS in our businesses and communities. We want everyone to be a CHANGE AGENT.”

Design indaba is a change agent. Creating one of the most exciting, exhilarating, stimulating events on the Cape calendar and bolstering hundreds of local businesses while launching the careers of tens of emerging designers is creating change. What the government talks about doing – nurturing and fostering entrepreneurship – we actually do.

On the other hand, launching vitriolic attacks on private companies looking to be commercially viable and do good is not creating change. It’s creating havoc.

Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel, the trio behind Troika, are well known for their particular interest in outer-space perceptions and spatial experiences. Using their work as a medium to manipulate the way we see the world, Cartography of Control reveals a scientific approach to exploring some of the biggest questions about our universe, such as the laws of gravity and time. The exhibition also questions man-made structures, control and systems, and how these co-exist alongside the forces of nature.

Just as different maps can give different accounts of the same territory, so can different forms of knowledge reflect a more truthful image about the world.

The exhibition showcases a series of new and old works including drawings, installation and sculpture. 

“The Sum of All Possibilities” is a sculpture suspended from the ceiling that appears to be spiralling towards the floor in an infinite swirl. The piece “highlights the close and paradoxical relationship between time and perception, movement and finitude, form and flux”, according to the Los Angeles Kohn Gallery where the exhibition is being held.

A series of drawings titled “Cartography of Control” are made by the marks left on paper after an attempt to manipulate an electric charge: “The outcome of the work is both delicate and unruly, dominated by the tension between control over what is inherently uncontrollable.”

“Calculating the Universe” is a work constructed from thousands of dice by following a simple repetitive rule. The outcome is a series of random yet unique patterns. As described by the Kohn Gallery: “The work aims to consider the relationship between rules and the concepts of randomness and chaos.” 

Cartography of Control is on display at the Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, California until 7 February, 2015.

Stefan van Biljon is an architect and artist from Cape Town. He completed a Masters of Architecture at the University of Cape Town and a Masters of Architecture II at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, graduating in May 2014. Van Biljon is interested in dismantling our assumptions and discovering the hidden forces that shape our relationships with the cities we live in.

In this Design Indaba Conference 2014 talk, Van Biljon presents his thesis projects from both his masters courses, both looking at Cape Town.

The first of these projects is from Van Biljon’s 2010 thesis for the University of Cape, titled KL-Metamatic: Ghost Ship. 

“The project is located in a K/L berth,” says Van Biljon, “just a stone’s throw away from where we are sitting, in Cape Town’s harbour. The site used to be an anonymous point in open water. It was reclaimed in the 1930s and this idea of transformation from one state to the next, from water into land, became the guiding light of this project.”

He began by building models from pieces of old models and bits from scrap yards around Cape Town. Then he drew pictures of the models, “absorbing the shapes in the paper and transforming them into something new”.

Van Biljon then talks through images of his project from the first site model. He designed a machine that would slowly return K/L berth to the ocean over the course of 200 years. Van Biljon’s models also included a space where a single visitor could sit in the Ghost Ship and listen to the sound of the wind beating around the space. KL-Metamatic: Ghost Ship won van Biljon the 2010 South African Institute of Architects’ Best Student award.

The second project Van Biljon talks about is his thesis from the Cooper Union, Military Urbanism. Van Biljon uses drawings and maps to investigate the history of Cape Town’s segregated urban planning.

“This project really represents my attempt to try to unearth the unconscious of Cape Town’s urban divisions.”

The Group Areas Act, passed by the Apartheid government in the 1950s, saw the city carved into racially isolated areas. But the scars of that era are not the only ones that Cape Town bares. The lines that divide Capetonians date back long before the Apartheid bulldozers hit.

In a series of images, Van Biljon shows how “the city’s fractured character is rooted as much in the soil and landscape as it is in the social dynamics.”

Cape Town has a history of land appropriation and exclusion, with the Dutch and then the British displacing the Khoi tribes’ people who farmed the land there, in favour of ethnic and economic homogenisation. Van Biljon uses maps to show how the Khoi were kept out of what used to be their summer pastures, and what is now the City Bowl. The landscape itself and Table Mountain were used as part of the city’s fortifications.

“This drawing shows the first hundred years of Dutch agriculture expansion and the Cape colony, with the spectre of the Khoi’s movement routes over that.”

After the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, new ways of creating a working underclass were created in the very architecture of the city. Then, in the early twentieth century, the bubonic plague broke out and the black and coloured population in District 6 were rounded up and moved out to the first segregated township – “setting the tone,” according to Van Biljon, “for the rest of the twentieth century’s urban development in Cape Town”.

As she prepares to speak at Design Indaba Conference 2015, South African fashion designer Sindiso Khumalo is working on her next collection from her home in Hackney, London. This is her third collection and its launch will coincide with the Conference at the end of February.

“I’ve gone right back to basics,” says Khumalo, who moved to London initially to work as an architect in David Adjaye’s office after graduating from the University of Cape Town. “The collection uses a lot of hand-printed textiles and old techniques such as foiling and flocking.”

Architecture – and, in particular, the clean, angular style of the Bauhaus movement – has been an obvious source of inspiration since she made the move to fashion design. For this next collection, her graphics and prints take their reference from modernist buildings she spotted in cities such as Durban and Bulawayo.

“There’s a real charm about these beautiful old modernist buildings that haven’t been updated,” she says. She’s making an ongoing study of the repetitive forms of facades, screens and walls of concrete breeze blocks that she’s spotted on the streets.

Fans of her eponymous label’s vibrant graphic patterns and emphasis on construction will not be disappointed by her new collection, but it will be more monochrome punctuated with bursts of colour.

The handmade prints have “slight glitches that are quite nice” but overall the collection still has a geometric, clean finish. She is using a lot of foiling in the printed fabrics and white on white, black on grey. Her more monochrome look is something she attributes to becoming a mom recently.

It feels fresher, like a new chapter, she says.

Khumalo’s one-year-old son, Khaya, has made her think more deeply about what she leaves behind in the world. She is paying more attention than ever to the life cycle of her garments. She is using predominantly natural fibres in her collections. Also, all of her designs are printed and manufactured in Cape Town, reducing the footprint of each product. 

Khumalo is also moving away from designing for different seasons, which she believes creates waste. “A lot of the time people are wearing my clothes in both winter and summer,” she notes. She likens it to the way furniture designers work. “Fashion has become too fast. So much waste is produced. Someone gets squeezed if there’s that much waste – and it’s usually the small producer, independent boutique or up-and-coming designer.”

“People are hungry for something that sounds different and South African music definitely does,” says Jeremy De Tolly, lead singer of South African three-man band Original Swimming Party. In this exclusive interview, we chat to De Tolly and lead guitarist, Greg Abrahams, on what influenced their journey into music, their unique genre and what it’s like to be a musician in South Africa.

De Tolly, Abrahams and Thomas Glendinning are the music and visuals combo trio of Original Swimming Party. Well known for their combination of music and large-scale visual setups, the trio transforms any venue into a surface on which to display the visuals they use to enhance and complement their music.

For Abrahams, his love of playing guitar sparked his interest in music. After 13 years, he is still captivated by the instrument.

He studied classical music at the University of Cape Town. “A lot of my inspiration I also get from 20th century avant-garde music,” he says.

At age five, De Tolly knew he wanted to be a musician. “I remember seeing a Kiss poster and thinking to myself, ‘That’s what I’m going to do one day'.”

According to the musicians, Original Swimming Party falls under the genre “experimental electronica”. De Tolly explains their style of music: “It was born of a love of alternative music, electronica, experimental music, taking chances, being okay to be boring, making music that’s really hard to dance to, being okay with unpopularity and being okay with having no radio hits.”  

Now is a great time to be South African and African. A new wave of local talent is breaking into the international scene, says De Tolly.

The members of Original Swimming Party believe that South African music is gaining access to an international market; they are certain that now is a ripe time to be a musician there.

In South Africa, there is a rich culture of new and upcoming artists that the rest of the world wants, says Abrahams.

The challenge for South African musicians, according to De Tolly, is to embrace where they come from and not sound like they are from somewhere else. 

Original Swimming Party will perform at The Side Show on 26 February, 2015, as part of the annual Design Indaba Festival. 

DJ Zulufunk is the product of a true traditional Zulu family, born and raised in Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Ulundi. Her love of music grew while listening to the radio, particularly to "Zakhala Izingcingo" hosted by KSG (Khetha Gwala Ukhozi FM), which she constantly recorded onto cassettes.

Slowly building her collection of tapes and CDs, she was always ready to capture whatever new and interesting sound she stumbled upon. Her parents, however, never saw the world of music as a legitimate career path, hoping she would revert back to the books and become a lawyer.

“I was more of a boarding school girl. We’d go home and look forward to coming back to school because we’d been taking notes on what’s trending outside our school walls. It was more about knowing what music is out there, the who’s who, and the sound they were generating.”

Over the years she continued playing, but a career in IT kept her musical fervour in the shadows. Moving to Johannesburg was a true eye-opener that prompted her to professionalise her hobby.

Enrolling in FUSE Academy, a female DJ school, was the first step towards enhancing her skills. With in-depth insight into music in general, today she is classified as one of FUSE’s platinum-rated graduates, punting the best in house classics new and old. She has opened for Zulu Mafia at Setebe Lounge in Diepkloof and the legendary Glen Lewis’ Bon Voyage Boat Cruise at Haartebeesport Dam.

The four Cape Town-based friends who are Sakawa Boys burst onto the scene with a series of live shows. Members Skye MacInnes (electric guitar), Keenan Nathan Oakes (electric bass guitar), Peter Scott (drums, tech support) and John Seth (electric guitar, vocals) have shared the stage with acts such as John Wizards. They profess a firm love for shoegaze (the British alternative-rock genre known for its lush, layered "wall of sound"), indie music and all things “niche”.

MacInnes has appeared in other well-received acts such as Nicolaas Van Reenen’s Fever Trails and the edgy grit-rock outfit Like Knives. Seth formerly played with now defunct indie band New Loud Rockets. Oakes also fronts progressive black metal outfit, Wildernessking, on electric bass, with Scott on drums.

In July 2014, their debut single “Lazy Eys” was released via SoundCloud, clocking more than 2000 listens in its first week and peaking at Number 6 on the Platform Online 100 tracks of 2014. They are currently in the process of recording their debut EP and are set for a mini tour of Gauteng in March 2015.

Design Indaba Festival 2015’s music platform includes a series of world-class performances to celebrate music as an art form and a medium to spread the message of creative thinking. From 25 to 27 February, Design Indaba Music presents a diverse roster of African artists from genres such as experimental electronica, rap, house, jazz, R&B and a capella.

More info on venues, times, tickets and acts is available on the 2015 event page.

Headlining Design Indaba Music 2015 is Nástio Mosquito, a multimedia and performance artist from Angola named by The Guardian newspaper as one of “Ten African artists to look out for”. He mixes music, videos, spoken word poetry and a cappella in performances that flirt with African stereotypes in Western contexts and that make powerful political statements. He has performed and shown his work at Tate Modern in London, the Venice Biennale and the 29th Biennial of São Paulo.

Also performing is Ghanaian rap artist M.anifest, fresh off a tour of South America with Damon Albarn. Described as “Ghana’s rapper supreme” by Rita Ray of the BBC, M.anifest’s originality, lyricism, flow and depth in content have made him one of contemporary Africa’s most keenly watched musicians.

South African acts include:

Experimental electronic band Original Swimming Party, whose hypnotic sound is paired with large-scale visuals in their live performances.

Multigenre singer-songwriter Nongoma, based in Johannesburg but born and raised in Europe. Her sound ranges from melodic R&B to mellow, jazzy beats, soul, gospel and southern African traditional music.

RVWR, Cape Town-based producer and bass beatmaker who recently collaborated with Brooklyn-based MC Shamon Cassette to international acclaim.

Angel-Ho, the persona of Cape Town artist Angelo Valerio, who uses performance to start a dialogue about classism, identity, sexuality and gender.

DJs Jumping Back Slash and Duce Duce, who take to the decks together in a set that includes self-made graphics curated with a mash-up of found footage. British native now based in South Africa, Jumping Back Slash ranges from rave to kwaito to house to gqom. Duce Duce, aka Anthea Duce, is a founding member of Cold Turkey, and described by South African Marie Claire magazine as “an aural wizard”.

Honey B, a DJ whose sets are focussed on fun, timeless music, one of the founding members of the iconic African Dope Records label (alongside DJs Fletcher and Roach).

A collaboration between and the first live appearance of fine artist Amy Ayanda and musician Thor Rixon. Their quirky sound combines Thor’s otherworldly compositions and Amy’s impassioned melodies.

Sakawa Boys, the Cape Town all-male band whose shoegaze/indie sound is fast gaining a dedicated following. Their track, “Lazy Eys”, clocked over 2 000 listens in its first week on SoundCloud.

DJ Zulu Funk, aka Yona Vilakazi, an emerging DJ from KwaZulu-Natal’s Ulundi, specialises in soulful and electronic house.

More info on venues, times, tickets and acts is available on our event page as well as in the official Design Indaba Festival app.

Growing up on a farm in Philippi, Cape Town, Rixon claims the raw sounds of the township got muddled into his sound.  He then refined his musical ear studying Electronic Music Production at Cape Audio College in 2010, and then graduating from CityVarsity School of Media in 2012. Since then he has filled out his beard, grown himself some dreadlocks and started a production company.

What started off as fresh and bizarre band Sun-do Q’lisi, who jammed while they studied in Rixon’s Philippi garage, metamorphosed into collaborative production agency naas, co-founded by Rixon and his bandmates. Rixon is currently the head of the music and film divisions of naas.

“Tea Time Favourites” is Rixon’s second album release. It features artists such as Inge Beckmann, Umlilo, Chantel Van T, David Thorpe, James McClure, Simon Ackerman, and Matthew Rightford. In keeping with his style, the album presents an eclectic mix of strange acoustic instruments and electronic sounds.

A recent graduate of Michaelis School of Fine Art, she works predominantly in paint and other mixed media but has begun exploring her musical identity as well.

After two years of casual collaboration and a lifetime of friendship, Ayanda and Thor Rixon have developed an organic process of music writing based on intuition and experimentation. Rixon’s idiosyncratic, otherworldly compositions are the backdrop for Ayanda’s impassioned melodies and mythical allegories, resulting in music that hovers somewhere between quirky and heartbreaking.

Their first publically released track, “La Llorna”, was positively received. Her performance at Design Indaba 2015 is the first live performance of all the tracks that she has written over the last few years.

Ayanda’s ultimate goal is to connect her art and music in a way that is functional, cohesive and inspiring to others. She is currently working on a small body of paintings and songs to be released before she departs to Germany, where she plans to continue working on her art.

Never before seen at the Expo, Origo will be exhibiting XO’s latest range of chic furniture products, while Zana Products will showcase its quirky handmade homeware items and accessories. Architect Shaun Gaylard of Blank Ink Design will bring his hand-drawn architectural city guides, as well as a related range of textiles and ceramics. Quagga Fabrics and Wallpapers will showcase its range of customisable designs by Rob Tarlton, while mema designs will bring its delicate Ukhamba lighting range. INSERT COOL NAME will feature its inspired take on a multifunctional braaiing utensil – The Braai Tool.

Labelled a “greenie” by her friends and family, Camilla Kruger is a Durban-based graphic designer whose life and work is dedicated to solving the tough environmental issues the world faces.

In the final year of her recently completed BTech degree at the Durban University of Technology, she focussed on her "harnessing design to promote a zero waste lifestyle" project. She produced a creative campaign that highlighting the 5Rs of zero waste and created her own zero waste recipe book.

Kruger will be part of the 2015 Emerging Creatives programme at Design Indaba Expo.

When did you first discover you wanted a career in design?

I always knew I wanted to be involved in the art world in some way or another. In pre-school I had wanted to be an art teacher, but in high school I discovered the world of design and fell in love with it and knew it was what I wanted to do.

What is your main inspiration as a designer?

Many things inspire me and I would love to say that my main inspiration comes from the natural world and my surroundings. However, “my surroundings” are my desk and my computer, so my inspiration is primarily found through my Facebook newsfeed, Pinterest, multiple design newsletters and inspiring YouTube or Vimeo videos (cat videos included).

Tell us how you mesh together digital design and handcrafted elements?

To get away from always using and relying on my computer, I enjoy drawing out type or illustration instead of simply using a font or the pen tool. I then use these elements and put my designs together digitally. I do edit my drawings where needed, but I try to keep a looseness or roughness to them as I don’t want to lose the hand-drawn look and feel. I love working on a computer but there’s just something magical about working with your hands and crafting something off-screen.

Are there recurring themes in your design work? If so, what are they and why?

I don’t intentionally have a recurring theme but I suppose my work often lends itself to an environmental theme in some shape or form. I think this is due to my personal outlook on life. However, after completing my BTech project on Zero Waste, I might ensure that I do have more of an environmental theme in my work.

How important are environmental issues in your work? Can you give us an example of how this plays out in your designs?

In the case of my Zero Waste project, it was a very crucial element and one that I do wish to continue in my work. My designs for this project all offer various ways to help people live a Zero Waste life which ultimately would reduce the amount of waste produced and, in turn, reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.

Tell us how you use design to make the world a better place?

During my BTech research, I came across two quotes which hit me hard as a designer: "Designers make the world's most beautiful trash" and “One fifth of the mass of municipal solid waste in the US today is good packaging.”

When considering that my designs, or any other designer’s for that matter, are possibly going to end up in landfills one day, it totally changed my perspective on things. I’d love to come up with more practical solutions to solve part of our environmental issues. I believe we should all be doing our bit to solve these problems, and design is a great way to create awareness around such issues.

Tell us a bit about your creative campaign that highlighted the 5Rs of Zero Waste?

The 5Rs are the key elements of Zero Waste and highlight the dos and don’ts of living such a lifestyle. The 5Rs are as follows: Refuse what you do not need; Reduce what you do need; Reuse what you consume; Recycle what you cannot Refuse, Reduce or Reuse; and Rot (compost) the rest. The basic concept behind this lifestyle is to own only what you need. Anything wasteful, like plastic straws or sugar sachets are a no-no, and always re-use things like material napkins or glass jars.

Tell us about the creation of your Zero Waste recipe book?

This book came about when I realised that part of living a Zero Waste life meant making your own household products. The reason behind this is that many products are made using similar ingredients and buying certain ingredients in bulk and making your own products can spare a fair amount of packaging – ultimately producing less waste. I was intrigued by this concept and wanted to see how easy it would be to make my own products and how affordable it would be in comparison to other products on the market. Overall, I wanted to share my findings with those who’d be interested and hence the recipe book was born.  

How do you define a South African design aesthetic?

To me, a South African design aesthetic is bright and funky and has a rough and earthy character. When I think of South African aesthetics, I think of the hair salon tents on the side of our roads and our hand-painted signage dotted on shop fronts. It’s handcrafted, vibrant and always inspiring!

What do you hope your work achieves?

I never wanted this work to achieve anything really. If someone else could find out about Zero Waste through this, that’d be great, but ultimately this project was for my own self-discovery and research into the way I’d like to live out my life.

Tell us a bit about your creative process: how you go from conception to final product?

The first thing I do is think and ponder over what’s important within the area I’m focusing on and I’ll do a bit of research into that area. Once I think I have a few good concepts in mind, I then brainstorm further and draw out multiple scamps, research further and make notes. Once I’ve developed my ideas enough, I neatly draw what I want to be hand- drawn before I scan everything in. My work up until now is predominantly black and white, so now it’s time to add some colour into the mix!

Do you have a favourite design? If so, which one and why?

At the moment my favourite design is Nikki Kreis’s “Peg-it-all Pegboards” which just screams simplicity. I love its functionality and the idea that you can customise your own space again and again! 

What do you believe the biggest benefit of design is?

This is a difficult question to answer, as there are so many benefits. However, if I had to pick one, it would be how design can simplify the most complex things and allow people to understand complexities. The longer answer to this question lies within Do Good Design by D.B. Berman. An excellent read for every designer, plus it’s a thin book!

What are you currently working on?

My next endeavour, which may span over a few years, is to build a tiny house. This is essentially a house on a trailer that is approximately 15m², and I plan to build it so that it runs completely off-grid. 

What has been your best memory/greatest achievement so far?

Being selected as an Emerging Creative is most definitely the greatest achievement and honour that I’ve had so far in my career as a designer.

Why did you apply to be part of the Emerging Creatives programme?

After completing BTech, our lecturer advised all BTech students to enter and so I did. I saw it as a great opportunity and was pleasantly surprised when I was accepted. 

What do you hope to get out of the programme?

I hope to learn a lot and meet and connect with a large array of designers and interesting people. It’s also a great opportunity to promote and create awareness surrounding the concept of Zero Waste. 

What is it like being a designer in South Africa? What are some of the pros, cons and possibilities?

I’ve only just stepped out of university, so I have yet to experience much of the design world, but so far it seems like there is a lot of opportunity in South Africa and a bunch of amazing designers in our midst. 

Do you sell your designs? If so, where?

No, I don’t. I do have my recipe book and labels available for free download on my behance portfolio. 

Susan Sontag was a writer whose prolific output created controversy and garnered admirers in equal measure: one in the latter camp labelled her “the most intelligent woman in America”.

“Regarding Susan Sontag” illustrates Sontag’s life through images, archived materials and accounts from family, friends and colleagues. The words literary, political, feminist, cultural critic, author, playwright, essayist, bi-sexual, thinker, traveller and human rights activist have all been used accurately to describe the woman whose insatiable interest in the world and the need to write about it resulted in a multi-faceted career.

“When I turned 40, I was in China. When I turned 50, I was in France. When I turned 60, I was in Sarajevo and the bombs were falling,” she says. “I guess I go to war because I think it’s my duty to be in as much contact with reality as I can be and war is a tremendous reality in our world.”

Hollywood actor Patricia Clarkson narrates the documentary. She speaks what was perhaps the defining mantra of Sontag’s life: “What I love, what draws me very much to writing is it’s a way of paying attention to the world. You’re just an instrument for tuning into as much reality as you can.”