Just got back from a little extended weekend trip to Cape Town, where I met up
with my Aunt and Uncle, on their first trip to South Africa. Admittedly, it was
more exhausting than relaxing to show them around, but great to see them, do a
bit of the wine routes, and also chill with my bro-in-law and his peops (tho catch-up
/ work time is a bit daunting, and there was no turkey on thanksgiving). Only
got to see my NYC buddy Ralph Borland
briefly, but that was pretty cool – he’s also attempting to find ways of promoting
and lecturing on new media art here in SA. I have to admit, although Wits seems
to be much more on the ball with their MA program(s) in Digital Media (thanks,
almost entirely, to Christo Doherty), there seem to be more practicing artists
aware of, and using, the niche technologies used for interactive art and video
over in CT and at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, at UCT, than here in Joburg.
Perhaps I should spend more time down there… or maybe talk to Christo about
getting some of them up here?… I was really impressed to chat to an artist experimenting
with Jitter and SoftVNS, as well as hear about a few students engaging with analog-to-digital
communication for their work – both rarities in this here country (mostly unheard
of, to be honest).
Due to family and exhaustion, I couldn’t make it to the 46664 concert, tho I did
spy the masses down in Green Point. I think Madiba and Oprah are gonna do a world
of good with this one (will not list all the wonderful artists involved on my
blog, but you get the gist).
I hear that the Kebbles have doubled and that Clive van den Berg, lecturer and
artist at WSOA (Wits School Of Arts) has taken over as curator. I wanted to read
up, but none of the media links on the
site seem to be working… That awards sums up to a lot of food.
At least I get to see Finding Nemo with Angus tomorrow. Off to Newtown now for
the close of the HIV festival…
