Plans for the fourth Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Digital Arts Festival (DigiFest) are in full swing with a more comprehensive programme set to be a feast for digital and art lovers.
In its fourth year, the festival is an experimental, creative playground for students and staff members of the faculty of Arts and Design (FoAD) to showcase their innovative offerings to a wider audience.
Themed GLITCH, this year’s festival has been extended to six days, done to allow space for various activities and to incorporate year-end exhibitions into the programme to showcase the work of students.
Explaining this year’s theme, Digifest Manager, Steve Jones said: “This can be widely interpreted, but mainly seeks to engage, contest, celebrate and question the idea of malfunctions, technical mishaps and imperfections in systems. It speaks to the notion of disruption and subversion of formats, spaces, places, and technologies,” he said.
The festival provides a platform for creative and multimedia projects across disciplines and fields, such as visual and performing arts, applied sciences, health sciences, engineering and information technology.
“The open call has allowed for any students with creative and innovative ideas to come forward to present works,” said Jones.
Students are also encouraged to collaborate within the festival. “We also look to provide knowledge and skills sharing opportunities in the forms of workshops, presentation, and internships,” he added.
Student entrepreneurs will be given the platform to showcase their products.
“The main difference is our intention to host a number of events at various spaces including City campus, other campuses as well as some off-site venues,” said Jones.
Digifest 4 will host a number of portfolio exhibitions as well as other specific projects and will give students a chance to be entertained and experience a great time from performances by both students and professionals. The Digital Arts Festival will run from the 6 to 11 of November 2017.
Pictured: Award winning cappella group, The Soil, performing at last year’s Digifest opening ceremony.
Photo by: DUT Photography
Carly Van Der Westhuizen
