Day Four of the Durban University of Technology’s fourth annual DigiFest, showcased the much-anticipated (International Symposium on Electronic Art), 018, which will take place at the Arts and Design Digital Festival (Digifest5), at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) from 23 to 30 June 2018.
The presentation was held at the KZNSA Gallery, Thursday, 9 November 2017, which introduced ISEA as a precursor to ISEA2018. It was presented by Johannesburg-based electronic artist, cultural activist and producer, Marcus Neustetter along with Sue Gollifer, the chairperson of the ISEA international board.
Gollifer gave more insight into the ISEA2018 theme of Intersections and also showcased Durban’s exciting, new promotional video, adding that the aim of ISEA2018 is to build a legacy and bring new audiences, academics, artists and local communities together. “The event will see an electrifying, creative collaboration between artists, artisans, designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists and inventors which will take place in a context where survival is the most basic instigator for solutions. “The ISEA2018 theme, Intersections, involves positioning creative technological innovation as an activist engagement into public space and public practice with underlying critical questions of ownership, imposition and development,” said Gollifer.
Further elaborating on the symposium, Neustetter said, “The symposium and festival will focus on accessible and alternative platforms that encourage partnerships across sectors, highlighting the strength of industry, institutions and government to think about how we can improve our environments and find locally, relevant approaches for everyday challenges.”
Adding thath the ISEA2018’s strategy is to shape the programme through a call for expressions of interest for partnership-projects, symposium presentations, artistic interventions and collaborative work sessions.
“The key idea is to continue the legacy and therefore partner with Digifest 5 and give the festival its own identity to become known city-wide and on a national platform. We want to keep the conversation going and have a very unique, cultural programme in place as we want to harness that energy amongst a cross-pollination of people and create immense dialogues,” he explained.
Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design, Dr René Smith, said the sub-themes of hybridisation and purity will form part and parcel of ISEA2018. “The sub-theme provides for contributions reflecting the purity of numbers, code and technology interfacing with art, as well as hybridisation in relation to art, science and technology. This sub-theme includes contributions on identities, diversity and pluralism, migration and urbanisation as well as notions of democracies – all in relation to art, science and technology. We invite contributions on the purity of technology, sound, light and the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ (artificial intelligence, virtual reality), networks and net neutrality, as well as on the digital divide and technology,” she said excitedly.
Furthermore, Dr Smith also added that the theme for ISEA2018 is also going to look at the impact of the fourth industrialisation and what it means to everyone on a global context, issues about xenophobia and to also learn more about digital knowledge systems, to name but a few.
“Next year, 2018, we will be part of the ISEA2018 and now you would realise how big and important this event is to DUT. We really believe in what we are doing and that everything is changing around us. Our aim is to offer a platform for students to interact with international and locally renowned artists and designers,” she said.
To find out more on how to get involved, go to: http://www.isea-international.org/isea2018/call-for-papers-participation/.
Pictured: Marcus Neustetter gives more insight into ISEA2018, at the event.
Waheeda Peters
