Digital arts in Africa, Australian interactive comics, food sensplorations and vibrant projects by artists with disabilities
Our column that shines a spotlight on people, collectives, and organizations doing wonderful things.
Fak’ugesi
Fak’ugesi is a digital arts festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. Led by artist and academic Tegan Bristow, the festival is a wonderful, interdisciplinary mix of different arts practices with collaboration, experimentation and a maker spirit at its heart. Tegan was also the curator of the Post African Futures exhibition in 2015.
Sutu/Stuart Campbell
Stu Campbell is a talented Australian artist who has done a lot of work in AR and VR, including Inside Manus for SBS and Mind at War for Ryot. He’s also known for his interactive comics, including Nawlz, Neomad, Modern Polaxis and These Memories Won’t Last. Much of his work has been collaborative; for example, the wonderfully imaginative NEOMAD was created with the help of more than 40 young people in the Ieramugadu (Roebourne) community in Australia through a series of workshops over an 18-month period. The story involves spy bots, magic crystals, fallen rocket boosters, and mysterious petroglyphs. All the good stuff.
Phi Centre
The Phi Centre is an arts center in Montreal that has become known for top-notch interactive exhibitions. Phi was created by Director and Founder Phoebe Greenberg. Many of us in the interactive and immersive space know Phi’s Myriam Achard as a powerhouse programmer, traveling the world in search of work to show and collaborating with her team to put together beautifully executed exhibitions. Right now Echo: The Sound of Space is showing at Phi with pieces including Spheres, Wolves in the Walls, and Vestige.
Emilie Baltz
“We enter the world through our senses. When we alter our relationship to them, we discover new worlds.” Emilie Baltz is a food technologist, designer, and multimedia artist who creates amazing multi-sensory experiences, including the recent Eat Tech Kitchen at IDFA DocLab in collaboration with Klasien van de Zandschulp. There is delicious humor and joy in Baltz’s work. Last year at IDFA she had us all eating goo off our phones!
Unlimited
Unlimited supports ambitious, creative projects by outstanding disabled artists and companies. The projects include theatre, dance, music, literature, performance, painting, sculpture, public artworks, photography, digital artworks, installations, films, and more. They also have some fantastic resources, including Cards for Inclusion.
Unlimited
commission Brownton Abbey is a curatorial investigation of Afro-futurism explored
through the intersectional perspectives of disabled, queer, people of colour.Immerse is an initiative of the MIT Open DocLab and The Fledgling Fund, and it receives funding from Just Films | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. IFP is our fiscal sponsor. Learn more here. We are committed to exploring and showcasing media projects that push the boundaries of media and tackle issues of social justice — and rely on friends like you to sustain ourselves and grow. Join us by making a gift today.