If I had to describe my Design Indaba experience in a single word, I don’t think that would be possible since there’s too many awesome and inspirational elements of my experience as a whole. So maybe a concoction of awesome and inspirational – AWE-SPIRATIONAL!
I have for many years had intentions of visiting the mother city for the “soul” purpose of attending Design Indaba and had no idea what I would expect to see or experience. I had the pleasure of attending WWDC in 2012 and have to say that Design Indaba can compare favourably, with both planning and execution, from top notch sponsors (the likes of household names like Woolies and Mercedes Benz) to the crop of top local and international talented presenters. A major surprise was a presentation by South African jazz icon Hugh Masekela – sharing his colourful upbringing in an apartheid-controlled South Africa and horning his way out with sweet sounds as Hugh knows best.
At the risk of sounding biased against many of the other awesome talent on display, I singled out three that were of particular interest to me and shared a laughable experience with two of the youngest foreign presenters at Design Indaba.
Alex McDowell
The first presenter that amazed me was Alex McDowell, a British production designer, film producer and storyteller working with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam (Monty Python and The Brothers Grimm) and David Fincher (The Social Network and Fight Club). Alex went on to describe how he was tasked with building onto ideas for movie sets such as The Man of Steel, a process he refers to as “world building” – where he and his team brainstorm and build in the type of technology and social structure that would govern such a world to make it believable and offering a more immersive experience to the viewer.
Another film that Alex and his team that was heavily involved in creating a world for, was the famous “Minority Report” – Spielberg invited experts to create a plausible “future reality” set in the year 2054. Production designer Alex McDowell consulted with then MIT grad student John Underkoffler – who had written a thesis about gesture based computing – to create a believable futuristic computer. John saw this as an opportunity to create a real world operating system in a fantasy setting.
Such technologies exists today in devices such as the XBOX 360 and Kinect. Other real life innovations from Minority Report include video conferencing (Skype – introduced only 2 years after the movie was released) and pre crime, a policing system that gives law enforcers the ability to detect crime before it can happen. Acting upon this information and stopping the crime before it can be committed, such a concept is now becoming a reality with law enforcers in Switzerland and America, piloting programs based on algorithms. Geomarketing is also showcased in Minority Report which is fast becoming the norm in personalised advertising across the board. Well Minority Report was first screen in 2002, it’s now 2016, and to date over 100 real life innovations from the movie are today in existence in our everyday lives.
Erik Kessels
The next interesting presenter that captured my imagination was Erik Kessels, Co-founder and creative director at KesselsKramer. One of his better-known campaigns was for Hans Brinker, a budget hotel. The ad campaign counter-intuitively sold the hotel as the worst hotel in Amsterdam.
In 2010, Kessels was awarded the Amsterdam Prize of the Arts; in 2015, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. He is often seen as the most influential creative of The Netherlands.
Yogita Agrawal
The third person that inspired me at Design Indaba was Yogita Agrawal, a young Indian girl and Parson School of Architect graduate. Her invention that I found really interesting and useful was a wearable task light that is motion powered. Made for rural India where villagers walked 1 to 2 hours daily in unlit and dangerous streets and pathways. The device known as Jhoule, underwent a redesign after an unsuccessful first launch. The device now resembles traditional jewellery and is produced by local manufacturers while the facade can be customised to the wearers desire. ANother really innovative yet simple creation was a pen soap – this was essentially a soap made in the form of a drawing medium that kids could play with, being hygienic and creative at the same time.
Laughter… the best medicine!
So a really funny thing happened while on break time in-between sessions. I spotted Yogita chatting to some boys and decided to get a picture taken with her. I approached her as she finished off speaking to the two lads and asked her if I could have a picture taken with her to which she agreed. As I positioned myself to take selfie with Yogita, I noticed that the two lads got in my shot – I was annoyed and brushed them off stating to Yogita please can I get one with just the two of us as I have no idea who these guys are and that they are not with me. The boys happily agreed to move off so that I may have my selfie with Yogita. A few moments went by when I realised how foolish I acted as the lads were the twins from Egypt and were invited as presenters at Design Indaba! Well I redeemed myself on the last day when I humbly apologised. Needless to say they still found it very humorous.
With Cape Town as the setting and venue being Artscape Theatre Design Indaba 2016 was indeed a great success. The V & A Waterfront never ceases to amaze me with the myriad of touristy shops and restaurants, hours seems like minutes especially the Watershed with all of its creative curios from people of different walks of life. One of the highlights of my trip has to be the visit to Bo Kaap – it’s easy to see why it was featured in the Huffington Posts’ top 10 most colourful places in the world.
It wasn’t just the place but the weather although changed over the days we attended, was bearable, the company… the immedians – I would not change that at any “Given” time.
All in all I’d have to say, yes I will most definitely consider doing Design Indaba 2017, 2018, 2019…