NEW MEDIA IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

NEW MEDIA IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
by nathaniel stern

Mid-February of this year will see the launch of the first Digital Media
advanced degree program within an arts school context in South Africa. The
new division within Witwatersrand University's School of Arts (WSOA) will
offer concentrations in either 3D Animation or Interactive Media Design for
students working towards a Masters in Fine Arts or Dramatic Arts.

Professor Christo Doherty, Head of Digital Media at Wits, designed the
program in close consultation with South African new media practitioners
from both fine arts and commercial fields. "The structure of the course is
a response to the existing areas of interest amongst students in the Wits
School of Arts and examples of successful courses in the USA and Europe,"
says Doherty. His hope is to "teach professional application skills and
develop an historically informed and analytical understanding of interactive
media as both an aesthetic and commercial form of communication." He plans
to do this by engaging with work around the politics and aesthetics of The
Digital Object, a la Lev Manovich and Peter Lunenfeld, but to also "test
these concepts against the 3rd World context [they] are operating in."

Doherty says that, in many ways, the new program at the University of the
Witwatersrand is modeled on programs such as the Interactive
Telecommunications Program (ITP - Tisch School of the Arts, New York
University), and Digital Arts at UCLA, in that it stresses creativity and
experiment, and is pulling students and lecturers from many varied
disciplines.

"While it's certainly a small/new program, it's coming into an environment
that's already very dynamic and interdisciplinary in nature. Wits School of
the Arts students have access to critical debate and working professionals
across a wide range of specializations," says Nicole Ridgway, an
anthropologist who will be contributing to the program. Although there are
several two-year certificate programs already available in SA, this course
is "also interested in discourse and social interactions - there's a public
intellectual aspect to it," she added.

The most outstanding difference in the new program, to its international
predecessors, is its non-traditional course structure. The two core courses
(split into production and history/theory) have short 1-2 week topical
segments taught by various academic specialists, professional media
designers and practicing artists. These are the same professionals that
helped to design the course, and students will also have a chance to see
them in action in their work environment. Wits has a superb,
Johannesburg-based list of external lecturers from, and internship
possibilities at, some heavy-hitting Digital Media companies. To name a
few, Interactive Design Studios such as Delapse and LearningThings;
Animation Studios like Depth, Luma, Triggerfish and Sphere; Art/Theatre
Collaboratives such as The Trinity Session and the Forgotten Angle Theatre
Collaborative; and independent artists & performers, including Clive Van den
Berg, Penni Siopis, Marcus Neustetter and Andrew Buckland.

Doherty is also hoping to bring foreign insight to the program, wherever
possible, by invitation. I, myself (an ITP alumnus), have agreed to take on
a handful of lectures; he's also looking into short residencies, guest
lectures and small shows in the Wits Digital Media Gallery. "Not many
places in the world, much less South Africa, offer an opportunity for
student filmmakers or interactive artists to work with professional dance
companies, or 3D animators to work with award-winning actor/playwrights,"
Ridgway added.

Philip Boltt, a professional 3D animator in Johannesburg, will be working
with students on an animated adaptation of Feedback, an award-winning script
by South African playwright and actor Andrew Buckland. He believes that
South Africans can pick up technology very quickly, given exposure, and
relayed a story to me about an internet-ready machine that was quickly
"figured out" by local kids in a community hall in the rural Eastern Cape.
Boltt said, "What I'd really like to see coming out of the Feedback project
is an increased public confidence in taking on technologically-based
programs that we would otherwise have regarded as the domain of more
developed countries. What is required is an adaptation of mindset to the
peculiarities of our local environment, and a desire to find ways to
overcome any shortfalls that one may encounter…. The effect of the
project will be felt as a shift, however small, by South Africans from being
passive technology users, to pro-active developers." From my personal
experience in South Africa thus far, the constraints Boltt refers to force
many artists, designers and developers to think harder about both conceptual
framework/content, and lo-tech solutions to big problems.

Adam Harris, who will teach digital effects and their place in the animation
production pipeline, also plans to spend a good deal of time speaking to the
"concept of creating a new market, and applying what [South Africans
already] know into the business of digital media." He sees the new program
as a "unified attempt to establish a talented market pool, and a stronger
industry…. If we can do this, the program may have a great effect in
reducing the disparities" still very present in South Africa. Boltt
similarly expressed that "the training of black and female [media producers]
should be a priority."

Wits University as a whole has various programs and policies in place that
both address and redress the legacies of apartheid. The Digital Media
program will see students from many socio-economic and cultural backgrounds,
from several African countries. Laine Kiflezion will be coming to SA from
Eritrea to study Interactive Media Design at Wits and is very excited to
help "increase the number of artists engaged in the field, and develop a
diversified creative output to the digital market."

"However," Boltt added, "the basic problems of access to technology, and
education funding, still exist. No matter how well the course is structured
to embrace equality, it will still depend on continued government and
private industry funding, in the form of bursaries and sponsorship of
resources, to maximize these goals. Without these, the fees will be too
high for many, and there will be too few workstations to train on."

There are a lot of resources going towards bridging the Digital Divide in
South Africa, but they are mostly geared towards entrepreneurship. Wits is
looking for support in places ranging from small, local design firms to the
government, the Mark Shuttleworth foundation and big, international
companies. Obviously, there is going to have to be a lot of cross-subsidy
within the program. Doherty has "garnered a lot of support from industry
because of its commercial applications, but is committed to having both
[artistic and commercial] aspects present" in the program. Harris added
that if graduates "produce their own work, and attract foreign investment,
they can truly grow [a South African] media/entertainment industry," which
will eventually be self-funding, and committed to WSOA's goals - academic,
artistic and commercial.

The Digital Media division

Comments

, Rachel Greene

interesting… does anyone know of new media artists from south africa?


> NEW MEDIA IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
> by nathaniel stern
>
> Mid-February of this year will see the launch of the first Digital Media
> advanced degree program within an arts school context in South Africa. The
> new division within Witwatersrand University's School of Arts (WSOA) will
> offer concentrations in either 3D Animation or Interactive Media Design for
> students working towards a Masters in Fine Arts or Dramatic Arts.
>
> Professor Christo Doherty, Head of Digital Media at Wits, designed the
> program in close consultation with South African new media practitioners
> from both fine arts and commercial fields. "The structure of the course is
> a response to the existing areas of interest amongst students in the Wits
> School of Arts and examples of successful courses in the USA and Europe,"
> says Doherty. His hope is to "teach professional application skills and
> develop an historically informed and analytical understanding of interactive
> media as both an aesthetic and commercial form of communication." He plans
> to do this by engaging with work around the politics and aesthetics of The
> Digital Object, a la Lev Manovich and Peter Lunenfeld, but to also "test
> these concepts against the 3rd World context [they] are operating in."
>
> Doherty says that, in many ways, the new program at the University of the
> Witwatersrand is modeled on programs such as the Interactive
> Telecommunications Program (ITP - Tisch School of the Arts, New York
> University), and Digital Arts at UCLA, in that it stresses creativity and
> experiment, and is pulling students and lecturers from many varied
> disciplines.
>
> "While it's certainly a small/new program, it's coming into an environment
> that's already very dynamic and interdisciplinary in nature. Wits School of
> the Arts students have access to critical debate and working professionals
> across a wide range of specializations," says Nicole Ridgway, an
> anthropologist who will be contributing to the program. Although there are
> several two-year certificate programs already available in SA, this course
> is "also interested in discourse and social interactions - there's a public
> intellectual aspect to it," she added.
>
> The most outstanding difference in the new program, to its international
> predecessors, is its non-traditional course structure. The two core courses
> (split into production and history/theory) have short 1-2 week topical
> segments taught by various academic specialists, professional media
> designers and practicing artists. These are the same professionals that
> helped to design the course, and students will also have a chance to see
> them in action in their work environment. Wits has a superb,
> Johannesburg-based list of external lecturers from, and internship
> possibilities at, some heavy-hitting Digital Media companies. To name a
> few, Interactive Design Studios such as Delapse and LearningThings;
> Animation Studios like Depth, Luma, Triggerfish and Sphere; Art/Theatre
> Collaboratives such as The Trinity Session and the Forgotten Angle Theatre
> Collaborative; and independent artists & performers, including Clive Van den
> Berg, Penni Siopis, Marcus Neustetter and Andrew Buckland.
>
> Doherty is also hoping to bring foreign insight to the program, wherever
> possible, by invitation. I, myself (an ITP alumnus), have agreed to take on
> a handful of lectures; he's also looking into short residencies, guest
> lectures and small shows in the Wits Digital Media Gallery. "Not many
> places in the world, much less South Africa, offer an opportunity for
> student filmmakers or interactive artists to work with professional dance
> companies, or 3D animators to work with award-winning actor/playwrights,"
> Ridgway added.
>
> Philip Boltt, a professional 3D animator in Johannesburg, will be working
> with students on an animated adaptation of Feedback, an award-winning script
> by South African playwright and actor Andrew Buckland. He believes that
> South Africans can pick up technology very quickly, given exposure, and
> relayed a story to me about an internet-ready machine that was quickly
> "figured out" by local kids in a community hall in the rural Eastern Cape.
> Boltt said, "What I'd really like to see coming out of the Feedback project
> is an increased public confidence in taking on technologically-based
> programs that we would otherwise have regarded as the domain of more
> developed countries. What is required is an adaptation of mindset to the
> peculiarities of our local environment, and a desire to find ways to
> overcome any shortfalls that one may encounter…. The effect of the
> project will be felt as a shift, however small, by South Africans from being
> passive technology users, to pro-active developers." From my personal
> experience in South Africa thus far, the constraints Boltt refers to force
> many artists, designers and developers to think harder about both conceptual
> framework/content, and lo-tech solutions to big problems.
>
> Adam Harris, who will teach digital effects and their place in the animation
> production pipeline, also plans to spend a good deal of time speaking to the
> "concept of creating a new market, and applying what [South Africans
> already] know into the business of digital media." He sees the new program
> as a "unified attempt to establish a talented market pool, and a stronger
> industry…. If we can do this, the program may have a great effect in
> reducing the disparities" still very present in South Africa. Boltt
> similarly expressed that "the training of black and female [media producers]
> should be a priority."
>
> Wits University as a whole has various programs and policies in place that
> both address and redress the legacies of apartheid. The Digital Media
> program will see students from many socio-economic and cultural backgrounds,
> from several African countries. Laine Kiflezion will be coming to SA from
> Eritrea to study Interactive Media Design at Wits and is very excited to
> help "increase the number of artists engaged in the field, and develop a
> diversified creative output to the digital market."
>
> "However," Boltt added, "the basic problems of access to technology, and
> education funding, still exist. No matter how well the course is structured
> to embrace equality, it will still depend on continued government and
> private industry funding, in the form of bursaries and sponsorship of
> resources, to maximize these goals. Without these, the fees will be too
> high for many, and there will be too few workstations to train on."
>
> There are a lot of resources going towards bridging the Digital Divide in
> South Africa, but they are mostly geared towards entrepreneurship. Wits is
> looking for support in places ranging from small, local design firms to the
> government, the Mark Shuttleworth foundation and big, international
> companies. Obviously, there is going to have to be a lot of cross-subsidy
> within the program. Doherty has "garnered a lot of support from industry
> because of its commercial applications, but is committed to having both
> [artistic and commercial] aspects present" in the program. Harris added
> that if graduates "produce their own work, and attract foreign investment,
> they can truly grow [a South African] media/entertainment industry," which
> will eventually be self-funding, and committed to WSOA's goals - academic,
> artistic and commercial.
>
> The Digital Media division

, D42 Kandinskij

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, Rachel Greene wrote:

> interesting… does anyone know of new media artists from south africa?

Yes.