2022
A GRADUAL RETREAT
Ten years of social media ...
It is 2022 and I have all but retreated from all digital platforms as far as a daily digest of comments and posts go. I only venture there to serve the projects I am part of, or to check in on friends during what has been a very insane period in our lives.
I am one of the digital pioneers. At the beginning of my creative career I ventured onto the new desktop and world wide web platforms that would revolutionise our lives. While I was a university student only academics and military personnel had access to the internet. When I started working in the creative industries the first versions of everything digital and public came into being. When I started teaching, universities hadn't even begun fashioning courses or departments focused on creative digital tech. I was part of this frontier and it has been a wild ride - not only because of the digital revolution, but also because it all happened during a promising new phase in South Africa's political life.
But now I am in retreat from all of it. I am tired and overwhelmed by the sheer scale of deep trouble we're in as a humanity.
For this reason I have deliberately turned my attention to efforts and projects that serve to shift fundamental paradigms that are deeply violent towards our earth and all the life forms and biomes she supports.
I engaged social media platforms reluctantly, used them conservatively, made a special effort to shape my voice and ideas on them, forged invaluable relationships there and helped grow many projects through them.
But the power dynamic of the web has blown out of all proportion, and it is time that we as The Public push back by withdrawing our support and demanding change.
In a sense I have slowly been making my way back to where I began - with a degree in natural sciences - first by joining the land and nature art project Site_Specific, then by attending an animal communications workshop with The Animal Communicator Anna Breytenbach, and since then attending a tree planting festival, a permaculture course, as well as agroforestry and ecovillage design workshops.
So, here's to the next ten years ...
ADDED june 2, 2022
CAREER PATH
Ten years of graphic design ...
After completing a B.Sc. in the natural sciences I tried out working as a scientist for about five minutes before diving into a creative career. I've never quite managed to finish any of the my art qualifications, just stopping short of completing my visual arts degree due to the kind of frustration that precipitated the 'Rhodes Must Fall' student revolt several years later.
To earn my keep I worked in the graphic design, advertising and publishing industry, gobbling up the new computers arriving on our desktops with big eyes and endless patience. 152 K of RAM and 150 MB of drive space was considered 'top of the range' when I started, and I spent a decade of my life waiting for it to catch up with the many promises sold to our clients by its maker.
When I'd had enough of that, I decided to try teaching.
Ten years of teaching ...
Working as an educator for ten years is a liberating experience on many fronts. As a freelance educator it has been a privilege to move between different institutions and work under different curricula. I've had the opportunity to constantly design new courses, lectures, and be part of many debates revolving around creative process, digital media, multimedia, graphic design, and visual arts. Nobody could wish for a more fertile learning curve than one comprised of such diversity.
Several more of activism ...
During my teaching experiences I encountered a new generation of powerful educators and realised that my job was done. I had come into teaching at the forefront of a digital tsunami that had swept through our industry in graphic design, advertising & publishing. My DIY approach in dealing with these new technologies had given me skills useful to institutions still grappling with their full implication.
At some point it became clear that it was time to move on, to step back and make way to a new generation of South Africans who, quite frankly, blew my mind.
Still carrying the discomforts I'd experienced as student and teacher I dove into the world of social media, using my digital skills to build and develop visual art and activist projects. My new teaching and learning space became facebook, and finally with the help of radical thinkers I was able to put words to the frustrations that had plagued me for a lifetime.
Over a decade of group projects ...
In 2004 I started participating in my first group project as a visual artist. Soon I shifted roles and became the online presence of these projects, helping to garner a national and international audience for our various causes.
I've had the privilege of being part of 'Searching for a Saviour' at Museum Africa (2004), 'Journey to Freedom' at the UNISA centenary celebrations (2004), 'ansisters' at Constitution Hill (2005), the netart project 'trans_end' (2007), the many Site_Specific Collectives projects in land & nature art (2009-2016), and the 'FilmVerse' animation + poetry project (2014 & 2016).
In 2016 I started the 'kindEarth_intentions' media project to support initiatives that help shift narratives in how we treat each other, our fellow earthly beings, and our earth.
Read more here ...
Creative friendships ...
In these initiatives I've forged creative friendships that have nurtured and supported my many interests. In our creative lives we rely on the trusted camaraderie of those who believe in similar ideals. I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the good fortune of recognising powerful teachers and following their guidance. I hope I can repay my debt to their contributions, and am ready to tackle next ten years. Here goes ...
Updated November 24, 2017
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