Artists 2023 - Playtopia

Jared Jestr

Graffiti art painter, multi-media explorer. Painting since ’05, his work can be found across the country and the globe. He’s developed an instantly recognisable painting style that transcends traditional graffiti, and seeks to blur definitions and dimensions through his work. Currently his focus is mostly in the studio, and making art in the public space of the internet.

All Caps Are Beautiful (ACAB):

All Caps Are Beautiful is a collection of 360 unique abstract art- works, made by photographing used spraypaint nozzles/ “caps”. This is the first solo show by Jared Jestr, a post-graffiti artist who is transitioning from street to studio and web3.

Claire Kwong

Claire Kwong connects art and technology to make people move. She works with code to create performances and interactive experiences.

Claire’s artworks encourage people to move, communicate, and touch each other. She creates immersive environments using technology like phones, projection, and motion capture. Through her art, Claire aims to dramatize her own experiences and challenge personal and social boundaries.

Most recently, Claire was commissioned to create a new game for No Quarter (New York, NY). She has also exhibited at international events including A MAZE (Berlin, DE), JSNation (Amsterdam, NL), Beta Public (London, UK), and PlayUK (Belgrade, RS). She also creates live visuals for electronic music shows. Claire received a Masters in Computational Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, and she lives in New York City.

Claire aims to stage unusual encounters, create visceral experiences, and destabilize your sense of body. She also hopes to make you dance.

Electric South

We believe that new technologies must open up spaces for original voices and underrepresented narratives.

Electric South collaborates with artists across Africa in emerging storytelling, through labs, production and distribution.

Electric South is a non-profit company based in Cape Town, South Africa

We provide mentorship, production services, funding and exhibition for a network of artists across Africa to explore their worlds through immersive, interactive stories including virtual and augmented reality, and other digital media.

“If you want to change the world, change the stories.”

Stephanie Anderson

Steph Anderson is a game developer with a fascination for the strange complexity of the natural environment.

She hopes to use game technology to explore how we understand, empathise and interface with non-human intelligences.

Her current passion project, a VR experience called Fungarium, peers into the world of fungal intelligence.

Fungarium uses a blend of fantasy and simulation to help us comprehend the magnificent scale of fungi’s rule over its forest citadel domain.

Xabiso Vili & Inka Kendzia

Kwasukasukela is a Zulu term that, loosely translated, means “In the beginning”. In this particular projection mapping experience, Kwasukasukela is a contemporary African creation myth written by four South African poets. Using traditional storytelling and music techniques, the story borrows from Zulu spirituality. By creating a 360° installation, a traditional healer’s hut (also known as a “sangoma”) is reproduced, which the public is invited to enter for treatment.

Embark on an extraordinary odyssey, transcending the limits of time and space, into the enigmatic realm of one of South Africa’s most captivating mythical stories. Films such as these, which are an immersive journey harmoniously blending digital aesthetics and the long-standing traditional marks of South African heritage, are created to captivate and hypnotise the audience into a revolutionary outlook of life past and present.

Egbert Westra

Award-winning 3D generalist and animator with over 15 years of industry experience.
Working as a creative with various innovative companies like Hasbro, Eden Labs and TypeDev in VR, AR, Game Design & WebGL.

He is passionate about experimenting with technology and strives to create dreamlike, magical moments.
Lume or light-graffiti is a passion that he has been working on with a team of artists and designers, as well as a developer and a robotics engineer.

Lume works with high light frequencies that activate a photoluminescent canvas.

Danielle Hitchcock, Mich Mellow & Sandy Harris

Living and working in Cape Town in their respective creative fields, Danielle Hitchcock, Mich Mellow and Sandy Harris share a sense of humour and play. From this came Hank, the furry monster who is trying to be menacing but is actually just a big cutie. With an aim to create an immersive experience that brings both joy and calm in a busy and stimulating environment, the three friends bring Hank to life at a grand scale for everyone to enjoy.

Hallie Haller

Hallie Haller is a South African creative who cares about media, the future, and you. Currently based in Johannesburg, Hallie is interested in collaborative cultural production that invites participation and play.

Hallie has written a multitude of unpublished pieces, received hundreds of rejection letters, invested unwisely in passion projects, and risked it all on a big idea – more than once. For love and money, Hallie is a filmmaker, media artist, and creative industries consultant.

Hallie is proudly a Berlinale Talents Durban alum, an Electric South New Dimensions fellow for 2023, an ambassador for Girls In Film South Africa, and a creative strategist at The Video Consortium.

“Politics exists in the wake of culture. If you want to change the world, you’ve gotta change the culture.”

– Franklin Leonard, The Blacklist.

Alexia DeFluff

With a background in 3D animation, Alexia DeFluff quickly became interested in universes which are inscribed in space and question curiosity. Particularly inspired by biology and science, she regularly collaborates on projects with the world of research. The encounter and the absurd are also recurring themes in her work, and she have been part of various immersive installations like a traveling giant bamboo labyrinth, a wooden apocalyptic insect temple lost in the woods or a mechanical squad of squids eager to talk to humans through light messages.

Olivie Keck

Olivié Keck was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1989. She received her BFA from The Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2011. Tertiary education includes completing a printmaking internship with Warren Editions Print Studio in 2015 and David Krut Studios in 2016. Keck still lives and works in Cape Town. Since her first solo show False Priest in 2014 exhibited at Commune 1, Keck’s work has been shown in many galleries and institutions locally and internationally. Notable solo exhibitions include Selfie Fulfilling Prophecy shown at David Krut Projects in 2016, Drop Dead Gorgeous shown at CIRCA Johannesburg in 2019, In Bloom (2020) and Playing With Catastrophe (2021) shown at 131A Gallery, and ‘Merci Pour Les Roses’ shown at Quand Les Fleurs Nous Sauvent in Paris 2021. Museum exhibitions include works on view at The Irma Stern Museum (2016) and the Zeitz MOCAA (2019). Her two most recent artist books Driving Bad Ideas and Sunday Bed are featured in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) Library. Her work is featured extensively in the permanent collections of the Spier Arts Trust and The University of Cape Town. In 2020, she was invited to produce a work for CNN International for a feature focus on contemporary artists creating work in self-isolation. She attended an International Art Residency (AIR) at the Kala Art Institute, Berkley USA in 2016. In 2017 she was invited to attend a second International Art Residency (AIR) at Frans Masereel Centrum, Antwerp Belgium. In July of 2022, she attended Artist Residency Enschede (ARE) in Holland. The colourful and patterned aesthetic of my work commemorates the theatre of human experience, whilst echoing my fascination with contemporary culture as explored through the lens of visual storytelling. My work extracts meaning by remixing a long history of artistic traditions with contemporary signifiers. There are a variety of different artistic mediums and methodologies present in my work, which speaks to my visual curiosity as an image-maker. I believe that embracing and utilizing the interdisciplinary possibilities of different materials, innovative technologies and digital advancement allows artists to adapt and create meaningful contributions in a rapidly changing environment.

Marie Foulston

Marie Foulston is a leading curator behind exhibitions, installations and experiences that specialise in videogames, play and digital culture. She is co-founder and creative director of Good Afternoon, an experiential design creative agency. Previously she was Curator of Videogames at the V&A where she lead the curation of the headline exhibition ‘Videogames’, was guest director of experimental games festival ‘Now Play This’ at Somerset House and co-founded the UK alternative videogame collective the Wild Rumpus. Across her career she has worked alongside a host of international organisations and leading cultural institutions including the Smithsonian, ACMI, PlayStation, the Design Museum, Netflix, Channel 4 and Nintendo.

Bronwyn Krige & Dionne Macdonald

Masters of the mysterious Bronwyn Krige and Dionne Macdonald take you on a journey through realms of dream in the Tunnels of Glim. Experience an intergalactic jungle festooned with carnivorous plants, authentic automatons, shredding shrubberies and musical mayhem in a fully immersive black light illusion. Afficionados of the wildly absurd, Bron and Dionne have been exciting imaginations and shaking reality for over twenty years at festivals and events all over the globe. Their work has bemused, inspired and even on occasion caught fire.They will be joined by sonic visionary Mike ‘the flaming’ Head on Sounds.

Amith Ranjith

Amith, a mechanical engineer turned artist, seamlessly melds music and light to craft immersive stage experiences and light artworks. Through the synergy of sound and light, Amith’s creations evoke deep emotions, inviting audiences on a transformative journey through the senses. Prepare to explore a captivating world where art and technology converge.

2023

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