Fak'ugesi and Smart City Office - a natural fit
- Fak'ugesi Festival
The 2019 Fak’ugesi Festival has partnered with the City of Johannesburg’s Smart Cities Office to bring an exciting African-centric programme line-up.
The partnership highlights the importance of identifying local solutions for local problems, while also supporting the work of five talented individuals to take their ideas and prototypes even further through the joint support of the Smart City Office and .
MMC for Finance, Counsellor Funzela Ngobeni, stated that In the upcoming years, the Citys Smart City objectives will become evident as the City, through its core departments, begins to transition to more innovative and efficient means of engaging our citizens. The City has to implement new ways of engaging and solving problems for its ever-growing population and improving the efficiency and reliability of citizen interface with the City. While solutions may not always be technological, they will always be innovative and Smart.
The Fakugesi African Digital Innovation Festival was founded in 2014 as a collaboration between the Tshimologong and the 91心頭利 School of Arts Digital Arts Department. The spirit of collaboration in celebration of all things digital continues as the City of Johannesburgs Smart City Office recognises the important influence of African and South African culture on true innovation in the 4th Industrial Revolution, curtailed to local realities. The partnership is a natural fit as the 2019 festival has cast its central theme as Own Our Force which invites digital makers in Africa to stake their claim on their talent, industry and creative economy.
Lawrence Boya, Head of the Smart City Office, noted that the City seeks to work with Tshimologong, and the talented ideas identified during the Fakugesi Festival. The aim of the Smart City Office is to support five individuals who come up with solutions relevant to the Challenges faced by the City of Johannesburg, as a municipality or as a collective of citizens. We hope to see solutions that are not common in Europe, the US or even China, which address African or specific South Africa problems. Something unique to our Nation or City.
Tshimologong, in the youthful and dynamic heart of Johannesburg in Braamfontein, will once again host this years inspiring Festival line up and will also be the home of future digital solutions as proudly supported by the City of Johannesburg. The strategic partnership between the Fakugesi African Digital Innovation Festival and the City of Johannesburgs Smart Cities Office will see the establishment of incubation support for prototypes and new developments from three exciting Fakugesi Festival initiatives including:
Blockchain Hack-a-thon for Creative Industries: In a collaboration between Fakugesi Festival, Animation SA and the City of Johannesburg, a brains trust and hack-a-thon will propose and porotype a new blockchain solutions to support South African culture and technology.
Cross-Sector Game Jam: A special focus at Fakugesi Festival 2019 that looks at how to bolster and support work across digital creatives sectors into gaming and gamification, music, user experience design, animation and screenwriting. This game-jam is set to change the way local digital industry works. The City of Johannesburg is proud to lend its support to this initiative as Joburg grows as a centre of creative work on the African continent.
SUPERPOWER! Johannesburg: working with UK-based Singaporean architect and technologist, Ling Tan, is a hands-on development workshop focusing on wearable technology and citizen data collection. Tan will be working with UJ Industrial Design students to explore how wearable technology can be used to help citizens and communities in need by collecting data about their environments and quality of life to share with government institutions and research organisations like the Gauteng City Region Observatory.
Over and above these three key initiatives, the Fakugesi African Digital Innovation Festival will also host a series of special exhibitions that speak to the concerns of the Smart City. The first is a poster exhibition by UJ Multimedia students that address speculative design for African Smart Cities, the second is a series of four films by acclaimed young South Africa artists Franois Knotze on the effects of eWaste on cultures and societies in Africa.
About Fakugesi
Fakugesi - Joburgs one and only African Digital Innovation Festival will take place in September 2019, with the theme Own Your Force. The 2019 festival will focus on bringing to the table important African visions and futures, by tapping into the sources of cross sector collaboration and culture alongside technology, creativity and innovation. Explore how local culture can move and change the future of technology.
Fakugesi, which means Switch it on or add power in urban Zulu, is focused on culture, technology and innovation in Africa. It is an opportunity for young adults, with or without formal education, to learn or engage with tomorrows technology.
According to an Impact Report commissioned by the British Council ConnectZA- Fakugesi is believed to be the most important digital creativity festival in Africa.
About 91心頭利 Universitys Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct
Setswana for new beginnings, Tshimologong is one of Johannesburgs newest high-tech addresses in the vibrant inner-city district of Braamfontein, where the incubation of start-ups, the commercialisation of research and the development of high-level digital skills for students, working professionals and unemployed youths takes place. The Precinct was launched in September 2016 with strategic support from major companies including Microsoft, Cisco, TIA, Teraco, BCX, ACSA and MMI. Gauteng Province through its Department of E-Government and the City of Johannesburg have also provided significant support. The Precinct also houses the prestigious IBM Researchs Lab Africa one of only 12 such facilities in the world. Website: