World Heritage Futures Lab
The World Heritage Futures Lab: Southern and Eastern Africa Edition is a joint UNESCO-Electric South initiative organised as part of the Next50, a year-long interdisciplinary reflection on the future of World Heritage. It is being implemented in cooperation with national authorities from participating countries in charge of arts, culture, and heritage, National Commissions for UNESCO, […]
2023 Design Futures Lab
The Design Futures Lab 2023 offered South African content creators an opportunity to develop experiential, provocative and immersive digital narratives about sustainable fashion and design. The programme included both a sustainable fashion workshop and a digital lab that challenged successful candidates to explore and expand their digital production skills in XR (extended reality). Using new […]
African XR Realities Lab
A first of its kind, the African XR Realities Lab took place over ten days in residence in Cape Town, South Africa from 23 June – 2 July 2023. Eight participants were selected to the lab, all with various creative backgrounds, some well versed in creative technologies for VR production and others with minimal experience […]
XR Social Impact Grant
The aim of the Extended Reality (XR) Social Impact Grant Programme was to give African-based creative technologists/artists access to skills, expertise, tools, and networks to create a proof of concept/prototype which can then be used to apply for further funding for full completion; or to help to finish an already-existing project. We looked for story-driven […]
Storytelling Through Augmented Reality
Electric South co-hosted a series of workshops in late June 2022 for 41 interdisciplinary practitioners interested in expanding their skills in immersive media and using them to address themes related to corruption. Electric South collaborated with a range of partners, including BlackRhino VR, Ona Stories Group, and Lorna Okeng Atim, each with local experience and […]
2022 Design Futures Lab
A first of its kind, the Design Futures Lab saw nine teams of two creatives explore the intersection of fashion and XR through an online workshop on sustainable fashion and an in-person immersive digital filmmaking lab using new creative technologies and software. Each team received a grant of R75,000 to develop their concepts. A final […]
2022 New Dimensions AR/VR Lab
2022 marked the 5th edition of the New Dimensions AR/VR Lab in Cape Town, South Africa. The New Dimensions Lab brought together diverse African artists to develop stories told through creative technology alongside leading industry mentors. The Lab took place over the course of a week at a private retreat where artists engaged in discussions […]
2019 New Dimensions AR/VR Lab
2019 marked the 4th edition of the New Dimensions AR/VR Lab in Cape Town, South Africa. Ten creatives from the continent (Nigeria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana) were selected to take part in the Lab. Joining them were industry professionals: Gareth Steele and Rick Treweek (Eden/South Africa), Brian Afande & Isa Mohamed (Black […]
2018 NEW DIMENSIONS VR/AR LAB
Third edition of NEW DIMENSIONS LAB took place in Cape Town, South Africa in October 2018 and included augmented reality alongside virtual reality. We brought together nine creative participants from across Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe). We were joined by eight African and international experts to train these nine individuals in 360 […]
2017 New Dimensions VR Lab
The second VR lab workshop took place in Cape Town, South Africa in July 2017, and brought together nine creative participants from across Africa (Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa). The residential VR lab focus was 360 filmmaking, Unity production, and immersive computing and development of VR project […]
2017 NAIROBI VR HACKATHON
Electric South partnered with Kenya’s Nuba Reports to facilitate a 5-day residency VR workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. Six creative teams from across East Africa (Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Somalia) were invited to learn practical production skills through making a short 360 film. As they went on to pursue VR projects in their respective countries […]
2015 NEW DIMENSIONS VR LAB
Our first event kicked off in October 2015 during the “African Futures” program at the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg. The 4-day VR workshop was led by Jessica Brillhart from Google; and Oscar Raby and Katy Morrison from VRTOV. The selected participants were:
GRASSROOTS VR WORKSHOP
In 2017, Electric South started a community-based program which is an interactive, collaborative, and engaging workshop where we work with young people to get them excited about 360 / VR content and techniques. The first workshop, planned in partnership with the Bertha Centre, was held in Khayelitsha, a township in South Africa with a fast-growing […]
CONNECT.HUBS
connect.hubs is an initiative, in partnership with British Council and Hivos, to support the social and creative hubs in Southern Africa that drive the creative economies and create social impact in the region. The goal is to grow the socio-creative ecosystem by instigating collaborations. We worked with more than 60 young creatives who are driving […]