Cape Town’s #Cocreate Design Festival to explore role of 4IR in SA’s creative industries

What effect will the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) have on South Africa’s creative industry?

This is the key question that this year’s #Cocreate Design Festival — which will take place at the Guga S’thebe Cultural Centre in Langa, Cape Town on 24 and 25 February — will seek to answer.

Hosted by The Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa in collaboration with the Craft Design Institute, the event is expected to see two days of inspiring speakers, practical workshops, debates and networking receptions.

The #Cocreate Design Festival takes place this year at the Guga S’thebe Cultural Centre in Langa

The open plenary session will be led by keynote speaker S’onqoba Vuba, co-founder and managing director of Perpetu8, and member of the Presidential Commission on the 4IR. The festival will be MC’d by comedian and local treasure, Tsitsi Chiumya.

The Guga S’thebe venue is multi-purpose space set in the township of Langa. It’s in a central location with easy access for audiences from the CBD, townships and suburbs.

Robin Jutzen, principal catalytic sectors officer at the City of Cape Town, and member of the festival’s curatorial committee, explained that the venue is also situated close to projects such as the 16 on Lerotholi art gallery, Bridges for Music and Ikhaya Le Langa, which she points out will help create a “festival precinct experience”.