I will be facilitating and speaking at a professional workshop on Practice-Based Design Research on the 8th of June 2018 at the National Research Foundation in Pretoria for The Design Education Forum of Southern Africa – DEFSA If you are interested in attending please RSVP as soon as possible at this link: http://www.defsa.co.za/workshop
TEDxJohannesburg Salon – Hacking the Farm
I will be speaking on the design of situated technology for urban agriculture at the TEDxJohannesburg Salon – Hacking the Farm on March 1 2018. From http://www.tedxjohannesburg.co.za/hackingthefarm.html : “The nature, texture, and complexion of the farm are changing. The gates are opening—slowly if not surely—to many who were previously excluded. Land reform promises to deliver tangible justice to those who’ve been deprived for far too long. Human population is projected to reach an astounding 9.7 billion by 2050. Every mouth will need to eat, and do so well. Climate change remains a challenge. But human ingenuity is hard to beat. Strategies and tactics will emerge. They must emerge. Business models are shifting—the farm is transforming into a high performance, high growth enterprise. It’s adding value to crops, turning commodities into products, and moving up the supply chain. The modern farm is a brand, with a USP, and a target audience. It … Read More
Global Summit on Social Innovation
From the 14-15 of March 2017 I will be representing the Design Society Development DESIS Lab at the Global Summit on Social Innovation in Bogotá, Colombia hosted by the The Rockefeller Foundation and the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter–American Development Bank Group. The Summit is an exciting opportunity to bring together leading actors from across the social innovation spectrum – from labs to social enterprise accelerators – to learn, share, inspire, and collaborate. The Design Society Development DESIS Lab was one of a select group of key actors, stakeholders, and practitioners in the social innovation space that were identified as being able to help drive truly systemic social change. Today’s global challenges are more complex and rapidly changing—traditional approaches to problem solving can’t keep pace. But at the same time, social change agents have more tools at our disposal, and more diversity of ideas to draw from through processes like crowdsourcing or … Read More
World Information Architecture Day 2017
I will be speaking at World Information Architecture Day on Saturday, 18 February 2017 The topic of my presentation is “Exploring Human Activity: Technology Innovation on the Periphery” Professional designers often disregard users’ design agency. Negating the power of “lay designers” thus, is arguably at the cost of the relevance of a final design for its intended users. This is nowhere more evident than in so-called “developing” contexts where people have always been driven to design and innovate due to inequality, poverty, and unmet needs. Utilising the framework of activity theory, I will explore exceptional examples of grassroots innovation in South Africa. The aim of this is to encourage expert designers to shift their gaze and align their skills to amplify the efforts of lay designers in order to result in more sustainable and appropriate change. Tickets for the event can be bought at: https://worldiaday2017-johannesburg.eventbrite.com – General admission: R200.00pp (includes lunch, snacks … Read More
[De]colonising Design in Africa
I was recently interviewed by Amsterdam based journalist Natalie Dixon for an article published in the South African Mail & Guardian newspaper on the 14th of June 2016. The article titled “[De]colonising Design in Africa” explores some of the work South African designers are doing to decolonise both the academic curriculum and professional design practice in Southern Africa. The article can be read online here or you can download a pdf of the article here.
The Science of Slow Food
I was interviewed this morning on Radio Today by Gillian Godsell together with my co-researcher Dr. Naudé Malan from Izindaba Zokudla, and collaborators Geoff Green and Brian Dick from Slow Food Johannesburg. I discuss how as an industrial designer I ended up working on urban agricultural projects and how relevant they are for the South African context. You can listen to the 1hr 20min podcast here: