Fak’ugesi Festival 2016

We were invited to South Africa by the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg. Besides a bit of sightseeing, we also worked and dealt with the question – How can new audiovisual forms of expression be designed? Together with regional artists, singers and songwriters we accompanied the workshop format “Future Sounds” for an entire week.

With mountains of electronics, good moods and motivations we helped the artists at technical questions and supported them in finding solutions. The possibilities of various sensors were immediately recognized by the participants and translated into movement-based controls. In the end, we designed several devices which influenced an audiovisual projection with the help of sensors.

The whole thing was created with the help of self-built MIDI interfaces, which were created within the workshop. We have been supported by Ableton and have been able to provide software licenses to all participants. The software is ideal for integrating homemade MIDI instruments. The week ended with the big opening party for the Fakugesi Festival 2016 and interested guests took to the homemade “instruments” directly. The intensity of the event and the result showed us impressively the deep connection of South Africans to music. Thank you to all who made this possible.