Partners
African Robots thrives on collaboration with a range of creative partners, and our work has been made possible by grants from government bodies and NGOs, and commissions. We work hard for the money – please get in touch if you would like to find out more about work for which we are seeking support – and see a list of reasons to fund us. You can read more about the team here.
Collaborators
<personal pic of Dan and Bethany>
Technology Will Save Us – Our friends at this London-based technology-in-education company are on a mission to spark the creative imagination of young people using hands-on technology. Their kits are sold in over 4,000 stores globally, and they are one of the creators of the micro:bit – a pocket sized computer designed for kids to invent with that was given to one million kids in over 40 countries. We couldn’t have asked for better partners (along with Hirsch&Mann, below) for one of our first collaborations, developing the Little Bird circuit board for wire artists.
Hirsch&Mann – Founded by Daniel Hirschmann, a fellow alum of the Interactive Telecommunications Program along with African Robots founder Ralph Borland, this creative technology firm in London has worked on interactive projects with a wide-range of high-level clients, from Google to Nike, the Science Museum to the V&A, and the Whitney to the MoMA. Hirsch&Mann collaborated with us on our first funded project, to create the Little Bird circuit board series for workshops with wire artists, from Southern Africa to Brazil.
<Marc laughing with Dubship>
Thingking – Headed by Marc Nicolson and supported by a creative technology team, this Cape Town industrial design and fabrication workshop specialises in playful, interactive electronic experiences. We are firm friends and have worked with them on a number of projects – in fact they gave us our first break, exhibiting Starling 1.0 at their stand at Design Indaba as Maker Library Cape Town representatives.
<Screenshot of Jason with LiDAR>
Ambient3D – Jason Stapleton is our Virtual Reality and 3D modelling guru. We started working together on Dubship I – Black Starliner (2019) and have continued through a number of projects that make use of LiDAR scanning, photogrammetry, VR sculpting and simulation, 3D-modelling, and CNC part-making. While on the subject of VR, we’d also like to give a tip of the hat to Rick and Gary over at Eden Labs, our Jozi-based collaborators for all things 3D!
SunToy – The creators of the iconic South African Consol Solar Jar, led by creative engineer Harold Schulz, are collaborating with us on our venture into product design, creating the wire art solar-powered Zizi Nite Light. SunToy is a European Fair Trade certified industry based in Johannesburg, focused on renewable and sustainable energy solutions, and they employ wire art in their production process for the Solar Jar! Together, we received a grant from Business Arts South Africa to market and promote the Zizi Nite Light.
<pic of Tiago and Joao and me? Or in workshop. In action better>
Wire Wars – Our buddy Tiago Borges Coelho in Maputo has been a generous collaborator, co-hosting and supporting our engagements with wire artists in Mozambique. We were introduced by Joao Roxo. Tiago studied interactive art in Europe, and is the director of UX, which creates social development technologies to help grow the informal economy, supporting opportunities for creative interventions for sustainable ecosystems. He had been independently commissioning sci-fi themed wire art and wooden toys from local crafters, and we exhibited together under the banner SPACECRAFT vs Wire Wars in Maputo in 2018.
<wire car cruise video>
Wire Auto Workers Association of Detroit – We haven’t worked on a project together yet, but we can’t not mention our very good friend Chido Johnson in Detroit, who founded the Zimbabwe Cultural Centre of Detroit, and WAWAD. Big ups to you Chido! Representing wire car cruising in the automobile capital of the USA, Chido is head of Sculpture at the College for Creative Studies, an artist and an avid wire car enthusiast.
Funders
We have received just over R770,000 in grants for our work to date, between 2015 and 2020. Download an overview.
Including commissions, the total income to the project is more than R1.1 million rand.
These are some of our grant funders below.
Maker Library – We received a small grant for a wire artist workshop and exhibition at Design Indaba in 2014 on the British Council’s Maker Library platform (run by our frequent collaborators Thingking in Cape Town). This was the first public exhibition of Starling 1.0! Maker Library later contributed to the development of Starling 1.1, exhibited at the Vitra Design Museum, and our African Robots in London exhibition in 2015 was at a Maker Library.
Department of Sports, Arts and Culture – We received our first major funding from SA-UK Seasons, a collaboration between the South African DSAC, and the British Council, to fund projects that connected partners in South Africa and the UK.
National Arts Council – We have received two large grants from the NAC, starting with an award in 2017 that enabled work towards our pop-up exhibition in Cape Town African Robots vs SPACECRAFT, and again in 2018 for our largest work to date, Dubship I – Black Starliner (2019), a 6-metre long, 500kg music-making spaceship sculpture exhibited suspended in the atrium of the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town.
Business and Arts South Africa – BASA first funded African Robots founder Ralph Borland’s residency in South Korea in June 2019, when he applied the African Robots model in the city of Gwangju for the ISEA2019, resulting in the work Anthropophagic Octopus. African Robots went on to design the trophies for the BASA Awards in October 2019, and we were awarded a BASA grant ourselves to support the production of the Zizi Nite Light in December 2019.
British Council – Through the ConnectZA programme, the British Council co-funded our collaboration with Tech Will Save Us and Hirsch&Mann in 2015 to produce the Little Bird circuit board. They were also the funders of the Maker Library Network who were involved with the first exhibition of our work.
ProHelvetia – The Swiss Arts Council arts-funding body has funded us twice through their Ant Funding award for cross-border travel in Southern Africa: first for workshops and an exhibition at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe in 2015, and then in 2019 for our collaborative workshops with wire artists in the FEIMA Market in Maputo, Mozambique.
Funding to date
| Funder | Date | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Maker Library Network | 2014 | R5,000 |
| British Council and Dept of Sports, Arts and Culture, South Africa | 2015 | R100,000 |
| Pro Helvetia Ant Funding Award | 2015 | R60,000 |
| National Arts Council, South Africa | 2017 | R100,000 |
| International Symposium of Electronic Arts | 2018 | R25,000 |
| National Arts Council, South Africa | 2018 | R300,000 |
| Business and Arts South Africa | 2019 | R25,000 |
| Pro Helvetia Ant Funding Award | 2019 | R36,000 |
| Business and Arts South Africa | 2019 | R50,000 |
| Dept of Sports, Arts and Culture, South Africa | 2020 | R75,000 |
| Total | R776,000 |
Why fund us?
Apart from us just being damn cool, you mean? 😉 We get good press, and have good public outreach through conferences and exhibitions, and on our digital platforms. Here are some of the ways in which we provide value to funders:
- We are a channel for funding to reach workers in the informal economy
- We offer income to self-employed artisans in a region with low levels of formal employment
- We democratise access to technology and education, sharing knowledge of mechanics, electronics and computing
- We are an arts project, catalysing and supporting the creation of new forms of wire art
- We engage in design, from wire-art products, to interactive electronic kits for artists and other users
- We put an African face on technology, combining vernacular practices with new tools and processes
- We are a social enterprise, building a creative business to support livelihoods
- We are a social and cultural project, building connections between communities, artists and audiences
- We bridge popular culture and fine art, connect handcraft with digital processes, and mix art with science
- We are well-placed to support STEAM education initiatives, putting the Art in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
- We do research and write papers, on subjects such as Futures Studies, Southern Theory, and Ethnomathematics
- We work with waste materials, and are interesting in exploring the reuse of e-waste
- We depict local birds, animals and insects, and these subjects can be used to promote environmental awareness
- We are increasingly exploring remote experiences on digital platforms, and devising safer ways of working
If any of this appeals to you or your organisation, please get in touch!