Technology and creativity converged at the 24-hour drawing marathon, “Drawing Across Borders,” hosted by UKZN’s Digital Arts Department in the School of Arts.

The event was held in collaboration with the Royal Academy (Antwerp, Belgium), the University of Kentucky (Lexington, USA), and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Poland).

Attendees participated in an international art event that brought together artists from South Africa, Poland, the USA, and Belgium on a shared digital drawing platform, co-creating a single, evolving artwork in real time.

The entire process was projected online as it unfolded, allowing the audience to witness the artwork in progress. 

Despite being in different time zones, the artists collaborated simultaneously on a virtual canvas of 24 frames. Dr Michelle Stewart, UKZN Digital Arts course co-ordinator explained how the process worked: ‘The artists could move between frames and could draw interactively therefore any student from any of the four countries involved could draw on the same frame,’ she said.

Stewart further explained: ‘The students worked from a series of prompts that guided what to draw and how to interact.’

These prompts were on an App developed by the University of Kentucky which also enabled them to communicate with each other. Every hour the 24 frames were wiped clean, and the drawings could start again. The drawings were saved at 10-minute intervals.’

Our partner institutions also projected the evolving canvas in large format in their various venues with the Royal Academy (Antwerp, Belgium) projecting it on the façade of their buildings. façade. A live YouTube stream of each country was also projected so that the audience could follow the progress in real time.

The images from the event will be compiled into a book and saved as a video in animation format.

Complementing the live collaboration, the event also featured an exhibition showcasing a curated selection of digital artworks from past and present digital art students which was projected onto the screen in the Colin Webb Hall on the Pietermaritzburg campus.

The UKZN Drama Department also hosted a performance during the event created by Dr Tamantha Hammerschlag and Ms Nomcebisi Moyikwa.

The live art piece entitled: “I Did it for You” featured Ms Nomcebisi Moyikwa accompanied by Ms Zovandra von Rahden and Ms Mpilonhle Nkwanyane.

UKZN is proud to have established partnerships with these institutions and have been making inroads for further areas of collaboration.

Stewart was thrilled with how the event went saying ‘this was a very successful international collaboration that we plan to build on in the future.’