For the workshop the participants documented their process in a physical sketchbook and then created some kind of digital sketchbook of digital drawings and collage, coming together in a selection posted to a Tumblr blog for the duration of the workshop.

The first warm-up and way of sharing where I come from was to sketch from a live online webcam feed of a view of Table Mountain, Cape Town. I then presented my work in a slideshow.

The focus of the workshop was on moving between the physical and digital drawing/painting spaces and between the places of Bologna and Cape Town.

On Day 1 we did a painting session from a playlist of online video clips selected by the participants.



Then after lunch (which included digital drawings on mobile devises of what they had for lunch) I arranged a Skype meeting with Lumai De Smidt (a young creative and foodie from Cape Town who sells her food at a popular fresh produce market in Cape Town) and they were asked to draw/paint her portrait.



The final exercises of the day involved exploring self-portraiture moving between random collage selection from magazines and digital collages from Google Image searches.

On Day 2 we continued with the portraiture but worked with digital drawing from life as the group rotated in pairs and drew each other in a series of short sketches on mobile devises.



We then moved the focus from external perceptions and the processing of the immediate environment in relation to online visual media to a space of internal reflection and translating touch and sound. Working blindfolded the group rotated and drew over each other’s drawings.


In the afternoon session they worked blindfolded and finger-painted from listening to a sound track I had selected of South Africa music and then from their own recordings.




The last exercises involved imagining a character or portrait of a relative from the past and into the future again working with collage from old photographs that I found at a market in Bologna and from online Google image searches.