JCAF Knowledge Talks

Kamil Adam Hassim speaks about his practice at the intersection of art, frontier science and Indigenous knowledge systems. Drawing on the process behind his work ‘Event Horizon’ (2026), he discusses how scientific, cultural and Indigenous epistemological frameworks shape both his worldview and artistic practice. Kamil also shares insights into L-Infinity, his Southern Africa-based research framework for experimental inquiry. 

Mentioned in this episode: 
European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) 
Southern Africa Large Telescope (SALT)  
The Bleek and Lloyd Archive 
Greek origin of the word technology 
Alan Moore on the relationship between magic and literature  
'Cosmotechnics' (Yuk Hui, 2021)
Worldviews and connection between universe and self for the /Xam  
‘The Three-Body Problem’ (Liu Cixin, 2006) 
Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
‘Event Horizon’ exhibited at JCAF (2026)  
Faraday cage  
Carlo Rovelli on entropy 
Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity   
Polynesian Wayfinding 
L-Infinity project To find out more about Kamil’s work, follow him on Instagram @kosmothestarkid 

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠jcaf.org.za⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠foundation_jcaf

Neo Muyanga speaks about how his work as a composer and his research on African idiomatic songs has informed his interest in opera and its various manifestations in South Africa. He shares the process of working as composer and librettist on the recently premiered The Bacchae: An African Choral Ballet, and how designing soundscapes for exhibitions and films has allowed him to connect the visual and sonic realms in new and unexpected ways.

Mentioned in this episode: 
Madrigal tradition in Italy 
Musique concrète 
Sidney Poitier 
‘The Bacchae: An African Choral Ballet’ (Joburg Theatre, 2026) 
Sparagmos 
Nietzche and the abyss 
‘Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse’ (Homi Bhabha, 1984) 
Miriam Makeba  
Abdullah Ibrahim 
‘When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration on Painting’ exhibition (Zeitz Mocaa Museum, 2022) 
‘Milisuthando’ (Milisuthando Bongela, 2023) 

To find out more about Neo’s work, visit the Centre for the Less Good Idea’s website. 

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠jcaf.org.za⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠foundation_jcaf

Paula Gaetano Adi speaks about her robotics practice, which blends Western technologies with traditional South American crafts, vernacular cultures, folklore, collective work and DIY making. In doing so, she questions the morality behind contemporary technological innovations, and expands on what robots can say about human relations and power. Gaetano also shares insights about her work Guanaquerx (2024), the first robot to cross the Andes Mountains. Designed after the guanaco, a camelid native to South America, the project radically imagines a robot liberation from utilitarian, extractive and militarised technological paradigms.

Mentioned in this episode:
‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ (Donna Haraway, 2016)
Mestizo Robotics
Guanaquerx (Gaetano Adi, 2024)
Cosmotechnics (Yuk Hui, 2021)
The Crossing of the Andes (1817)
Three Laws of Robotics explained by Isaac Asimov (1965)
‘Technology & Ethos’ (Amiri Baraka, 1970)

To find out more about Paula’s work, visit her website.  

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠jcaf.org.za⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠foundation_jcaf

Ayanda Mnyandu speaks about how his skate tours in inner-city Joburg challenge negative perceptions of the city, his engagement with street culture, and he reflects on recent collaborations with architects. Mnyandu also shares insights from his time working at Skateistan, a global NGO that uses skateboarding as a tool for youth development.

Mentioned in this episode:
City Skate Tours
Chris Joslin Skateboarding 360 flip
Structures exhibition at JCAF
Matri-Archi(tecture)
IN-FORM-ALL Collaboration between Matri-Archi(tecture) and Ayanda Mnyandu
Skateistan NGO
Skating for girls in Afghanistan
‘People as Infrastructure’ by AbdouMaliq Simone
‘The Sound of Skateboarding – Tony Hawk’

To find out more about Ayanda’s work, visit the City Skate Tours website or follow him on Instagram.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcastwas commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan FreedomPrinciple, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠jcaf.org.za⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠foundation_jcaf

Igshaan Adams speaks about how domestic spaces, everyday movement through Cape Town's segregated landscape, and personal introspection have informed his artistic practice. He reflects on the impact sufism had both in his life and in his work. Igshaan shares how tapestries can hold experiences, and how weaving has become a way to reconcile different parts of himself. Adams also discusses the importance of collaboration, particularly with family members and people from his community. 

Mentioned in this episode:
Philani, a NPO working in Khayelitsha
Sufism
In Between (Igshaan Adams, 2011)
‘When Dust Settles’ exhibition (2018)
Desire lines
The Practice of Everyday Life (Michel de Certeau, 1984)
Bismillah performance (Igshaan Adams, 2014)
Paul Gilroy’s concept of ‘a planetary humanism’

To find out more about Igshaan’s work, visit blank projects’ website or follow him on Instagram.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF. ‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠⁠⁠jcaf.org.za

⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠foundation_jcaf

Stella Mutegi speaks about her experience co-founding Cave_bureau, a Nairobi-based bureau of architects and researchers. She discusses how researching the caves in and around Nairobi has contributed to better understanding of the tensions and connections between rural and urban contexts, as well as the pre- and post-colonial conditions of the city. Mutegi also shares insights into indigenous knowledges in Kenya and expands on Cave_bureau’s interest in improving life in African cities, while taking into account the social and environmental implications of architecture and urbanism.

Mentioned in this episode:
The Great Rift Valley in Kenya
The Anthropocene Museum
Mount Suswa in Kenya
Cow Corridor (2021)
Shimoni Caves of the Enslaved
Cave_Bureau’s exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (2023)
British Pavilion at the Architecture Venice Biennale co-curated byCave_Bureau (2025)

To find out more about Stella’s work, visitCave_bureau’s website or follow them on Instagram.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠⁠jcaf.org.za⁠⁠
Instagram: ⁠⁠foundation_jcaf

Traci Kwaai speaks about her experience working in and with the community of Kalk Bay (Cape Town), as well as the politics of land and sea in the area. Kwaai discusses her 'Walk of Remembrance', and highlights innovative ways in which storytelling can preserve heritage through the use of new technologies and artistic co-creation. She also shares insights into her work at The Fisher Child Projekt, the NGO she founded that offers children and youth the possibility to connect with the ocean through snorkelling, diving and marine education.

Mentioned in this episode:
Forced removals in the 1960s/1970s in Kalk Bay under the Group Areas Act (1967)
The Fisher Child Projekt NGO
‘The Sea is in our Blood’ exhibition at Olympia Bakery (Kalk Bay, 2025)
The Fisher Child AR/VR co-creation with Lo-Def Film Factory and Urchin Studios
Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era (Michael N. Pearson,1998)
Fishing quotas in Kalk Bay

To find out more about Traci’s work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: ⁠jcaf.org.za⁠
Instagram: ⁠foundation_jcaf

Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho from MADEYOULOOK discuss their interest in everyday black practices in South Africa, and reflect on their understanding of what it means to have a relationship with nature. They speak about sixteen years of working collaboratively and highlight several of their projects. Molemo and Nare also share insights into the process behind their multimedia installation Dinokana, which was commissioned for the South African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2024 and can now be experienced in South Africa for the first time as part of the Structures exhibition.

Mentioned in this episode:
Njabulo Ndebele’s writings on the ordinary
Ejaradini (MADEYOULOOK, 2018–present)
Michel Foucault’s work on the ‘unsaid’ in The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
Santu Mofokeng
Corner Loving (MADEYOULOOK, 2014–present)
Non-Monuments Programme (MADEYOULOOK, 2012–present)
Bang-Bang Club
1913 Land Act in South Africa
1912 Irrigation and Conservation of Waters Act in South Africa
Mafolofolo (MADEYOULOOK, 2022) exhibited at documenta fifteen
Plant Provocations: Botanical Indigeneity and (De)colonial Imaginations (Mvuselelo Ngcoya and Narendran Kumarakulasingam, 2016)
Dinokana (MADEYOULOOK, 2024)
Structures exhibition at JCAF

To know more about MADEYOULOOK’s work, visit their website or follow them on Instagram.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: jcaf.org.za
Instagram: foundation_jcaf

Pelonomi Moiloa discusses the importance of expanding online access to African languages for building a better future across the continent. She explains how a socially grounded, Africa-centric perspective shapes the work at Lelapa.AI, the research and product lab she co-founded and leads. Pelonomi also introduces The Ungovernable, an initiative focused on community building through collective learning projects rooted in the concept of self-determination.

To know more about Pelonomi Moiloa’s work visit the websites of Lelapa.AI and The Ungovernable.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.

Website URL: https://jcaf.org.za

Ilze and Heinrich Wolff speak about the concept of an ‘architectural practice of consequence’, a concern that ties into their ethical stance on advocating for spatial justice and research-based design projects. They expand on the concept of conviviality, as it applies to spatial practice and knowledge creation. Ilze and Heinrich also provide insight into the process of creating JCAF’s Reading Room, and what it means for them to practise as architects in the context of South Africa.

Mentioned in this episode:
Rahul Mehrotra
Cheré Botha School project in Cape Town
Le Corbusier
Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal – DAAR
Paulo Tavares and Gabriela de Mattos
Paul Gilroy’s concept of ‘planetary humanism’
‘Strange Fruit’ performed by Billie Holliday (1959) and Nina Simone (1965)
The Group Areas Act (1950)
The Native Land Act (1913)
Sol Plaatjie – ‘Native Life in South Africa’ (1916)
Sol Plaatjie – ‘Mhudi’ (1930)
Bessie Head
Steinkopf Community Centre
Amartya Sen – ‘Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation’ (2003)
Manuel (Manolo) Callahan’s concept of ‘renewing our habits of assembly’
Manuel (Manolo) Callahan and Fred Mutton – joint lecture
JCAF Reading Room designed by Wolff architects
Bag Factory
Polly Street Art Centre

To know more about Ilze and Heinrich Wolff’s work visit their website or follow them on Instagram.

Music for the JCAF Knowledge Talks podcast was commissioned by JCAF.
‘INGWENYA’, performed by the Afrikan Freedom Principle, led by Mandla Mlangeni, © MM Publishing.

Website URL: https://jcaf.org.za
Instagram: instagram.com/foundation_jcaf/