The 5th Digital Lab Africa awards will celebrate top African digital arts innovators at the Fakugesi Digital Arts Festival on 18 October at 6pm GMT (Paris/Johannesburg), 5pm WAT (Lagos), 7pm EAT (Kampala, Nairobi).

Digital Lab Africa, which is in its 5th year, is an incubation hub for emerging Digital Arts innovators in animation, video games, extended reality (AR, VR) on the continent. Emerging digital arts talents are offered a foundation to fast track their project development and are supported by the DLA creative industries ecosystems in the countries of Africa, France and the world.

Digital Lab Africa is aimed at celebrating the digital arts innovators who have been selected as part of this year's incubation programme. The winners were chosen from more than 140 applications from 30 African countries. The winners were selected based on their artistic, technical and financial criteria in the following five key categories: music, immersive realities, video games, animation and digital art.

The French Embassy in Nigeria is our special supporting partner for this Digital Lab Africa 2021 event highlighting their support for Nigerian digital creatives.

Eduardo Cachucho, DLA Programme Manager Says, The Digital Lab Africa (DLA) remains one of the most exciting opportunities for digital creatives in the countries of Africa. Now in its fifth year, the DLA has an alumni group of 48 recipients of incubation, showcasing the best minds and projects in digital from across the continent. This year's seven projects from five countries range from an AR museum showcasing Africa's rich cultural heritage to a video game of an intrepid businesswoman from Lagos delivering food – there's something for a curious mind in each project. We are also looking forward to sharing more about our DLA 2022 opportunities which will launch in February 2022.

The DLA Awards event on the 18th of October will bring to the forefront inspirational and insightful stories from diverse emerging African digital artists. Our guest speakers are Senegalese curator and cultural Advisor Delphine Buysse and Nigeria's Hugo Obi, founder of gaming studio Maliyo Games will share their insights on the state of digital creativity on the continent.

The event will be streamed live on YouTube (Digital Lab Africa) and Facebook (Digital Lab Africa, Faka ugesi, Tshimologong Precinct, French Embassy in Nigeria)

Digital Lab Africa Honours Africa's Top Digital Arts Innovators
Digital Lab Africa is an initiative of the French Institute and the French Embassy in South Africa and is supported by the Agence Franaise de Developement (AFD), the French Embassy in South Africa, THE French Embassy in Nigeria, SACEM, TV5Monde as well as a network of incredible partners. The programme is managed by the South African innovation hub Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct since 2016. It has supported 48 digital artists since its inception.

Below are brief info and links this year's DLA winners:

Please find more information about each project here.

Animation

Ssagala Ndugwa from Uganda “ Founder of Sheepish, an animated adult series following the adventures of two small-time hustlers as they try to make it big in a town determined to keep them small

Brian Wilson from Nigeria has developed a series called Aminah's journey. It is about a young Hausa girl who tried to make her way to safety after a violent attack on her village by Boko Haram terrorists

XR

Godisamang Khunou from South Africa developed an immersive piece called Black Women and Sex. It is about the tension between black women, and the politics of sex

Arome Ibrahim from Nigeria is the creator of Virtual Africa, a virtual arts museum on mixed media and immersive technology, showcasing Africa's rich history in arts.

Video Games

Karen Andriamamonjy from Madagascar created Kalanoro, a third-person platform adventure game that also explores Malagasy folklore

Ifeanyichukwu Obi from Nigeria created Mama Julie, an infinite Isometric 3rd runner game cantered around Mama Julie who runs through the streets of Lagos to deliver food to her customers

Ismael Daouda Nouhoun from Togo is the brain behind action-packed video game, I can Transform. It is a video game available on Android and Web. The game contains and advertising, platforms that promotes products, services and music.

SOURCE:https://brandspurng.com/2021/10/14/101681/