AI as Co-Creator

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution accelerates, creative practitioners are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technologies. These lightning talk session brings together researchers, designers, and innovators exploring how creative technologies are transforming collaboration, production, and education across sectors. From AI-driven platforms and data politics to automation, design ethics, and digital music streaming, speakers will reflect on how these tools are reshaping creative practice and cultural value. Collectively, their insights highlight the opportunities and tensions of working alongside technology, and envision how Africa’s creative industries can harness these new imaginaries. 

Lightning Talks (10 min each)

Convenor: Masilakhe Njomane — Junior Research Fellow, South African Cultural Observatory

1. Sethu Nzimande —CEO, CoLab, South Africa 

AI-Enabled Collaboration Platforms: Managing The Creative Economy Through CoLab             

2. Canda Kincses — Creative Industries Development Consultant, South Africa 

Leveraging Technology To Create A Future We Want - An Examination Of Post Labour Economics And Its Implications For The Cultural And Creative Industries.

3. Nontokozo Mokoena — PhD Candidate, Applied Data Science, University of Johannesburg, South Africa 

AI Automation In Digital Music Streaming Platforms

4. William Fourie —  Senior Lecturer, Rhodes University, South Africa 

Accommodating Aesthesis: AI, Dataset Politics, And The Reshaping Of Human Creativity

5. Amanda Espag —  Team Leader: Brand and Creative, Working on Fire – Kishugu Joint Venture, South Africa

Not Built to Scale: The Designer in a Political Economy of Extraction and Automation

6. Sheldon Rocha Leal — Academic Registrar, Academy of Sound Engineering, South Africa 

Preparing Creatives & Creative Education for the 4IR

Q&A