San culture and education centre
!Khwa ttu is a San culture and education centre 70km north of Cape Town, South Africa. Based on an 850-hectare piece of land, !Khwa ttu is a non-profit company directed jointly by the San and the Swiss-based Ubuntu Foundation and has been providing practical residential training and jobs for young San from all over southern Africa since 1999. The museum holds a collection of artefacts and historical photos, as well as San-led trails and guided experiences to provide visitors with a holistic experience that engages the body and mind. The centre demonstrates the skills and knowledge of the San from across southern Africa while simultaneously telling the archaeological story of the origins of the modern mind on the southern African coastline.
We contributed to two areas within the centre
The visitor centre and its exhibitions are the newest addition to the centre, completed in 2019. Digital Fabric contributed to two areas within the centre. The first was to design a near-360-degree multi-projector system for an oval shaped introductory film space. At the time, content was already being shot in the Kalahari on a multi-camera rig, requiring a powerful video server solution to deliver the ultra-wide video canvas, along with a multi-channel soundtrack.
Of importance was the need to automate the system to the point where centre staff could literally start and stop the system with a single key switch, requiring no additional daily expertise. Because the system used laser-phosphor based projectors a system of presence detectors was employed to save lifespan of the seven projectors during slow visitor days.
Swiss-based sound scenographers
The second task involved working with Swiss-based sound scenographers Idee und Klang to create a soundscape for the exhibition area. Idee und Klang spent time with the curator in the Kalahari Desert recording a 22.1 channel soundscape whilst Digital Fabric designed and implemented the audio hardware that was capable of playing out the complex soundscape. We count ourselves as fortunate to have collaborated with such a strong team to deliver what is a meaningful experience for such a wide range of participants.
