OTYNET [online tethering y network]

We are committed to seeing the development of artists & we are committed to seeing artists valued in a society that is currently undergoing an excruciating economic devastation - one in which artists responding to in various ways -which change the world in small direct ways.

The solution is dialogue; in a country like South Africa that doesnt mean just pick up a phone and call,its more intricate than that - despite having to negotiate social networks as part of being an artist - one must also navigate the expensive and unstable networks of our service providers. 

OtyNet is a portable platform of people - who respond to creatives needs by securing them safe dialogical space - everything from data to host an IG chat to developing 1000sqms of space into waste sorting centres - yes - trash waste - but also wasted opportunities that come from poor dialogical infrastructures. 

Our biggest problem we want to solve is Internet Poverty - building internet and getting everyone on it - but as a business model we have had to zoom in and respond practically on the ground - We are however inherently working at dismantling the digital divide crisis in South Africa specifically.

This has involved going to spaces of conflict/fear/waste and transform them into spaces for dialogue about difficult topics ranging from gender based violence to xenophobia. We create spaces for dialogue - and based on the digital shifts we are working to create digital spaces for dialogue more specifically.

We are also addressing a political issue on the other hand - the dismantling of our past must start with the dismantling of architectures of apartheid - We advocate this dismantling through the action of creating new space - with dialogue being the by product. 

For us its also all about waste - not only being involved with organisations like the African Reclaimers Organisation and helping them access space for their own entreprenurial visions to be realised - but also to collaborate with artists, young people, cultural institutions and small businesses in scalably realising an economy worthy of its people.

It is a network of artists creating spaces for social disruption and healing.

It creates conversation, art, videos, collaborations, healthy spaces, economic development, access to resources .

It responds architectures to those architectures of our past that maintain an economic hold on development of entrepreneurs in South Africa, especially the artistic ones.

It changes space - it transforms waste - it virtualises space and realises place.

Minimal viable product is an instagram post that is a portal for an online covnersation - visual work and its places it occupies - to a fully scalable single day event in which we occupy real space in response to digital spaces - to create educational moments, collaborative moments & serious social pivots.

ONLINE ARTISTS

Our first target is artists & art worlders - seeing artists thrive makes us happy - and seeing artists work being seen makes us even happier. We work to get artists where they need to be by creating both digital and real world moments for them to showcase their art.

TETHER TECHNOLOGY

Our SECOND target are Property owners & developers - our value proposition asking them to provide a spatial waste management service by maintaing spaces through event & art event.

ASK Y

Our FINAL target is the Youth - specifically in urban areas and urban periphery township sites - schools that need to reestblish connection to not only students but also their education content. Collaborating with students in skills sharing workshops IS WHERE we find ourselves questioning what it is we are doing, how to do it, how we can do it better together.

As creatives ourselves we are tired of seeing artists struggle to for representation because of limits by networks. We are growing our own network as a result. But also we are most sad to see the future falling out of the hands of the youth with limited access to resources that the internet can provide - so we use the mechanisms of space to see to the facilitation of this transformation.

The solution is innovative because it is an architectural solution adapted and designed for the occupation of digital space, we see architects abroad shifting practice into the design of platforms so it encourages us to keep doing the work in a country which think architecture is still predominatly housing - YES we have a housing crisis but the fact that we still roll out the RDP model designed by the Apartheid government to this day - demonstrates a huge problem - architectural practice choses to not engage with - because to some extent it cannot . 

We have pivoted how architecture works for people, by making it not only 1:1 or community drop in style workshops - we partner with our communities and as an effect we becomes a network of creatives designing the future which is somewhat unclear and unseen through the first primal making of space for people - the tool of dialogue - and IS SOUND ARCHITECTURES - finds ways to liberate sound ! and through sound liberated we can unpack the sound design principles for real world spaces like Churhc Square for example.

The core technology is the internet - and we often carry the internet around  with us - making sure we are not only real world connected but able to really create digital space and presence. 

We keep learning and finding out about different ways in which to bring the internet to people - and sharing to absolute power of the tools at hand - so that as mentioned above - we hope RDP houses can be redesigned within the community because of ease of communication with authorities or pure independence - because a website on how to build sustainable earth houses empowers a person to develop their own business model.

Most South Africans have phones - but where they travel with those phones - and what information they meet - and how to extract that from digital into the real world is really our foundational technological core.

The technology of dialogue platform, works. When we are able to engage with topics together we are able to unite against the issues we face in South Africa. A platform is the step up for the person we provide it for - we are still just a stable surface - we also want to be an Elon Musk rocket type of platform that launches artists and communities at space travel speeds to the next future. It looks different to what it sounds - so I attach the link of a write up from our last event in 2019.

https://bubblegumclub.co.za/art-and-culture/in-dialog-gender-digital-spatial-remedies-for-cultural-futures/

Dialogue is the first disruptive design - if we have no voice we have no change - and we are advocates of the SOUND that needs to happen in the country - spaces are everywhere - and with a history of spatial injustice - we have proven that any space can be a dialogue space - if it is created to be such. 

Our theory of change is that the internet has the potential to change the world - and if we look at how it has thus far we cannot argue with that.

We see the issues of poverty and then look to the issues of internet poverty and see direct correlations. We believe that by addressing internet poverty we can begin to undo all the other issues at hand because we have enabled every citizen who wants to take action to do so - withouth being held back.

We believe change is so possible! And rapid change too. 

Right now our short term goal is to really establish the online space - aka website - to have the digital headquarters and thus keep developing our growing network of creative, entreprenuers and social game changers.

To keep rolling out space responses - digital and real - and continue to form partnerships across the world. 

Long term our goal is to be in every school in South Africa actively engaging with the redesign of the educational syllabus - including the diversity of this country onto the space of the internet.

We are in a crisis, not only COVID, a social crisis, a racist crisis, a xenophobic crisis, a climate crisis - and for us - instead of trying to patch up the holes - we dive in and alter the chemical makeup of the fluid constitutes the 'leak' .

The solution currently serves a flucuating network for 5 - 500 people. Our reach on topics through events had shown that we do well virtually but events have proven that it doesnt translate into real world.

We have adpated and partnered with businesses who work better in the spaces we dont do so well in. 

Website Space within the next year is key for us. But we are still trying to do so as collaboratively as possible, so the shotrest term goal is really to set our network down on paper and formalise the partnerships.

Then make our online address.

Then find our way into all wasted spaces and begin the processes of rapid change through education until we are all over South African Schools, in Africa and then the world.

We want to become established and known as the solution makers - with no limit too large - and as a result not only think about terraforming outer space - but also our spaces right here on the planet with all its incredible people.

The suffering must end and this is our vision - a world where there is none because all waste has found its waste potential through the power of Format.

The greatest barrier is finance - we are currently a startup - and very funding dependent - we  take on specific projects which aling with our values - yet they are often in competition with the time we need to be doing the ground work. 

Covid is obviously a big barrier - because of how it affects our use of space and the economy of spaces - and not having the greatest digital infrastructure means that we are now really pushing through thick mud to get out. we havent stopped pushing - free wifi for everyone would really change the context of space and digital space entirely. 

We are working towards it. 

Applying to places like this for help, creating open calls, expanding our network and designing our own technologies. 

Maintaing the stream of dialogue needed to maintain justice for all in South Africa. 

Full Time, 1 - Myself the director - always at it. Currently involved in partnering with similiar value proposition directors.

Part-time, 2 -4 Our partners in crime who always come together to make the vision realised.

Contractors, 8 - 21 , Our make it happen on the ground team, of artists and facilitators, institutional representatives and propoerty developers whom we partner with spatially. 

We have an already established network and its growing. We are diverse in our represntation and multi-disciplanary in our arts and skills.

My own background in architecture, the arts, business, the international urban space allows for the contanst engagement with how space can work better for people.

My partners are all situated within postions of mother to public governance advocates - we really have a well disrubuted and connected team of thinkers, makers, game changers , world makers among our team that in turn leads to other people related to our partners - so the domino affect of our disruptive desing practice is underway - we are toppling the corruption by not letting it hinder the change needed - and pushing harder against every obstacle because we have eyes on it from every single side.

Basile Art, this is our most recent partnership which is helping us realise the new gallery format in response to crisis.

Future Azania; we work with them to facilitate educational spaces for artists.

Impact Hub JHB; we are mentored by IHJ to maintain business development internally.

African Reclaimers Organisation; we are their spatial agents and collaborate with their team to find spaces for safe work.

Goethe Institute JHB; we developed OTYNET here and provide Goethe with waste management expertise and are their connection to new waste thinking.

Makers Valley Collective; these are one of our big space partners - we hosted our first INDIALOG event here - and help develop their space both virtually and real worldly on a regular basis.

Childline; we develop visual and technological languages and syllabii for their young girls healthy programs.