Travel & Writing Portfolio

This collection is a sampling of my various autobiographical musings and ponderings about the world around me.

Thoughts While Watching; Trevor and Oprah

Before diving into the interview between Trevor Noah and Oprah Winfrey, I feel it’s pertinent to mention a book I just finished… I recently read Hank Green’s first novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, and thoroughly enjoyed the literary journey. The book uses a quirky contemporary sci-fi setting and plot – in this case, a 21st [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/thoughts-while-watching-trevor-and-oprah/

Book Dash Cape Town

Before embarking on our TEFL journeys to China and Thailand last year, one of our last video projects in Joburg was making a promotional video for Book Dash. For those who don’t know, Book Dash is an organisation that strives to create amazing free children’s books in multiple languages, with their central aim being that [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/book-dash-cape-town/

Strangers in a strange land

Being in this new city has prompted many recent reflections on cultural relativism… It’s been two months since Jamie and I arrived in Hangzhou and we’re definitely finding our feet in this city. We’re adjusting well to our new jobs as English teachers and we’re becoming familiar with our new neighbourhood. We can comfortably use [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/strangers-in-a-strange-land/

My Life In Film, So Far… Art vs Science

Like many other conversations about creativity, this one begins with a short discussion on the brain. I’m sure many people are quite aware of the concept of brain lateralization. They might loosely understand it as this idea that the brain is distinctly divided into two halves that control different functions of the body. Furthermore, I [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/my-life-in-film-so-far-art-vs-science/

My First and Last Mansion Party (… unfortunately)

In the last two years I have had the most fortunate opportunity of getting to know some of South Africa’s most prominent animators, coders, musicians and all round geniuses in the local video-game design scene. These amazing new friends – including the likes of the people behind Cool Your Jets, Team Lazerbeam and Free Lives [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/my-first-and-last-mansion-party-unfortunately/

Riebeeck Valley – Looking for Nowhere

In the last week of July, Jamie and I got wind from our good friend Chris Parsons about a local art festival happening in the small farming towns of Riebeeck West and Riebeeck Kasteel that very weekend, and he suggested we try come up and explore the town’s galleries with him. We’re always interested in [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/riebeeck-valley-looking-for-nowhere/

Re-Shaping the Expected Future

Over the last two weeks, we have been filming and editing short videos that document the workshops and summits run by UK based research team, The FITLab. Their work revolves around looking at the complex technological devices that aim to change our lives such as the things in our homes, cars, mobile phones or medical [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/re-shaping-the-expected-future/

Ode to #100DaysOfTees

A few months ago, friend and co-Cape Town-creative, Ben Rausch set out to achieve his goal of wearing 40 different shirts for the upcoming 40 days. Each new day would herald a new Instagram post sporting Ben in a fantastic new shirt and before anyone knew it, fans were born. Many of us scoured our [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/100daysoftees/

Visiting the Residents of the Plett Lagoon

Having lived in Cape Town for most of my life, I’ve travelled up the province’s west coast many times, to towns like Langebaan, Paternoster, Elands Bay and Strandfontein – my journeys up the west coast have even taken me as far as Namibe, Angola – but recently Jamie and I spent a week in the [...] http://jdbacreatives.com/visiting-the-residents-of-the-plett-lagoon/