99 problems but Cape Town ain’t one

WORDS Claire Jowell

The groundbreaking Fixperts initiative will be taking action in Woodstock this Saturday 25 May 2013. This is just one of the 100 highlights that comprise the Mother City’s first 100in1day Festival.

Cape Town citizens unite! It’s time to fix up your city. On Saturday 25 May the Mother City’s first 100in1day festival will promote local citizen-driven social change through 100 crowd-sourced community improvement projects.

For VISI, the highlight will certainly be the first South African manifestation of the Fixperts, a global social network that was launched at Design Indaba Conference this year (read more here). Founded in the UK by Daniel Charny and James Carrigan, www.fixperts.org is based on connecting people who have the capabilities and training to solve a problem (the Fixperts) with those who have problems to solve (the Fixpartners). The aim is to provide a workable solution within no more than three weeks. The projects are documented with a video that is uploaded to the site, so that the ideas can be transferred (watch some of the videos here to get an idea of how easy peasy and yet profound the Fixperts concept is or watch Daniel talking to Marcus Fairs from Dezeen below).

The South African manifestation of Fixperts will be led by designer Marc Nicolson from Thingking. Marc met Daniel when he wandered through Thingking’s stand at the Design Indaba Expo this year. The ludicrously inventive Thingking stand (that won the Most Creative Stand award) unsurprisingly caught the eye of the original Fixpert, who explained the premises of his organisation to Marc with the hope he’d take up the idea for South Africa…

And here we are, a couple of months later with the Fixperts project finally being instigated in Cape Town and we don’t think they’ll struggle to find things to fix! At 11am on Saturday 25 May, a team of creatives and handymen (and women) will leave from the Thingking studio at the Woodstock Exchange (view our photo essay here) for a walk around Woodstock. The Fixperts will interact with the local community to identify problems that exist and then later brainstorm a simple and realistic solution.

Fixperts is just one citizen intervention, and there will be 99 more. The Fixperts and 99 other whats? 100in1day is a global social movement born in 2012 in Bogotá, Colombia. Within one short year it has spread through several more cities in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Sweden, Denmark and now has reached the Cape shores. It is a “festival of doing”, where Cape Town residents are urged to gather on Saturday 25 May to realise and address the dreams they may have for their community, culminating in 100 urban initiatives intended to improve the quality of life of a Cape Town resident. It aims to get Cape Town citizens thinking, interacting and overcoming problems that may exist as a gesture or glimmer of resolution. An intervention is suggested as any occurrence that “maximises the potential of a city and its citizens”, and can be anything from sweeping your neighbours’ front porch to setting up a temporary musical workshop on Long Street. As long as the intervention’s intent is positive and beneficial interaction, it can take absolutely any shape or form.

It may be Cape Town residents participating, but it’s the Danes who started the local 100in1day. The absurdly enthusiastic bunch of students hail from the KaosPilot design school based in Århus, Denmark, which sends its final-year students to a location outside of Scandinavia to collaborate with local initiatives and partners. While here they have partnered with several local social initiatives using their skills (and infectious passion) to improve the business structures and processes of these projects, their final project is the development and initiation of the 100in1day project in the Mother City. Not a bad homework assignment!

Saturday will be a busy day in the Cape when design comes face-to-face with practicality for social development. The 100 projects range from the eco-conscious Liesbeek River Cleaning and political Message to My President to the whimsical Choose Happiness and the practical Welcome Bicycle. There will also be street art, vegetable planting and origami. At not quite 100 and less than a week to go, the KaosPilots are utilising all their persuasive powers and zest to round up the remaining interventions.

Visit 100in1day.co.za site for more information about the interventions already signed up or to sign up your own. The Fixperts will be meeting at the Thingking studio in the Woodstock Exchange at 11am on Saturday 25 May.