David Krut Books X UJ Cumulus25
David Krut books was recently quite pleasantly surprised with an invitation to participate as a vendor in 2025 Cumulus conference, held at the University of Johannesburg this past week.
Cumulus is a global network of 395 art and design schools in 71 countries, promoting international collaboration and sharing in education, research, and practice. Its mission is to support designers and artists in building sustainable and humane futures. The Cumulus Conference is a bi-annual event hosted by the University of Johannesburg alongside the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. This conference aims to facilitate conversation between creatives across continents, addressing pressing issues within the field of design and working towards the future of the profession.
Cumulus25 embraced set out to explore how design fits into and has evolved throughout the Fourth Industrial Revolution (stylised as 4IR) and the emerging Fifth Industrial Revolution (or 5IR). Designers, researchers and educators were invited to reflect critically on the role of design in light of technological advancements changing how the world works, lives and learns. They were asked to ponder the role of Design Intelligence, in particular, in shaping human-centred, ethically driven, and collaborative futures. According to their site:
While 4IR is driven by automation and data, 5IR prioritises the integration of human values with technology. This conference provides a platform to interrogate how design can lead in building more humane, personalised, and sustainable systems where people and machines work in harmony. (cumulussouthafrica.2025.uj.ac.za. 2025).
On one of Joburg’s ongoing cold and endlessly rainy mornings, our Media manager Marque van der Walt arrived at UJ’s art and culture centre with boxes in tow to begin the set up of our table. He was followed shortly by myself and Innocentia Mthunzi, our bookstore manager and accounts administrator. The three of us settled in for what promised to be a long, but interesting day.
Over the course of the day, various designers and researchers wandered past our stall, often stopping to look at the books we had on offer. Many were taken by Lindsay Bremner’s Writing the City into Being, which resulted in us selling out all the copies that we had taken along (never fear though, we still have some in store, for any curious). This was a wonderful opportunity though, for us to meet creatives from around the world, with many of our customers coming from China, Korea, Brazil and America.
We were not the only exhibitors at this event, however. We were joined in participating by the wonderful UJ Press, who had a fascinating selection of academic texts available, and by Cloths to Good, a local, Johannesburg-based textile recycling programme aimed ad empowering those with disabilities and taking care of the environment by reusing and recycling what they term “textile waste”. And next to us was a stall run by UJ’s Faculty of Art and Design’s Honours Industrial Design students, who were selling a variety of products designed and made by themselves, including a gorgeous lamp, Iron chopsticks, a truly unique ceramic clock and an adorable modern coffee mug.
During the sessions, we also had an opportunity to take a look at the 2025 Ndebele Mining Ceramics exhibition on show at the UJ Art Gallery. The show features a variety of stunning ceramics, from bowels and cups to gorgeous and delicate flowers, as well as unusual by no less captivating sculptures.