The digital divide: What does it mean to you?

Already exhibiting around the world and working with leading global brands, in 2017, he added author to his extensive repertoire by releasing a book of some of his work called ‘Man Like Mountain: Of Memory and Scar’. The graphic expressions portray life from the perspective of young, black millennials—a theme often present in his work.

“There's like a little bit of a voyage of self-discovery. Sometimes I'm offloading through my work, reflecting at times myself, my environment, people around me, moments and things.”

A naturally curious individual, Liso's eyes light up as our conversation turns toward the extra-terrestrial. He talks excitedly about a documentary he watched where they explored the probability that there are similar planets to earth in other galaxies that are terraforming in different ways, inhabiting different and alien lifeforms. It's clear this notion doesn't scare him but invigorates him.

Interested in the world and its mechanics, he enjoyed biology and physics at school but wasn't so good at maths. He says he's making up for it now through his work by “uncovering the world around us, the world unseen and the world inside of us.”

Currently reading Leonardo Da Vinci, which was gifted to him, he draws similarities in his work. Da Vinci, he observes, “picked apart nature for form, and it would influence so much of his work.” He also mentions Salvador Dali, Joan Miro and the impressionists, who were studying light and breaking down form in new and radical ways.

“It's what I'm trying to do. When we break everything down, for instance, this room, we see it's man-made and angular. But, once we get out, we see that natural things are almost formless.”

Listen to our chat with Liso about the universe.

Liso clarifies he doesn't use art simply as escapism but instead describes it as a reality check. For him, it's more a way of working through his own emotions. “To be honest, to this very day, I think art can be quite a challenging practice. You are kind of naked and expressing yourself and letting everybody know what's happening in your mind, your colours, and whatever.”

Fortunately, the responses he gets are usually good, and he puts that down to the fact that “through my work, I am telling the story of us.” He doesn't want to be exclusive on that but feels that African and black voices in media and popular culture haven't been represented as well.

“There's like these stock understandings of the black experience. There's hardship or big celebrity, and I feel it's missing these very human, intimate experiences, and that's what I try to get through in my work.”

Liso explains that only around 1% of people travel to museums and galleries in South Africa, which is one reason why he got into digital art. “It's a democratic way to share. Having art online means everybody can engage with it, and you don't necessarily have to know about the gallery or the museum housing it.”

The challenge is getting everybody connected in an environment where many still struggle to gain access to housing, water and sanitation.

“These, you would think, are basic things that are catered for, but sometimes they are just not. There are real problems with corruption, and it's undermining the social project to make South Africa what it should be.”

In addition, there is a concern about the growing educational divide. Social inequality will only worsen if people aren't given the digital skills needed to attend a school or enter the workplace.

Liso sees connectivity and smartphones as tools that can help minimise this gap and create a more equal society. Explaining that not many Africans have access to computers, he describes smartphones as a ‘quick computer’ that makes the transition to learning a computer a lot easier and that helps boost inclusion.

“A lot of the apps cater for the daily things that we need in life logistically and administratively, and it creates a space where people can run small businesses. So, this does help with some of the financial inclusion problems.”

He goes on to talk about how smartphones have brought people in Africa closer together and how they've raised awareness of what people deserve in terms of equality, exposing the different standards of living across the world.

Yet, in Africa, devices are the least affordable on the planet, at 62.8% of the average monthly income.

Through a new report by the Broadband Commission Working Group, we want to give more people access to smartphones and raise awareness of the challenges around connecting people, working with governments and partners to come up with more solutions and ways of tackling the problem.

Keen to be involved in the project, Liso is one of four artists we've asked to create a piece of work that celebrates the transformative power of technology and highlights the growing digital divide and current digital injustice.

“It's just another way to break down or look at complex issues, and I think that art is a nice way of making the journey of connecting these dots a little bit of a nicer experience.”

Telling us about the painting he's creating, he explains how it began as a pencil sketch before becoming an acrylic watercolour painting to which he will add digital finishes. Liso finds digital tools are great if you want things to look hyper-realistic. For example, animating small parts of the artwork makes it more interactive and modern, he says. “I want it to eventually come alive and show that in the new digital era that you can literally make your paintings come alive.”

The painting is a complex and fun composition, showing a boy comprised of many different shapes, scenes, planets, nature and man-made objects. It features vibrant and attractive colours, including Vodafone's signature red.

Seeking to explore the wonders of the world through the eyes of a child connected in the modern era, it also addresses issues of the digital divide. It shows how a lack of access to digital resources can create a vacuum, depleting the efforts of developing nations.

While Liso recognises that governments and businesses need to work together to close that divide, he also believes Africans need to start empowering themselves by using what they have at their disposal.

“Africa doesn't see its potentiality. For instance, in the technology sciences, we feel like maybe that's not our strongest point. We are more cultural people, but even in rural schools, you get many brilliant students that are really good at the technical industries.”

“Next up on the agenda for Africa, let's start seeing ourselves as the new technologists.”

Liso is keen to do his bit to help drive that change. For example, he is creating a step-by-step masterclass for this project to show others how to create their own digital art.