about
Carly Whitaker is an independent curator, researcher and artist currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She completed her practice-based PhD at the University of Reading (UK) in 2024, titled “Networked Curatorial Practice: Reorientating and Creating Spaces for Digital Artists in South Africa” which explored several digital art curatorial projects. Passionate about fostering opportunities for creatives, curators, artists, and digital practitioners, Whitaker specialises in the digital medium, particularly emphasising the global south/majority world.
Whitaker has a background in lecturing, curriculum development, design, publishing and editing. In addition, she has experience initiating and working in substantial institutions that are innovative in their curatorial approach and focus on practice-based research. Her position as Artistic and Curatorial Director at TMRW reflects this and curatorial projects such as Floating Reverie, an online digital residency running for over six years, and Blue Ocean, an online digital project space initiated in 2022. Whitaker additionally work for Umuzi as Head of Research where she heads up operational research, monitoring and evaluation, and finds innovative ways to measure the impact that the TechEd organisation has.
Whitaker seamlessly integrates research and curatorial mechanisms into her work, leveraging qualitative and quantitative data to offer creative and critical solutions. Her multifaceted experience in lecturing, industry roles, and research positions contributes to her extensive knowledge of design research practices. Committed to creating spaces for digital artists and those working with technology, she is particularly interested in the online medium’s potential for artistic research and its role in shaping artistic practices.
