Bubblegum Club

Bubblegum Club Bubblegum Club is a cultural intelligence agency.

Our magazine is a compendium of images, news and opinion which presents our perspective on the people and production defining South African youth culture. Its vision is to present an alternative narrative on South African art and society, by showcasing cutting edge creators and their work. The magazine is not based solely on popularity or visibility, but aims to give exposure to individuals and gr

oups who embody passion and innovation. As well as being a showcase, the magazine is a platform for ideas and commentary which frame and advance cultural trends.

Le Treize Est Magique was a spectacular creative response to the dominant narratives around football, bringing energy, p...
06/08/2025

Le Treize Est Magique was a spectacular creative response to the dominant narratives around football, bringing energy, passion, community and expression to a space that is frequently ignored or not afforded the same energy and cult that men’s football does.

-Written by: Sophie Florence Mullins-Poole ()

Full story on:
bubblegum’s website I 📸: Image

An update from Glitching the Future 🛰️Get a full overview of the project so far — the ideas, the people behind them, and...
04/08/2025

An update from Glitching the Future 🛰️

Get a full overview of the project so far — the ideas, the people behind them, and how creativity is challenging the digital status quo.Read the article and explore the full project

-Written by:Nabeela Karim ()

Full story on:
bubblegum’s website I 📸: Image courtesy of Glitching the Future

“This initiative positions glitches as a rare source of spectacular repair, challenging the boundaries between control, ...
01/08/2025

“This initiative positions glitches as a rare source of spectacular repair, challenging the boundaries between control, error and creativity. This first iteration rejects techno-universalism, positioning African cultural production as a catalyst for liberatory tech futures.”

The Glitch continues💥
Carry on interacting with our website and contributing to the glitch!

https://www.glitchingthefuture.org


interprets amapiano not just as sound but as political language. Her framing of the genre as a living archive of protes...
25/07/2025

interprets amapiano not just as sound but as political language. Her framing of the genre as a living archive of protest, style, and Black expression speaks to glitch as cultural code—decentralised, resistant, and rooted in collective memory.

Check out her essay via our website: https://www.glitchingthefuture.org/contributions/bana-ba-strata


writes about the youth of South Africa and the bana ba straata alligations which she states all reveal “how layered som...
23/07/2025

writes about the youth of South Africa and the bana ba straata alligations which she states all reveal “how layered something as clichéd as partying is in South Africa. Socioculturally and politically, South Africa’s nightlife, outside-outside in the streets, is textured with histories of struggle.”

👉🏾 Read her essay Bana ba Straata: looking at Focalistic as a milieu for SA youth being outside-outside via our website https://www.glitchingthefuture.org/contributions/bana-ba-strata


Thulile Gamedze offers a conceptual and affective reading of digital life, comparing doomscrolling and TikTok loops to a...
15/07/2025

Thulile Gamedze offers a conceptual and affective reading of digital life, comparing doomscrolling and TikTok loops to altered states. Her writing is particularly relevant for thinking through glitch as an embodied and psycho-social experience in online spaces.📲

👉🏾Check out her essay On Doom Scrolling and Tripping Balls https://www.glitchingthefuture.org/contributions/on-doom-scrolling 🤳🏾


14/07/2025
Khanya Mashabela was selected to be one of our contributors because of her deep knowledge of South Africa’s digital and ...
08/07/2025

Khanya Mashabela was selected to be one of our contributors because of her deep knowledge of South Africa’s digital and video art history. Her piece provides essential contextual grounding, tracing how artists have long been glitching form, medium, and archive in the local digital art scene.

👉🏾 Check out Khanya’s essay on Physical Reponses to a Virtual World on our website: https://www.glitchingthefuture.org/contributions/a-brief-history-of-video

.lethabo , grounded in youth journalism and podcasting, maps the everyday innovation of Johannesburg’s creative communit...
01/07/2025

.lethabo , grounded in youth journalism and podcasting, maps the everyday innovation of Johannesburg’s creative communities. Their piece captures as tactical repurposing—how digital tools are bent to local needs through informal, improvised creativity.

Visit our website to read “Tech- The Backbone of Creativity in Johannesburg”
👉🏾https://www.glitchingthefuture.org/contributions/the-backbone-of-creativity

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87 De KoRoute Street
Braamfontein
2017

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Our Vision

Based in South Africa, but with a growing international reach, we are inspired by work that is experimental without being restricted to exclusive spaces. And which is populist without pandering to the overhyped vacuity of the dominant celebrity culture.

Our name itself is a homage to the rich legacy of 80s’s Bubblegum Music, which combined cutting edge technology with local and international influences to make electronic music that was both wildly successful and playfully avant garde. Our aim is to update this legacy of popular modernism for a new reality of network culture and hyperstimulation, exposing and championing the treasures that may be lost in the pursuit of the next social media fix.

The post-colonial contradiction of South Africa is that despite deep wells of talent, creators feel a lack of self-confidence about their place in the world. A legacy of isolation has encouraged the distorted sense that culture is something taking place ‘overseas’, in the imagined metropole. Despite the global influence of South African music, dance, art and fashion a self-limiting mentality is still evident. Our goal is to help build the self-belief of the talented minds out there in music, art and fashion, and to consolidate South Africa as a voice in global conversations.