Glass Angels at Fak'ugesi 2026

A visitor in the mosaic headset, controllers in hand, beside the mirrored screen and the Fak'ugesi banner.

Fak'ugesi 2026 was a good one. Out on the exhibition floor of the festival (the African Digital Innovation Festival, at Tshimologong in Braamfontein), people were walking around the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda with a mosaic owl strapped to their face. ;)

(I also gave a talk there on 15 October. That's written up separately.)

Glass Angels is a VR piece for Meta Quest, set in the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda. Helen Martins spent more than thirty years covering that house in cement, mirrors and crushed glass. Koos Malgas made the sculptures with her from 1964, but for decades the house was credited to her alone. In the piece, you walk through the house at night with a lantern and light 59 candles, one at a time.

It matters right now. The Owl House had 11,255 visitors in 2022/23 and 9,139 in 2024/25, and the Foundation that runs it gets no state funding for running costs.

Here's how we made it:

At the stand, the Quest lived inside a cement shell covered in green and bronze glass, shaped like an owl's face. The headset's cameras look out through the eyes. Next to it sat an owl sculpture with light-up eyes on a mosaic plinth, and the painted poster on an easel. Pretty hard to walk past.

Close-up of the mosaic headset shell, green glass rings around the camera openings like an owl's eyes. The poster and the owl sculpture sit out of focus behind it.

Inside, you find Helen's letters by candlelight.

A visitor reads one of Helen Martins' letters inside the piece: "I am prey of deep depression which I cannot shake off… darkness is gathering around me."

The painted Glass Angels poster: Helen and Koos with green glass eyes among the Camel Yard sculptures. In front, the owl sculpture's eyes glow red.

And the whole thing packs into one hard case. Headset, controllers, charger, cables. Done. So if you run a festival, museum or school, it travels. :)

The mosaic headset and two controllers packed into a foam-lined hard case, with a charger and cables beside it.

Mad props to the team. Jason Mollink wrote and directed it, and Lebo Leitch produced. Hylton Rodel did the 3D art, and Dustin van Wyk did the music and sound. Julia Malgas, Koos's granddaughter, opens the piece, and Wendy Mollink voices Helen. I'm the worldbuilder. It's funded by the Gauteng Film Commission, with WeAReVR, Worldbuild.io and XR Native.

It's a free prototype for now. We're looking for funding, partners, places to show it, and heritage organisations to work with: glassangels.worldbuild.io.

Thanks

Big thanks to the Fak'ugesi team and Tshimologong, and to everyone who put the owl on their head.

Want to make something with other creators? Join WeAReVR. Want to work with me? Get in touch.