By Tobias Schlosser
In the imagination of the “Global North”, Africa is
often pictured as an “underdeveloped” continent marked by poverty and conflict.
The exhibition “Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention” in Dortmund, Germany,
challenges this stereotypical image, however, and presents the continent as one
full of resources, especially with regards to art and science, and their interconnectedness.
Representing 22 countries, the show - now in its final weeks - comprises 20 Afrofuturistic artistic perspectives and 12 technological projects from Africa. The public may see these as technological productions to be contrasted or compared with devices from “Western” societies.
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The poster for "Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention",
Design: KoeperHerfurth.
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One innovation from Cameroon, for example, is called the “CardioPad”
and has medical sensors attached to a tablet. Non-experts can use “Cardiopad”
to carry out medical examinations which will be analysed by doctors from a distance.
This invention can be handy in rural areas as it saves time, travel and expense, and balances out infrastructural inequalities that limit access to medical facilities.
This invention can be handy in rural areas as it saves time, travel and expense, and balances out infrastructural inequalities that limit access to medical facilities.
Secondly, the South African company “Robohand”, founded
by machine artist Ivan Oven and carpenter Richard van As, creates designs and
software that can be used to manufacture medical prostheses via 3-D-printers. In
this way, people who need prostheses of fingers, hands, arms or even legs now have
an Open Source to get their prostheses at incredibly low cost, no matter where they
live.
In addition, the exhibition shows that Kiira Motors
Corporation has developed a solar-energy bus that has the capacity to run for the
whole day without being recharged, thanks to its lithium-ion batteries. With
that sustainable invention, Uganda’s cities could become less polluted and
noisy. These are only three of the striking technological concepts on display.
The artistic perspectives of “Afro-Tech” are based meanwhile
on the concept of Afrofuturism in which a future is imagined where
inequalities no longer exist. However, due to new forms of technology and
digitalisation, the future visions also detect possible dangers, and function
as a warning for certain issues such as ecological disasters or new forms of
exclusion and marginalisation.
The artistic media range from photographs, (short)
films, documentaries and a video cycle that celebrates the works of jazz
musician Sun Ra, to a music station where visitors can explore the sounds of
the iconic techno music duo Drexciya - who tell the myth of a black Atlantis. The
music playlist contains music from “canonical” Afrofuturistic artists such as American
singers Erykah Badu and Janelle Monáe as well as Jamaican dub musician and
producer Lee “Scratch” Perry.
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An installation at the "Afro-Tech" exhibition.
Photo: Woidich Hannes.
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Some of the documentaries screened at “Afro-Tech” are challenging
and quite avant-gardist, such as the almost 20-minute-long video “Deep down
Tidal” (2017) by Guyanese-Danish artist and activist Tabita Rezaire. The video
puts forward the argument that in a postcolonial world where there is no space
left to be conquered, electronic space is created that everyone depends on, so
it can be colonised.
The view is that the Internet does not create
equality, but gives room for racism, homophobia and transphobia with its
“architecture of violence”. This examination is underscored by the fact that
the fibre-optic cables which are under the Atlantic Ocean serve to
facilitate the exchange of Eurocentric knowledge within the “Global North” and
they are exactly the same routes used during the slave trade.
Thus, the ocean or water reminds one of every historical
deed because it bore witness to earlier crimes and now it sees how neo-colonial
routes are being established. This circular approach to time indeed rules many Afrofuturistic
oeuvres (the form of exclusion may vary, but the politics of exclusion remains),
and it works against cultural amnesia.
“Water is a
communication interface. Water will download your secrets.” – Statement from the
documentary “Deep Down Tidal” (2017) by Tabita Rezaire
These mechanisms of marginalisation are also the
reason why some of the artistic positions seem quite apocalyptic. The photo-series
“The Prophecy” by Belgian-Beninese photographer Fabrice Monteiro shows spirits
of the Earth who demonstrate the consequences of pollution in a disturbingly dystopian
way. Here, an animistic world-view is used as a warning.
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Wangechi Mutu's The End of eating Everything, 2013.
Copyright Wangechi Mutu. Courtesy of the artist.
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The same applies to the short film “The End of eating Everything” (2013), created by Kenyan visual artist Wangechi Mutu in
cooperation with US-American R’n’B singer Santigold. The film
portrays the Earth as both a ship and a monster which is run only by
consumption, greed and a total loss of control. It is eating up everything that is still living and poisons the atmosphere with its exhaust
fumes before its destruction and rebirth.
Besides these alarming visions, the exhibition
highlights rebellion and resistance. Based on the Rastafari philosophy, the
Italian artist and activist Jaromil (Denis Roio) designed an operating system called
“Rastasoft” which can be downloaded for free and which is not controlled by
commercial interests of the conventional operating systems. People are thus not
forced to spend money in order to have a system which allows them to publish
online.
Having the real innovations on one side and the
dystopian visions of a final destruction of the planet on the other, the
exhibition “Afro-Tech” leaves no doubt that there is a thin line between use
and misuse, between emancipation and discrimination, and between chances and
the politics of exclusion.
Emphasising the interconnectedness between futuristic
and artistic visions and the inventions coming from Africa, the exhibition
further illustrates that the future has already started. In that sense, "Afro-Tech" presents not only a future of re-invention - as the title of the
exhibition indicates - it promotes a re-imagination of Africa as a continent
full of technological and artistic resources.
“Afro-Tech and
the Future of Re-Invention” runs until April 22, 2018, and can be seen at “Dortmunder
U”, a centre for art and creativity. It is organized by the German multi-award-
winning art club HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein), in cooperation with the
regional association “Regionalverband Ruhr” (RVR) and the association Africa
Positive e.V.
For more
information:
Tobias Schlosser is a writer, researcher and expert drink-maker, based in
Germany. He thanks Steven Rattey for his enthusiasm and expert knowledge
about science-fiction and futuristic art. Without it, this article wouldn’t
have been possible.
