Designing for the future of Afrika: an insight into cultural-based solutions
“Europeans ‘polluted’ the spelling by switching the ‘K’ to a ‘C’ during the attempted colonization of the African continent…..Reverting to the ‘K’ spelling empowered people of African descent and created the foundation for a common identity between them”
Haki R. Madhubuti
Last year, I made a failed attempt to change my PhD research topic after 3 years of study, as you can imagine this got a lot of backlash and doubt. I ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ needed the change as my passion and interests had evolved over the years (I guess that’s the downside of undertaking a long duration study). There was nothing particularly wrong with my topic, asides the fact that it wasn’t novel or current anymore as a lot of research had been done and published in that field. I had lost faith in the topic and felt it didn't represent who I was as a researcher and individual. This change was difficult to explain to my supervisors and colleagues and at the end of the day, it was a NO to the topic change…..
Now I am at crossroads, do I finish up the research I had started and receive a degree that will mean nothing to me or the work I intend to do? Do I start a new program afresh? Or do I forgo the PhD altogether and focus on doing independent research instead(especially since I am moving away from academics)? So much uncertainty and decisions to make! any decisions to make!
I will love to share the ideas and insights I had while researching this new topic (at least my efforts won’t have been for nought) hence this post, as for the others I guess we shall have to wait and see!
The essence of the Afrikan aesthetic is it’s representation as a construct of Afrikan people on the continent and people of Afrikan descent in the diaspora that articulates Afrikan culture, identity, and spirituality. It is how Afrikans define the concept of beauty and the standards of perceiving, appreciating, appraising, or applying aesthetic values or knowledge of things Afrikan. The Afrikan aesthetic is Afrocentric, and it reveals the cultural bond between Afrikans in the continent and abroad (Shahadah, 2012; Shava, 2015).
The Afrikan aesthetic embraces a rich variety of creative forms and styles peculiar to us (people of Afrikan origin) that incorporate a combination of practical, physical, material, temporal, and spiritual aspects. It includes Afrikan artistic expressions — visual and performative images, verbal arts (poetry, proverbs, oratory performance), rhythm, music (song and dance), dress, hairstyles, cosmetics, designs (Afrikan architecture and decorative patterns), and crafts in and from Afrika.
Afrikan Design had struggled to define itself as modern with the overarching Western influence from the colonial and post-colonial era. Typically depicted as traditional crafts, commercial or primitive wares, never showing protean or neoteric qualities (Ceesay, Green, Mathias, Omolo, & Umeofia, n.d.).
However, new narratives for the definition of Afrikan contemporary art and design have emerged. Within Nigeria, creatives like Laolu Senbanjo, Deola Sagoe, Bunmi Adeyemi, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Alafuro Sikoki-Coleman, Tunde Owolabi , Tunde Kelani, Kunle Afolayan, Oluwatobi Oreoluwa, Adebayo Adegbembo, Uche Anisuiba, and Yinka Shonibare amongst many many others have sought to shape and redefine their fields of art, architecture, design, fashion, animation, games and film through the innovative and engaging works they produce.
Afrikan renaissance movements such as Neo-Afrikan, Afropolism, Afrominima and Afrofuturism have sought to disrupt and challenge established notions of identity by exploring creative qualities of traditional visual forms and experimenting with modern and digital techniques and media (Akpang, 2013; Johanet & Fesson, 2016). These philosophies use cultural appropriation as the quintessence for the preservation, sustenance and promotion of cultural values and identity. As the Adinkara symbol Sankofa says “return and get it” or “go back for it”, which interprets as “there is wisdom in learning from the past” (Appiah & Nartey, 2016), it is important to know, examine and appreciate our past in order to reimagine and redefine our identity and future as Afrikans.
One of the instruments for Afrikan renaissance is visual communication (Kanu, 2013), and it’s greatest challenge is the creation of original and authentic content that the people can relate to and identify with (Ansu-Kyeremeh, 2005; Ebigbagha, 2016; Oladumiye, 2018).
Kreamer et al., (2007) observed that designs and artworks incorporating inscriptions or ideographs gain greater visual and communicative strength. The creative synthesis of contemporary ideographs is considered to be a special form of expressive symbolism, indicating cultural identity, making social commentary with decorative motifs and creates a transnational and multicultural bridge between societies(Akpang, 2013; Debeli et al., 2013).
Scholars believe that rich Afrikan verbal communication ways like sayings, metaphors, proverbs, tongue twisters, puns, songs, folk stories, cultural events, ritual practises, form a distinctive way of entertaining as well as educating the young about the world, combining both myth and reality and drawing on the wisdom of the elders (Ansu-Kyeremeh, 2005; Finnegan, 2012; Wefwafwa, 2014).
With the prevalence of globalisation, there is a lack of understanding of the original context, language, and interpretation of proverbs, expressions and myths by the new generation of Afrikan children within the continent and in diaspora (Marsden, Reitmaier, Bidwell, & Blake, 2000; Osho, 2011; Reitmaier, Bidwell, & Marsden, 2011).
However, a huge opportunity lies in the integration of interactive digital technology, contemporary design and indigenous practices to enable the exploration of the relationship between visual forms, symbols and meaning to locate their culturally inspired oeuvres (Akpang, 2013; Marsden et al., 2000). Interactive storytelling and experiential design can add a multidimensional layer to narratives that the current audience can connect to and engage with (Trotter, 2017). This adds substance and meaning to projects that might encompass anything from identity creation to environmental design, enriching them in ways that cannot easily be reduced to questions of creative challenges and solutions (“Experiential art: the rise of culture and life in design | Studio Ongarato,” 2019; Marsden et al., 2000).
Through this innovative pathway, ideas can be developed to store, curate, reinvent and express intangible cultural aspects in unique forms and media that is multicultural, inclusive, interactive and relatable(Marsden et al., 2000; Reitmaier et al., 2011).
This study seeks to bring into focus the ideographic elements of Afrikan indigenous textiles, as a guide for developing creative visual cultural ideas and concepts for Yoruba proverbs, and explore interactive and digital methods that the context and meaning can be expressed. Using the design thinking methodology to interactive storytelling by experimenting with the creation of ideographs from selected Yoruba proverbs, in order to develop tactile interactive textile.
The questions I seek to answer are
- In what ways can the context of Yoruba proverbs be experienced?
- How can selected Yoruba proverbs be visually represented?
- What techniques and digital tools should be used to create interactive textiles that embody these proverbs?
- Is there any value to the creation of interactive textiles with traditional proverbial ideographs?
To be continued……..
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