Host country for AfriCHI 2018
Artist: Nambowa Malua
Art:
Music: Namibia: Skanky & Yoba
The composition of Namibia in the installation @AfriCHI 2018:
Installation
This is a new set up for us. It does not matter how much do you plan before hand, when you are in a new context there will be always unexpected situations, for example: how shall we hang the printing of our exposition?
The location is wonderful, however we should give some thought for this, as you can see on the next photo:
Creative solution: tape and rope.
Hmmmm… it is not enough as the tape does not stick properly on the fabric of the printout. Then staple it and sew it…. and so far so good!
We hang the printout with through some poles that Heike got for us. The new challenge was that the location assigned for our installation had the ceiling lower than the rest of the room. However with the rope we solve that problem and we were able to set up the art!
About the technology
If you are looking a wizard to make technology work in any type of condition, then you should call for Mikko, he is a wizard in order to make things work. He started to test, and prepare the technology before the conference organizers inform us that we were allow to set up our installation. This include to make some “handicraft” for the sensors. We needed to find a solution on how to protect the sensors when interacting with the installation. 
Set up started at once we have the printout in place:
Next was to install the technology. In this case we have a challenge that it was only one socket for MANY devices (no photograph). In this socket where several computers and printer from the conferenne reception, phones, and others. Of course our installation as well. Hence, at moments, electricity was not enough.
To calibrate the light sensors was no trivial. In this particular location were different light intensities. However after some effort debugging blindly, Mikko managed that all this work perfectly!
At the end the installation worked! (ok sometimes some relays get stuck but easy to solve).
We can happily say: the installation has been robust to take it from one continent to another. This is an outstanding outcome from the well thought design from Christian who conceptualize such a good travelling case!
Next posts we will give you a glimpse of the composition of the installation!
Also, we want to Thank Hilma, who help us during the step and get us all the last minute material needed such as tape, rope and printing the last minute papers!
Travelling to Namibia
The trip started on Friday 31.11. to Namibia. It is a long trip from Turku, Finland to Windhoek, Namibia. To be more precise to the Safari hotel where the conference is taking place.
We did not drive. We took a bus from Turku to Helsinki, then flew from Helsinki to Doha, and Doha to Windhoek. Once in Windhoek we are moving with a car.
We were travelling two persons, and Reisenbear. We had some luggage at the begining because we are bringing technology, lights in addition to two laptos and the brain of the installation. Ah! and some food for the journey!
After some hours we reached Namibia:
Once in our accomodation it was time to see the truth, did the technology made it?
Result!
The technology made it! EXCEPT one speaker.
So next step is to move once more, to the conference venue and to install everything, We will keep you posted!
Bringing all the art together!
Even that we knew about the installation when we submitted our proposal, the theme of the installation has been evolved as time pass by.
Heike, Antony and Carolina worked the theme of the display, which was fixed to: unique CULTURES in one connected WORLD which we think is the most suitable title for the time we are living.
Then we invite artists of the four selected countries of our installation (Namibia, Mexico, Thailand and Finalnd) with a very short notice. We are very honor and thankful they accepted (as you have notice in the previous posts)
Next step: How to bring the art together in the set up?
We have a skype talk between as we are all located in different parts of the world, it was decided to locate all the art together on the same fabric instead of four individual frames. However we did not count that even that we explain to the artists the measures, due to the short notice, it was not possible to have all the art with the same dimensions.
However, for that we can involve a new talent: graphic design. This expretise will allow us to organize visually the art together paying attention on dimenssions and colors.
Thank you to Georgina Schweikert from SIE Expressions who took this challenge and support us on this.
Let me share you the wondeful result:
Welcome Jirawat Phirasant from Thailand!
Thank you Antony Harfield for inviting Jirawat Phirasant to be part of our installation. We have received the visuals and music from Thailand. It is beutiful! Soon we will share all this material here.
Step by step our installation is increasing meaning as we welcome different talents!
Welcome Marcos Gama from México!
On Friday we had the opportunity to talk with Marco Gama via Skype, after we exchanged messages between us days earlier
(Side note: digital technology is amazing supporting people to work together even if they are separated by thousand of kilometers in between! In this week the communciation for this project has been between these team members: Marcos in Mexico, Heike in Denmark, Ant in Japan, Chris in Germany, Mikko & I in Finland.)
We are happy to let you know that Mr. Gama accepted to join us in this installation. Furthermore, he will be producing a work for this project. THANK YOU!
Meanwhile let us share you something of his work: https://marcosgama.artelista.com/en/
Welcome Finland!
In search of our artist in Finland, we were were presented to the art teacher Hanna Lehtilä. Through her, we met two young talented artists who accepted to join us in this adventure! Now they are working in order to present their art together. THANK YOU!
We will tell you more about artist’s names soon!
Another outcome of our meeting is, we are thinking to bring the installation to Finland as well. So this is turning to be very interesting! 🙂
Welcome Nambowa Malua from Nambia!
We receive the wonderful news from Heike, that Mr. Nambowa Malua has accepted our invitation to be part of this adventure!
He is the first artists to confirm his participation. He represents Nambia in this installation and he will be creating a visual art for this project. THANK YOU!
You can find some of his work following this link: https://www.behance.net/NambowaMalua
The Journey Begins
This website is to share our “Interactive Installation” at AfriCHI conference. When we submit our proposal to the reviewers the title of our document is: Triggering interest in outdoor gallery exhibitions through touch, sound and games.
However, as we decided to invite local artists and we are building the installation with them, we needed a theme for this particular installation. In this case, the theme of our installation is:
Unique cultures in one connected world.
To reach this point we have reached the following milestones:
- get to know each other (if we do not meet, we wouldn’t be doing this)
- join visions (we needed to agree on what we wanted to do)
- write and submit our proporal to AfriCHI
- After the proposal was accepted, improve it according to the reviewers feedback
- Sort out many admin tasks
- Agree on practical details for our installation (some skype calls and whatsapp chats as Heike, Antony and Carolina live in different continents)
- Today 12.11. open this website
So one step at the time. Currently we are looking forward to join efforts with local artists.
We will let you know here once we have the artists onboard!
Unique Cultures in One Connected World 