RE-IMAGINING DISCARDED TECHNOLOGY AS CONTEMPORARY ART
As a contemporary artist, I am naturally drawn to the aesthetic of personal technology: computer keys, mice, motherboards, cellphones, headphones, and gaming gadgets. These objects remind me of DNA, which carries the genetic blueprint of life. Yet, beyond biological DNA, there is also cultural DNA, the memory and coding which is passed down through generations through physical and historical artefacts. But what fascinates me is the emergence of a third DNA, one that is interactive.
Modern coding, with its intricate patterns and algorithms, has become a tool for preserving, accessing, and transforming memory. I see coding as part of an ongoing evolution, an expanding layer in humanity’s collective memory. Just as DNA transmits biological information across generations, coding now serves as the blueprint of the digital age, shaping not only technology but also cultural identity.
These fragments, such as keyboards worn by fingertips, and discarded devices carry traces of personal histories. When I work with them, I feel the invisible fingerprints encoded in them, as if memory itself returns to me. And in this return, something deeper resonates. Many of these materials, these metals and minerals, were mined from African soil. Now they return, transformed, discarded, and reimagined. The journey is circular: from the continent where humanity began, out into the world through extraction and innovation, and back again through technological waste. My contemporary art work captures that cycle—of origin, dispersal, and return—a metaphor for memory, migration, and the persistence of spirit.
This experience pushes me to question the cycle of consumption, and how coding is not just shaping the functionality of our technology, but also redefining our “cultural DNA”. That revelation sparked my own transformation. What began as an adventure in collecting discarded remnants of technology soon became the foundation of my art.
CELEBRATING RESILIENCE AND SURVIVAL
It would be easy to approach these discarded remnants of technology as simply another man-made environmental disaster in the making, but my artistic response is one of transformation, growth and possibility.
Collecting and re-appropriating discarded computer parts, I imagine a world in which e-waste isn’t simply dumped but refurbished and recycled.
Through using found materials, I highlight the resilience of African people, who, in the face of scarcity and degradation have found a myriad of ways to survive and thrive. My work celebrates this ingenuity and persistence of spirit, depicting figures who, in the midst of environmental, social, and political crisis, have created radical new approaches to reinvention and change.
As a contemporary African artist, I see my role as both a witness and a catalyst to reveal difficult truths, propose alternative narratives and ultimately to prompt societal change.
