Bubblegum Club

Author: Christa Dee

  • Corner Store editorial documents the cultural history of Robot2Robot

    Corner Store editorial documents the cultural history of Robot2Robot

    Killarney race course in Cape Town comes to life every Wednesday evening with petrol heads lining up to see if they can show off their remodeled cars and driving skills. With engines revving and adrenaline pumping, two drivers stare each other down while they wait for the signal to push their vehicles to the limit. With the crowd cheering, the wheels of the cars screech as they take off, a cloud of smoke creating a ghostly silhouette. It’s all about who can get to the finish line first, and look cool while doing it.

    Robot2Robot started in 2015 as an initiative to curb illegal street racing in Cape Town and to give those who are interested in the activity, as a driver or spectator, a safe environment for racing. In an effort to keep racers off the streets, the City of Cape Town provided funding for the event. While the investment from the city is crucial, Reagan Paulsen (co-founder of Youth95 streetwear) states that it is important that the people who attend the events and have a love for the street racing scene are the ones who are documenting its cultural history.

    Understanding the connection between Robot2Robot and certain aspects of street culture in Cape Town, Corner Store teamed up with photographer Nick van Tiem for an editorial at Killarney, tapping into the elements that keep people coming every Wednesday. Models are photographed as members of the crowd caught in a moment of intense reflection. The mood of the editorial shifts with images echoing the slow sunset.

  • Multimedia artist Rehema Chachage on rituals of survival and subversion

    Multimedia artist Rehema Chachage on rituals of survival and subversion

    Multimedia artist from Dar es Salaam, Rehema Chachage uses video and sculptural installations as her chosen mediums to communicate her own experiences, and those of other women, casting a light on rituals of survival and subversion.

    After her father passed away she began to interrogate ideas around inheritance in Tanzanian societies, seeing the most valuable inheritance from her father was his intellectual work. Her father, a University of Dar es Salaam sociology professor worked briefly in South Africa and had some struggles which he expressed an extended essay. This resonated with her while she was studying towards her fine art degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT. She felt like a stranger, an outsider while living in Cape Town. Her earlier work channeled these feelings of social alienation, allowing her to critically analyse themes related to identity and (up)rootedness.

    The work she has produced since graduating looks at rituals as valuable tools for reading into social norms and tensions, closely examining those that speak to women’s identities, gender relations and subversion.

    ‘Mshanga’

    A powerful series of works was born out of her time spent in Gorée island in Senegal where she came across a text that explained how pregnant slaves were punished. “They were given 29 lashes but before they were whipped the slave owners would dig a hole for them to rest their pregnant bellies in. So whilst they were delivering their punishment, they were also protecting future slave power. This stood out for me. The 29 lashes is not really a ritual but I see it as an adapted ritual, because it was an everyday reality for these woman,” Chachage explained in an interview with Urban Africans. This, along with the experiences of her mother and grandmother, inspired the idea to explore 29 ways women can use different females rituals rooted in Africa to survive and subvert power in patriarchal societies.

    Mshanga produced in 2012 is an example of this work. Delving into the nuances in gender, generation and poverty, it tells the story of her great grandmother Orupa Mchikirwa. As a woman who had to look after many children and grandchildren, she would often sacrifice her own food, leaving her feeling hungry. To avoid being consumed by her hunger she would tightly wrap a cloth called ‘Mshanga’ around her, squeezing her stomach.

    “…the stomach, for our bodies, is the centre of equilibrium, and normally loosens up when we are hungry. So, in order to retain strength (when hungry), it helps to have it tightly and securely tied. Traditionally, in Tanzania, women tie ‘Mshanga’ (as ritual) around their tummies when they are bereaved. And, historically, in some traditional African societies, the rite of passage from boyhood to manhood, involves a ritual that simulates warfare. Boys enter into the forest through a gate, expected to return through the same gate as men carrying with them ‘the secrets of the forest’ in which one of them is sacrificed. In the meantime, every woman with a son in the forest has to tie a ‘Mshanga’ around their bellies, hoping her son ‘returns’. If their sons return home safe, they will have a celebration with singing and cheering whereby the ‘Mshanga’ is untied. If the forest ‘swallows’ her son, the ‘Mshanga’ continues to prop the mother’s tummy as it helps the forest maintain the silence.”

    This explanation of her work from her website connects the series to her exploration of rituals for survival and subversion used by women. It also highlights the significance of the mshanga being the cloth used by her great grandmother, carrying with it a heaviness as a sign of suffering.

    Chachage’s work PART III: NANKONDO (2017) created in collaboration with her mother, who provides textual responses to her visuals, speaks to her interest in intergenerational conversations, as well as looking at sexuality and gender. “In this work, we explore African spirituality, following a story of my great grandmother, Nankondo, whose mother disappeared a long time ago, and she is believed to have been captured and taken into slavery. The religious fanatics in her village believed that she is to blame for her own capture, her being a woman of ‘low morals’ due to the fact that she used to sell beer to men until late hours,” Chachage explains in her artist statement. The work existed as an installation, a shrine created for Nankondo, made up of a video taken during a prayer session, as well as a projection of a letter written by Chachage’s mother on to a bath filled with water, surrounded by candles. “The work as a whole tries to make sense of the self-loath and spiritual abyss as displayed by modern day religion.”

    Chachage’s choice to explore 29 different rituals performed by women is a subversion of its reference, speaking to the resilience that women embody, making their stories prominent narratives in history (herstory).

    Check out Chachage’s website as well as her Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to keep up with her work.

  • Photographer Juliana Kasumu // the image as a device for educating

    Photographer Juliana Kasumu // the image as a device for educating

    British-Nigerian photographer Juliana Kasumu combines cultural research and imagery to critically engage with concepts related to Africa and its diaspora, Black identity, and her own identity as a British-Nigerian woman of colour. Through her photographs she takes on the role of an educator, presenting cultural histories that she was not taught or did not have access to while growing up.

    The policing of Black women’s hair and sexuality have been strong conceptual foundations for her work, accompanied by personal memories. The series ‘Irun Kiko’ with its visual potency shares with viewers the symbolism within African hairstyles. The title refers to the Nigerian method for hair threading, originating with the Yoruba. This project looks into the ways in which West African women conform or rebel against European beauty standards. It also intends to inform viewers of the history behind these hairstyles, which are often taken out of their cultural context, alienating them from what gives them significance.

    As a continuation from ‘Irun Kiko‘, Kasumu released her series ‘From Moussor to Tignon‘ which shares the value ascribed to various forms of head wraps. At a deeper level she unpacks how they can be intimately connected to personal identity, linking status, class, and culture. Kasumu’s photographs reflect her narration of the origins of this global phenomena, piecing together the bridge between traditional culture and contemporary fashion.

    Check out her website to see how her latest project ‘#hairdiaries‘ unfolds.

  • ‘Embroidery For A Long Song’ // merging the traditional and the modern in a neon-inspired meditation on female energy

    ‘Embroidery For A Long Song’ // merging the traditional and the modern in a neon-inspired meditation on female energy

    ‘I rise, I run. I even try dancing’ – these are the first words one hears after being greeted by the music from ‘Khaleeji’ (the ten piece band of folk singers) in the opening scene of ‘Embroidery For A Long Song‘. This short film is a neon-inspired meditation on female energy, and it creates a bridge between the modern and traditional by examining the histories of the Gulf region through music, fashion and poetry.

    Filmmaker Amirah Tajdin  has always been fascinated by the connection between fashion and film. With designer Faissal El-Malak‘s concept for ‘Embroidery For A Long Song’ she was finally able to explore this. A few months before Faissal asked Amirah to get on board with the film, she had created a fashion film for his Spring/Summer 18 collection. They had been friends for a while, but while working on the fashion film they discovered a new kind of creative synergy. When Faissal was approached by the W Hotels and Mixcloud team a few months later to curate the Dubai edition of their Future Rising event he automatically thought of making a second film with Amirah.

    Faissal was given the broad brief to combine music with ideas about the future and a wonderland. These elements came together in his mind through nostalgic memories of the traditional music shows and concerts he used to watch on tv while growing up in the Gulf. “The sets of these shows were oddly futuristic; they created something very interesting visually where the tradition was respected and preserved within an ultra-modern context. It was sort of a wonderland where technology and an abundance of LED lights created a space to express one’s self fully. This was not a foreign concept to the way we live our daily life in a region that has seen exponential growth and has embraced very quickly modern and futuristic architecture as a norm, but that still hangs on very strongly to tradition, most notably in the way most people still wear traditional garments on a daily basis.”

    With these memories and his desire to further his knowledge about women who play traditional music, Faissal began to ask around about this practice. He was also influenced by the words and pseudonyms used by millennials who revived the tradition of spoken word poetry through platforms such as Flickr and MySpace. These pseudonyms – ‘Eye of the Gazelle’, ‘Daughter of the falcon’ and ‘The one with the khol lined eyes’ – are interpreted visually through the animated illustrations that appear at particular moments in the film. “The expression of traditional music is in itself a collaboration between sung poems, the traditional garments, beats and dances coming together to create a feast for the senses,” Faissal explained. The connection between poetry, fashion and music is intimately displayed in how the film unfolds.

    At the core of Faissal’s approach to fashion is his appreciation and celebration of Middle Eastern textiles and motifs, designing women’s ready-to-wear garments that offer combine the traditional and the modern. There is a parallel display of this in the film. A string of symbolic gestures echo this, such as the ironing and incensing of the main character’s hair and her dancing in the hall on her own. These traditional references are juxtaposed against the futuristic elements of the W Hotel hallways and neon lights. Trippy, distorted sonic encounters are merged with the instruments and chanting by Khaleeji. A poem is used as a device to narrate the film, inviting viewers into the mind of the main character.

    This film is a loud celebration and a quiet reflection all at once. It offers itself as a compilation of memories presented in a way that excites sight and sound.

    View the full film below.

  • Group exhibition ‘shady tactics’ shows how throwing shade at institutions is a productive past time for artists

    Group exhibition ‘shady tactics’ shows how throwing shade at institutions is a productive past time for artists

    The group exhibition shady tactics showing at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town purposefully throws shade at institutions, and presents this as a productive past time for artists. For this show ‘throwing shade’ is a kind of playful, at times flirtatious, interaction with the use these institutions present for the practice of artists. This productive cheekiness highlights the power matrix within which these institutions operate and emphasizes their maintenance of the heavy, pungent presence of coloniality. In an email interview with the show’s curator, Thuli Gamedze, she explained that for her criticality is a “deeply creative impulse.” The show’s title opens up a space for work that “chooses to be explicitly political and critical” and for artists who “resist the stylistic desires of art institutions, who can be guilty of pushing for a certain ‘look and feel’ when artists begin to be ’political’.” The projects for the show share a number of alternatives – “new, incorrect uses for things, along with incomplete and drifting ideas, failures, jokes and strange approaches to logic.”

    When asked about her approach for curating shady tactics, Thulile explained that she wanted to work with artists of colour who are serious about the role of playfulness in their practices. The fact that the people included in the show are not represented by specific galleries brings a kind of open playfulness and unbounded approach for critical expression. “I was really anxious when I was trying to figure out who to ask – I scoured the last few years of catalogues from art schools around the country, gained a stalker-like edge on instagram, and made like a hundred lists, torturing myself trying to make rational sense of what was actually quite an intuitive process.” shady tactics includes work by Sitaara Stodel, Callan Grecia, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Mitchell Messina, Katleho Mosehle and Bonolo Kavula.

    In getting the idea for the show off the ground, Thulile explained that conversation and sociality are important for how she wanted the process to unfold. Having never worked closely with a gallery as a curator before, and only havng educational spaces as reference points, Thulile created a rhythm of regular dialogue with the selected artists and, when possible, shared space with the artists to work through ideas for the show.

    Following her creative impulse, Thulile found connections between the works, ensuring that they speak to one another as well as the title for the show. The text for the show came out of watching the various stages of creation for each work. “The objects were not that important though. I think I was interested in giving space to people as whole creative entities – people whose sensibility, tone and politics I respect as generative, if visually unpredictable and always swinging. I think things weaved themselves together quite nicely visually, but I also think there was a big chance it could’ve ended up looking off as a whole because I hadn’t pinned people down specifically on my expectation of their stylistic approaches. But that’s interesting too.”

    ‘fuck you I tried my best’ by Callan Gracia

    Each artist’s work connects with the exhibition title by engaging in some form of institutional appropriation – “using ‘standardised’ language but messing around with it to change the message.” Callan Gracia’s fuck you I tried my best looks at public walls and the messaging conveyed on them through his depiction of a giant rainbow sprinkled with fear and anxiety-inducing images. In this way he unpicks the rainbow nation rhetoric that is used in post-apartheid South Africa. “Callan’s huge rainbow is complicated and disrupted by his numerous depictions of dystopian destructions of post-1994 middle-class idealism,” Thuli explains.

    In A Brief History of the Institute Mitchell Messina uses a collection of high quality image files which are curated and repeated over a number of scenes, accompanied by sound and text, to tell the stories around the fictional construction of a new art institution. The stories illuminate the money-driven nature of the art world within our neoliberal environment. “Mitch’s detailed storytelling…parallels familiar narratives of big money’s relationships with art in Africa.”

    ‘(NO) SEX IN CT’ by Katleho Mosehle

    Katleho Mosehle’s (NO) SEX IN CT makes a comment on white feminism within the media, embodied by the character of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. This work demonstrates the violence of white femininism. Mosehle’s absurdist recreation of Carrie uses humour and caricature as devices to highlight this. Bonolo Kavula’s Fragile: this way up looks at the ways in which the colonial gaze ‘others’ and reinforces cultural dominance. By using the discursive and visual language of the YouTube DIY tutorial, Bonolo teaches the printing process and simultaneously problematizes the divide between ‘art’ and ‘craft’. “Bonolo’s work, combining a satirical commentary of art versus craft has intense political relevance in SA’s super elitist art world,” Thuli adds.

    In her work Homesick, Sitaara Stodel constructs a section of a living room, with the overall work teasing out definitions of ‘homeness’. She uses still images collated from the internet and secondhand stores that demonstrate idealistic ideas of home to create a collage and video present in the installation. Her play on suspension and stillness creates an uneasy mood, recognizing that this home is not fully formed or able to contain a fixed comfort. “Sitaara’s work acts as quite an intimate reference point for the whole show, where her appropriation of images of other peoples’ homes to make her own narrative speaks to the desire for whatever ‘being at home’ means – an inherently political notion here, but also one she tackles in a deeply personal way.”

    ‘Homesick’ by Sitaara Stodel

    Simnikiwe Buhlungu’s performative installation A Loooooong Ass Message, ya dig? uses an old fax machine to deliver a message that spills over a stack of office boxes. This indirect presence of the artist speaks to questions around lack of access. The interruption of the gallery’s telephone line to deliver faxes of “the content erased and re-erased by art institutions” points to the importance of inserting politicised work that speaks against this erasure.

    The show will be up at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town until the 9th of June.

    ‘A Brief History of the Institute’ by Mitchell Messina
    ‘Fragile: this way up’ by Bonolo Kavula
  • M.I.A comes to South Africa in June

    M.I.A comes to South Africa in June

    Black Major Selects is partnering with the 20th Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival to bring M.I.A to South Africa for the first time this June.

    M.I.A fans will be happy to know that the visit includes the screenings of the critically acclaimed documentary MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. Following its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January, South African audiences will be able to be the first on the continent to engage with the documentary that offers colourful insight into the origins of M.I.A., from her journey as an immigrant teenager in London to becoming a global star. Directed by her former art school friend Steve Loveridge, it includes personal clips shot by M.I.A and her closest friends over the last 22 years. Fans will appreciate this raw, intimate invite into M.I.A’s world.

    In addition to the screenings, M.I.A will have two live shows in Cape Town and Johannesburg on the 7th and 8th of June respectively. She will be teaming up with some of South Africa’s own musical and performance gems. This specially curated selection of South African dancers, artists and DJs radiate the same feeling of fearlessness and presence that Maya Arulpragasm has presented throughout her life. The Cape Town collaborators include Angel-Ho, K-$, and Jakinda. The Johannesburg artists are DJ Doowap, Phatstoki and Dear Ribane. This selection of artists represents various genres and perspectives on performance.

    Tickets and more information for M.I.A.’s live shows are available on the Black Major Selects site.

    Cape Town

    Date: Thursday 7th June 2018

    Venue: Old Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Road, Woodstock

    Johannesburg

    Date: Friday 8th June 2018

    Venue: Newtown Music Factory, 10 Henry Nxumalo Street, Newtown

  • Ilze Wolff on a transdisciplinary architectural practice

    Ilze Wolff on a transdisciplinary architectural practice

    Ilze Wolff is the co-founder of Wolff Architects, a practice she started with her partner Heinrich Wolff. They have a space in the Bo-Kaap where they produce designs for buildings and public spaces. Their space has a gallery that looks on to the street, which they use for hosting programs, discussions and exhibitions related to architecture, space and the city. Over the years their practice has placed increasing emphasis on ways to get the broader public to engage more directly with urgent questions relating to architecture.

    “Architecture is about the embodied experience of situations and of space linked to an imagination.” This statement is from an interview Ilze did with Design Indaba for an article mentioning her nomination for the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. When I asked Ilze to unpack this statement, she humourously pointed out that it was one of the many things she says that she does not always have a clear answer for. However, her explanation reveals her dedication to a nuanced understanding of the interaction between people and space, and the role of architecture in paying homage to this interaction. “I think that I was trying to say is that we all experience space in particular ways and the production of architecture is linked to your experience of a space and the articulation of crafting a new space from your own imagination. It is about the interplay between subjectivity and imagination. Architecture is thus one of those sublime contradictions in that, yes, we design for a public collective experience, yet all our speculations and experiments are seated in a very individualistic and intimate space: the imagination.”

    The intersection between architecture, art and public culture is where Wolff Architects finds the most joy, as well as intellectual and creative stimulation. Taking on the point of view that the boundaries between these three disciplines are “inherently artificial”, Ilze expressed that imagining their work and creative production as transcending these borders has been productive. “Our training as architects brings specific readings and sensibilities to a project, which we cannot take for granted but research and engagement into art practices, socio-cultural debates and popular culture layers our approach beyond the technocratic responses that is the norm in our industry.”

    Documentation and advocacy also plays an important part in how Wolff Architects injects new life and critical questions into the field of architecture. Conscious of the way space, architecture, infrastructure and landscape has been used for separation in South Africa, “We feel it is our obligation to use our discipline (architecture) against itself and produce work that advocates for social cohesion,” Ilze explains, “We document our situation and built environment in order to develop wisdoms on how to intervene sensitively and with new readings. Research and asking difficult and critical questions is important for us to establish a project’s ethical framework. Ethics also in terms of aesthetics and imagination.”

    Ilze is also the co-founder of Open House Architecture, a research platform that embraces transdisciplinary knowledge production. Started in 2006, it began as a way to have thorough overviews of local architects’ portfolios through architectural tours, documentaries and monographs, some of which presented to the public for the first time. After a number of successful events, they realized that their audience was almost exclusively architects and other built environment professionals. With a desire to attract people outside of these spaces, Open House Architecture ventured into live art and public interventions, and in 2016 started a publication and interventionist platform called ‘pumflet: architecture and stuff‘, with artist Kemang Wa Lehulere. “With Wa Lehulere, we have co-produced two editions: Alabama and Gladiolus, both of which attempts to reinsert the destruction of Cape Town’s cinemas and black neighbourhoods, and their contemporary meanings back into the public imagination. We feel that it is important to research marginal architectural histories but it is even more important to cultivate a diverse audience and public culture around lost spaces, art and modern architecture.”

    Wolff Architects’ most recent poroject, under the direction of Ilze, was working in the design for the African Mobilities exhibition titled ‘This is Not a Refugee Camp Exhibition’ taking place at Architekturmuseum TU Munchen in Munich until 18 August. The exhibition engages with migration, mobility and space in Africa. Reflecting on the design process for the show, Ilze expresses that, “We allowed ourselves to engage with serious play where we purposefully tried to distort the very rational German gallery by introducing slight distortions on familiar pure geometries. We included a range of environments for speculation and engagement: in the first room we echoed the artist’s in that room’s notion of mixing up digital futures/histories by including a VR room that is both futuristic and nostalgic in its design; in the second room the library offers a public space for viewers to relax and look out onto a garden and in the last room we created a sound carriage where you could experience the sonic landscape of rail travel offered by the artists on display.”

    Another exciting addition to the notches in Ilze’s belt is the publishing of her book ‘Unstitching Rex Trueform: the story of an African factory‘. The book is about a factory that has haunted Ilze ever since she became aware of the connection between architecture and the politics of space. “I write about the way modern architecture in Cape Town is representative of the ways in which labour, capital and the city worked together to construct race, genders and identities in the mid 1930s and 40s.” Ilze mentioned that at she is currently working on an experimental theatre piece based on the research for the book, which will be presented at The Centre for the Less Good Idea later this year.

     

  • Mother of Invention // a sci-fi short story by Nnendi Okorafor accompanied by gifs by Shyama Golden

    Mother of Invention // a sci-fi short story by Nnendi Okorafor accompanied by gifs by Shyama Golden

    “It was a beautiful sunny day, and yet Anwuli knew the weather was coming for her.”

    This is the opening line from science fiction author Nnendi Okorafor latest short story Mother of Invention. She teamed up with artist Shyama Golden to help animate scenes from the story, creating a series of gifs that highlight the essence of the story.

    The story is about a pregnant woman named Anwuli who gives birth during a pollen storm in Nigeria. She is assisted in the birth by her smart home. Her doctor appears as a hologram version of a missed call and she skips to the part in the message about pollen allergies, and later on her baby is delivered by a drone. The story is powerful in the way it draws parallels between effects of the pollen storm and the moment of childbirth experienced by the main character.

    The illustrations were created entirely on an iPad, and are visually able to draw readers into the story with a colour palette and subtle movements that mimic the calm rocking of a child. Shyama, with the assistance of designer Antonia, inserts Igbo patterns into the home scene, and a specific pattern around the belly of Anwuli, which is a talisman for pregnant women. The story has a poetic characteristic to it, making its futuristic elements easier to process, and humanising the posthuman imaginary.

    The imagery in the gifs defy the dualisms of natural and man-made, nature and machine, present and future.  This can be seen by the way the pollen storm uproots flowers and causes silver orbs to bob around in a grid-like terrain.

  • Guinean-Swiss art director and photographer Namsa Leuba – the visible and invisible universe

    Guinean-Swiss art director and photographer Namsa Leuba – the visible and invisible universe

    Guinean-Swiss art director and photographer Namsa Leuba has a practice that combs through the representation of African identities as they are interpreted within the western imagination, highlighting the mechanisms of this imaginary’s construction and its problematic enforcement as a sign of universality. This reflection as the foundation of her practice comes from her double heritage, noting that she has spent most of her life in Switzerland which had a large influence on how she sees the world.

    Leuba’s imagery taps into the symbols that make up her cultural heritage, from rituals and ceremonies to monuments and outfits. Her work takes on an anthropological nature, but flips the discipline and its connection to imagery on its head by removing objectification, racial probing and the framing of subject matter as occupying anachronistic space from her photographic approach. Her questioning of dualisms (such as the relationship between the sacred and profane, fact and fiction), and her mixing of cultural practices and symbolisms assist in her ability to elegantly, intimately and carefully present people from the continent. However, she is always aware that her work is from her own point of view.

    Her latest series, Weke, disputes the western view on African traditional religions. This series captures the voodoo and animist practices in Benin. Living in Benin for two and a half months, she took on the method of participant observation, taking part in different rituals to get first-hand experience of the people and the world she planned to photograph. This research method created depth in her final images, allowing her to highlight the invisible which makes up so much of this religion and framework for viewing the world. There is a kind of trippy, surrealist element to the way in which these images are presented, drawing the viewer closer, cultivating a sense of curiosity and appreciation.

  • We are data mines

    We are data mines

    Brands, research institutes and related companies are mining our own species for data. The everyday human is consciously and unconsciously being used as an instrument in the branding and information machine, reproducing a “consensual hallucination” in which data may be visualised, heard and felt (Stone 1991: unknown page). Stone uses this term to refer to virtual reality, however it seems easily applicable to our current state of existence.

    The kinds of brands we wear say something about who we are, making our purchases identity signifiers and constructors of specific kinds of bodies. The placement of brands on bodies by wearers becomes a source of information. They become social, cultural and economic indicators.

    Combined with this, our behaviour, interactions, the content we produce, the calls we make and texts we send add to our position as data mines. The body and the mind continue to be framed as independent operators with aspects that can be isolated for closer inspection, in the name of better customer experience or getting to know what the consumer wants, often before we even know what we want.

    Even the devices we use to engage with the virtual are produced by the interfaces and programs designed by brands, curating specific experiences and imagined futures. People often take these devices and applications and construct their own uses for them, sometimes redirecting their intended purpose, but always limited by the parameters set out in code and hardware.

    Companies are using location data, watching where and how we conduct ourselves. Brands no longer need to interact with our physical presence to collect this information. The coded you is all that matters, and this is the data that is increasingly being mined by companies to predict trends and create campaigns. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is a recent moment that highlights the reality of this, affecting 87 million users.

    An image of you already exists through tags, internet searches, information uploaded on apps and GPS locations. Our digital footprints and the traces we leave in virtual space are being woven together by brands, resulting in a frightening, generic yet familiar reflection of ourselves being presented back to us. How is it that adverts that pop up online are able to be connected to the conversation I had with a friend over the phone? Is this coded, simulated version of me that is constructed through my digital footprint infiltrating my consciousness to tell future me what I should purchase and how I should interact?

    The body and the mind create data, and the way in which this data is mined and the way in which this information is used is threatening the future of the biological human body. The boundaries between technology and nature continue to collapse, and the information from the body is being used to find ways to correct its imperfections and fragilities, removing its nature from its future. Info about the mind is preserved to keep some form of humanity, while trying to create artificial bodies that can house this information.

    “The illusion will be so powerful you won’t be able to tell what’s real and what’s not” – Steve Williams

    Stone (1991) mentioned that it is interesting that at a time when the last of the “real world” anthropological field sites are disappearing, a new kind of field opened up. That of the online field – a space where meeting face-to-face has mutated definitions of “meet” and “face” (1991: unknown page). She highlights how these spaces have sped up the collapsing of the boundaries between nature and technology, biology and the machine, the natural and the artificial, as explained by posthuman theorists. These spaces are part of new social forms which she describes as virtual systems (Stone 1991: unknown page).

    Stone presents an example of the power of these coded spaces and the new forms of interaction they have engendered through the story of Julie. Julie was an older disabled woman at a online conference in New York in 1985 who operated her computer with a headstick. The personality she projected online was huge, creating computer-mediated connections with people online who viewed her as a friend to confide in about intimate information. Here, her disability was invisible and irrelevant. Years after the online conference participants found out that Julie did not exist. Turns out “she” was a middle aged male psychiatrist who had spent weeks creating a believable persona. Accidentally starting up a conversation with a woman who mistook him for a woman when logged on to the conference, he was entranced by the vulnerability, complexity and openness that these women expressed online. Once the real life truth behind Julie was exposed, the women who had confided in her expressed various levels of anger and hurt from this trickery. While this story comes across as a triggering and chaotic episode of MTV’s Catfish, it points to a dimension outside of the transformed nature of deceit, ethics and risk. This dimension is the beginning of an un-embodied existence.

    Stone’s paper Will the real body please stand up (1991), among other discussions, highlights how the internet, virtual reality and machines have mutated concepts like distance, inside/outside, and even the physical body, emphasising how these concepts are increasingly taking on “new and frequently disturbing meanings”. The story reveals how the coded persona can take on a life of its own, creating new forms of interaction within this virtual dispensation. What is more striking is how this demonstrates how the discursive and visual dynamics of these digitally constructed spaces make grounding a person in a physical human body meaningless (Stone 1991). If interaction and relationships can form without the necessity of the human body, and the fact that all that we do and all that we are is treated as data, then the idea of existing without the biological human body does not seem like such a far-fetched idea.

    A life produced. A life un-embodied.

    “If anything can be ‘produced’ then it can no longer be accepted as a fact of nature” (Stone 1991: unknown page).

    From the construction of personas and interactions mediated by computers to being viewed as data, all of this connects to the idea presented by transhumanists – the idea that the mind can exist and function properly independent of the human body (Bostrom 2003). Transhumanists cling dearly to this idea of substrate-independence. This arises from framing the mind as information that can be uploaded and transferred between hosts provided that they have the computational power to do this. This reference to “mental states [being able to] supervene on any of a broad class of physical substrates” has been adopted by biomedical and technological researchers and developers. Overtime there have been companies and institutes gearing towards the creation of computational structures and processes for artificial “bodies” that will be able to host the conscious experiences of the mind.

    The context within which these developments take place are that of environmental destruction, disease, wanting to live longer and the desire to see how far we can push science and technology.

    Reflections on the ways in which we have accelerated negative environmental scenarios, combined with desires to live longer and eliminate diseases and genetic “malfunctions”, has led to biotechnologists, geneticists, biochemists and businessmen using these visions of a dystopian future to brand risky enhancements, artificial bodies, and their ideas for a new phase in humanity as beneficial, necessary and inevitable. Geneticist and businessman Craig Venter is well-known for mapping the first human genome in 2000, for his synthetic genome experiments as well as for emphasising how we must manipulate our genes in order to survive. He has recently taken it upon himself to decode death, believing that he is able to discover diseases dormant in seemingly healthy individuals. People can pay for these genetic tests at Human Longevity, where Venter is the executive chairman and head of scientific strategy. This health firm aims to stay ahead of illness and aging, and is described by Venter as a company that is a “good detective…making discoveries, not diagnoses”. Again we see how data collection is conveniently marketed as a necessary preemptive measure, but with genetic manipulation the end goal – reconstructing the very blueprint of the biological human body.

    Venter is not the only one looking to edit and rewrite the human genome, with researchers discovering CRISPR Cas9, a programmable modular complex that can be directed to target and cut specified DNA sequences, allowing for the possibility of repurposing different kinds of cells, editing the genome.

    The above are painted as positive mutations, either masking the companies backing this research, or presenting the companies as good fairies. These enhancements and adjustments are branded in the same way one would brand products, with an emphasis on how they can benefit people now and how they should be viewed as investments for the future.

    Taking this a step further, there have been predictions that the earth will be uninhabitable for humans and most other life forms in their current state by the year 2045. David Russel Schilling wrote in a 2016 article that “The only hope for humans to survive is to create robots that don’t need oxygen or fresh water to survive. Over the next three decades, technology will likely allow robots and the human mind to merge”. With this prediction, groups of humans who are able to afford these procedures will live in a post human era.

    The 2045 Strategic Social Initiative has put together a manifesto and videos, highlighting the need for these artificial bodies and the transferring of human consciousness, framing this as an improvement on human life.

    “People will make independent decisions about the extension of their lives and the possibilities for personal development in a new body after the resources of the biological body have been exhausted…Using a neural-interface humans will be able to operate several bodies of various forms and sizes remotely”

    This quote demonstrates a kind of cybernetic immortality, which is visualised and being funded by businessmen such as Russia’s Dmitry Itskov.  Here we see agency being used as a branding tool, pointing to the possibility of curating ones own experiences through these “bodies”. We may soon have to imagine a life where we choose the service provider of our artificial tool to experience the world, whether this be a computer, a body that attempts to mimic the human body as we know it today or some other kind of extended, produced body. It could be as simple as a paying for a cellphone contract today.

    It is the year 2060. The chronological destination for the new humanity. We have managed to figure out a way to unfreeze and bring back to life those who chose cryogenic freezing. Research teams have developed multiple models that can be used as portable and moveable bodies for those who wish to experience the world through those of their ancestors. AI creatures are our friends and everything is downloadable, uploadable and transferrable, including our very personas. The use of the word human now references the second last being on the well-known evolutionary diagram. Looking for a body is like creating a Sim, with less emphasis on hair, eyes, or skin but on computational ability, processing power and minimal disruptions.

    The dystopian future is being used as a branding tool, justifying the use of people today and possible artificial bodies of the future as data mines. These artificial bodies will still be operated through the parameters set out by the companies that design and develop them, continuing the thread that we can be used as data mines.

    Considering that this research is being conducted within a specific social, cultural and geopolitical moment, these technologies will carry traces of how we frame ideas related to  betterment, enhancement and enjoyable ways to live in the world established today. More specifically, they will preserve the agendas of the companies and research institutes developing these technologies today, and the lineage they will create in this future.

    Regardless of how transhumanists try to frame our future selves, it cannot escape from the fact that researchers funded by companies are the ones who will propel us into this human-engineered phase of evolution. When reading between the lines, this is a kind of escapism. An escape from disease, age, death, politics and other fragilities that come with the current human existence. It is about making these constructed fantasies more than an experience with an Oculus, but one in which we live. A hyperreal, consensual hallucination that is built on data to be collated and uploaded for a transhuman future.

    References

    Bostrom, N. (2003). “Are you living in a computer simulation?”

    “Cybernetic Immortality”: How to live forever as a robot

    Debord, G. (1967). The Society of the Spectacle

    Facebook scandal hit ’87 million users’

    Genome Pioneer Craig Venter is trying to decode death

    Stone, A. R. (1991), “Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?” in Cyberspace: First Steps. (ed.) Benedikt, M.

    The Way to Survive in 2045 May Be In Artificial Bodies

    What if we could rewrite the human genome?

    With Privacy Changes, Instagram Upsets Influencer Economy

    Credits

    Concept & Research Paper: Christa Dee

    Photography: Jamal Nxedlana & Lex Trickett

    Creative Direction: Jamal Nxedlana

    MUA: Orli Oh 

    3D rendering: Lex Trickett

    Product Design: Chloe Hugo Hamman

    Research Assistant: Marcia Elizabeth

  • Daily Paper // transcending borders with their latest women’s collection

    Daily Paper // transcending borders with their latest women’s collection

    The Amsterdam-based lifestyle and streetwear brand Daily Paper present their third women’s collection as part of their “Transcend Borders” Spring/Summer 18 campaign. Founded by Jefferson Osei, Hussein Suleiman and Abderrahmane Trabsini, who have their roots in Ghana, Somalia and Morocco, aim for every collection to have an element that pays homage to their cultural homes.

    In an interview with the Head of Design at Daily Paper, Berivan Cemal, she explained that this collection was built on the idea of transcending expectations. The idea came from a conversation she had with Jefferson, Hussein and Abderrahmane about their travels and global connections. Related to this was a larger discussion about why we seek relationships with people across the globe and how it is possible to identify with people from different countries.

    Conceptually, the collection also makes a comment on how bodies are governed through the use of passports and documents that are necessary for the policing of borders. “We challenge a system that aims to keep us within boxes and borders.” The collection tells a story that is influenced by globalization, with the intention of putting an end to ideas like racism and truly embracing multiculturalism. The focus on eroding borders has always been part of the Daily Paper DNA, but it was with the SS18 collection that they engaged in this conversation intensely. “We want the youth to talk to each other. If a conversation arises from someone noticing a print on a t-shirt then so be it. We realize that these kids are the future and they love to express their identity through clothing.”

    Oversized silhouettes, taking the form of trousers, blazers, pullovers and a statement snake-skin set, exhibits a revolving activewear theme with tracksuits and printed shirts all making noteworthy appearances.

    The editorial plays on afrofuturistic aesthetics, where shadows create a cryptic, other-worldly mood, visually tapping into the idea of transcending borders. Reflecting on the shoot, Berivan stated that she loves “when something looks beautiful and glamorous from afar and up close you discover small elements of surprise. We wanted it to seem like it was shot in a studio but reality, it’s a beautiful colored wall outside, taking advantage of Africa’s beautiful lighting. I wanted to create something only possible in South Africa, something only feasible with a team of amazing creative locals.”

    Check out the Daily Paper website to get a hold of this new collection.

    Credits
    Photography: Jamal Nxedlana
    Art Direction: Jamal Nxedlana & Berivan Cemal
    Styling: Berivan Cemal & Jamal Nxedlana
    Hair: Yonela Makoba
    Make Up: Nuzhah Jacobs
    Produced by: Bubblegumclub & Berivan Cemal
    Photography Assistant: Andrew Aichison
    Styling Assistant: Sarah Hugo-Hamman
    Models: Ideline Akimana and Gina Jeanz 

  • Diesel JoggJeans – Made to Run Away

    Diesel JoggJeans – Made to Run Away

    Meeting someone face-to-face for the first time after an exchange of online chats and giggles can be quite daunting, even for the most confident of people. But there is nothing worse than finding out your date’s online persona does not translate into real life. Gone are the days of sitting through these terrible meet ups, where you politely nod and smile, secretly mad that your friend has not made the fake emergency call yet. Diesel has made sure that your next pair of jeans can help you avoid being trapped by such encounters. Inspired by unsuccessful love stories and online dating disasters, the Diesel JoggJeans are made for a quick getaway.

    Models captured mid stride in the streets of Joburg, with styling and makeup channeling 90s skater boy and future warrior looks. This editorial forms part of a global campaign to let serial daters know that Diesel has their backs, and their butts, in these super comfy jeans. Not only will you leave your not so cool, kind of creepy date behind, but you will look great while you dash towards your Uber. Yes, this is the real life blue tick.

    Diesel have also created a short film, with all too familiar dreadful date scenes, demonstrating how JoggJeans are an essential part of one’s runaway emergency kit.

    Diesel JoggJeans – Made to run away.

    Credits:

    Photography and Styling – Jamal Nxedlana

    MUA – Orli Meiri 

    Styling Assistant – Lebogang Ramphate

    Models – Elle Rose van der Burg & Yemi Okesokun