This 2-year project, led by Cher Potter, is being developed through a partnership between the University of the Arts London (UAL) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). We hope you will be able to join us at the event and can circulate in your networks through your newsletter. 

We tend to think about our world’s future as being discovered in the high-tech laboratories of American scientific research institutes, or debated in elite business and political forums held in the Alps - but less often in the West, do we think about our future as being designed by local tech communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Design Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa is a forum for pioneering technologists, curators and scholars from Accra, Nairobi, Cape Town, London and New York to discuss developments in digital design – robotics, gaming and computer imaging - on the African continent. Speakers include: Mugendi M’Rithaa (President, World Design Organisation), Ayorkor Korsah (Co-founder, African Robotics Network), Jonathan Ledgard (Director, Afrotech EPFL), Wesley Kirinya (Founder, Leti Arts East African games studio), and more.

The symposium analyses two major forces shaping the 21st century – innovations in digital technology and the ‘rise of Africa’ – through the lens of material culture and its interpretation. It also marks the official launch of an international network ‘Design Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa’ lead by Cher Potter, developed through a core partnership between London College of Fashion and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Some of the questions that will be examined are:

  • What challenges and opportunities do a ‘digital revolution’ combined with unprecedented city and population growth on the African continent present for designers today?
  • How is the combination of computer coding and digital fabrication resulting in new typologies of design in Sub-Saharan Africa?
  • What composite communities are organising themselves around these new digital models?
  • Are gaming environments based on local history and folklore heralding a wider move from European/US-centric worldviews to local ones?
  • How might technology open up new ways for reading and categorising objects, both ancient and contemporary?
  • How might we describe and test the term ‘postwestern’ in the context of design and curating?

Registration and fees

  • Industry £75
  • Academic £35Non UAL student £15 (places limited)
  • Non UAL student £15 (places limited)
  • UAL staff and students no fee (places limited)

The registration fee covers documentation, coffee breaks, lunch and drinks reception. For enquiries and registration visit the e-store.1

Contact info: Cher Potter, Principal Research Investigator and Organiser (c.potter[at]vam.ac.uk)

  • 1. http://estore.arts.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=176&catid=24&prodid=224