Ghanaian performance artist, Steloolive, blends sound, fashion, art and photography to create one-of-a-kind art experiences. His latest experiment took him to the streets of the Labadi township in Accra where he fashioned a “robot” to spur community engagement. NiKANiKA Robotics is a sound object and installation ‘robot’ built with trash and cardboard and installed in an open space for community engagement. Steloolive describes it as a ‘never-ending performance piece’ that is layered in different steps and formats, but with its energy centred around the ocean and its community. The installation appropriates the design of a milling machine that’s used to crush grains such as corn and rice and reimagines it as an experimental ‘listening booth’ with aural and acoustic implications. Steloolive attempts to simplify the digital sound and music creation as a minimal sculpture through which the viewer can access field recordings documenting narratives and sounds from various communities in Ghana.
SOURCE: DESIGN INDABA