Creatives Garage

Creatives Garage

The art installation by Thayù for the Afrofeminist Data Museum is a multi-layered piece that celebrates the intersection of African women, AI, and technology. It is designed to engage viewers through visual depth, vibrant imagery, and compelling storytelling. The installation consists of three distinct yet interconnected layers.
The top layer represents a computer screen displaying code from Mid Journey from a prompt made with my installation idea.
Thayù illustrated the second layer, depicting a beautiful African woman. To symbolize connectivity, they used data cables and spark plugs as her Bantu twists, cogs as her shades, a light in one eye to represent data privacy and the potential for surveillance, and a clock in the other eye to signify the rapid advancements driven by AI. Her face is adorned with motherboards and CDs, representing the creation of robotics and data storage.
The background digital art is a Leso that pays homage to our Swahili culture, using Swahili on the leso for the tagline that translates “Give AI a seat because it is here to stay” highlights the growing commonality of the language across Africa and the world. A collage of bold captions about AI from online newspapers to underscore the theme of misinformation was then stuck onto the background.
The back layer features a data manifesto inspired by the amazing work Pollicy is doing (check them out!).
On the ground, I placed soil at the front, along with a keyboard and a feature phone. The feature phone symbolizes how it has paved the way for a world of online possibilities, the keyboard represents the birth of creative ideas, and the soil signifies growth. At the back, I placed data cables to symbolize digital growth. The lightbox is symbolic of the interconnection of ideas.
The multi media installation is surrounded by artwork by other creatives and is part of the Afrofeminism Data Musuem by Pollicy.