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Issue #08
Contents
editorial
KOFI AGAWU
African Art Music and the Challenge of Postcolonial Composition
PAUL ZILUNGISELE TEMBE
China’s Effective Anti-Corruption Campaign
DILIP M. MENON
Changing Theory: Thinking Concepts from the Global South
BEN WATSON
Talking about music
Theme AI in Africa
blk banaana
An (Other) Intelligence
VULANE MTHEMBU
Umshini Uyakhuluma (The Machine Speaks) – Africa and the AI Revolution: Exploring the Rapid Development of Artificial Intelligence on the Continent.
OLORI LOLADE SIYONBOLA
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence in Africa
CHRIS EMEZUE & IYANUOLUWA SHODE
AI and African Languages: Empowering Cultures and Communities
NOLAN OSWALD DENNIS
Toward Misrecognition. | Project notes for a haunting-ting
SLINDILE MTHEMBU
AI and documenting black women's lived experiences: Creating future awareness through AI-generated sonics and interpretive movement for the future of freeing suffering caused on black bodies.
ALEXANDRA STANG
Artificially Correct? How to combat bias and inequality in language use with AI
BAKARY DIARRASSOUBA
Bambara: The Jeli (Griot) Project
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Artificial Intelligence and the Arcane Art of the Prompt
AI GENERATED
"AI on Artificial Intelligence in Africa" and "Exploring its impact on Art and Creativity"
JULIA SCHNEIDER
AI in a biased world
MBANGISO MABASO
Bana Ba Dinaledi: Telling African Stories using Generative AI Art.
ALEX TSADO & BETTY WAIREGI
African AI today
BOBBY SHABANGU
Using Artificial Intelligence to expand coverage of African content on Wikipedia
DARRYL ACCONE
Welcome to The End of Beauty: AI Rips the Soul Out of Chess
VULANE MTHEMBU & ChatGPT
Hello ChatGPT - A conversation with OpenAI's Assistant
DIMITRI VOUDOURIS
Evolution of Sιήκ
STEFANIE KASTNER
Beyond the fact that most robots are white: Challenges of AI in Africa
MARTIJN PANTLIN
Some notes from herri’s full stack web developer on the AI phenomenon
galleri
THANDIWE MURIU
4 Universal Truths and selected Camo
ZENZI MDA
Four Portals
TIISETSO CLIFFORD MPHUTHI
Litema
NESA FRÖHLICH
Agapanthus artificialis: Biodiversität im digitalen Raum. Vierteilige Serie, Johannesburg 2022.
STEVEN J FOWLER
2 AI collaborations and 9 asemic scribbles
PATRICIA ANN REPAR
Integrating Healing Arts and Health Care
SHERRY MILNER
Fetus & Host
borborygmus
JANNIKE BERGH
BCUC = BANTU CONTINUA UHURU CONSCIOUSNESS
GWEN ANSELL
Jill Richards: Try, try, try...
VULANE MTHEMBU & HEIKKI SOINI
Nguni Machina remixed
AFRICAN NOISE FOUNDATION
Perennial fashion – noise (After Adorno).
RAJAT NEOGY
Do Magazines Culture?
NDUMISO MDAYI
Biko and the Hegelian dialectic
LEHLOHONOLO MAKHELE
The Big Other
frictions
KHAHLISO MATELA
At Virtue’s Zone
DIANA FERRUS
In memory of “Lily” who will never be nameless again
VUYOKAZI NGEMNTU
Six Poems from the Shadows
SIHLE NTULI
3 Durban Poems
SIBONELO SOLWAZI KA NDLOVU
I’m Writing You A Letter You Will Never read
OMOSEYE BOLAJI
People of the Townships episode 3
claque
SIMON GIKANDI
Introducing Pelong Ya Ka (excerpt)
UNATHI SLASHA
"TO WALK IS TO SEE": Looking Inside the Heart - Sophonia Machabe Mofokeng’s Pelong ya Ka
VANGILE GANTSHO
Ilifa lothando – a Review of Ilifa by Athambile Masola
ZIZIPHO BAM
Barbara Boswell found in The Art of Waiting for Tales
WAMUWI MBAO
Hauntings: the public appearance of what is hidden
CHARL-PIERRE NAUDÉ
Dekonstruksie as gebundelde terrorisme
VUYOKAZI NGEMNTU
Ibuzwa Kwabaphambili - A Review
MPHUTLANE WA BOFELO
Taking radical optimism beyond hope - Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South Africa’s Shack Settlements
PATRIC TARIQ MELLET
WHITE MISCHIEF – Our past (again) filtered through the lens of coloniality: Andrew Smith’s First People – The lost history of the Khoisan
CHANTAL WILLIE-PETERSEN
BHEKI MSELEKU: an infinite source of knowledge to draw from
JEAN MEIRING
SULKE VRIENDE IS SKAARS - a clarion call for the importance of the old and out-of-fashion
GEORGE KING
Kristian Blak String Quartets Neoquartet
ekaya
PAKAMA NCUME
A Conversation with Mantombi Matotiyana 9 April 2019
KYLE SHEPHERD
An Auto-Ethnographic Reflection on Process
PAULA FOURIE
Ghoema
DENIS-CONSTANT MARTIN
The Art of Cape Town Singing: Anwar Gambeno (1949-2022)
ESTHER MARIE PAUW
Something in Return, Act II: The Blavet-Varèse project
STEPHANUS MULLER
Afrikosmos: the keyboard as a Turing machine
MKHULU MNGOMEZULU
Ubizo and Mental Illness: A Personal Reflection
off the record
FRANK MEINTJIES
James Matthews: dissident writer
SABATA-MPHO MOKAE
Platfontein, a place the !Xun and Khwe call home
NEO LEKGOTLA LAGA RAMOUPI
A Culture of Black Consciousness on Robben Island, 1970 - 1980
NELSON MALDONADO-TORRES
Outline of Ten Theses on Coloniality and Decoloniality*
ARYAN KAGANOF
An interview with Don Laka: Monday 10 February 2003
JONATHAN EATO
Recording and Listening to Jazz and Improvised Music in South Africa
MARKO PHIRI
Bulawayo’s movement of Jah People
STEVEN BROWN
Anger and me
feedback
MUSA NGQUNGWANA
15 May 2020
ARYAN KAGANOF / PONE MASHIANGWAKO
Tuesday 21 July 2020, Monday 27 July, 2020
MARIA HELLSTRÖM REIMER
Monday 26 July 2021
SHANNON LANDERS
22 December 2022
FACEBOOK FEEDBACK
Facebook
the selektah
CHRIS ALBERTYN
Lost, unknown and forgotten: 24 classic South African 78rpm discs from 1951-1965.
hotlynx
shopping
contributors
the back page
CHRIS BRINK
Reflections on Transformation at Stellenbosch University
MARK WIGLEY
Discursive versus Immersive: The Museum is the Massage
© 2023
Archive About Contact Africa Open Institute
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    #08
  • Theme AI in Africa

MBANGISO MABASO

Bana Ba Dinaledi: Telling African Stories using Generative AI Art.

It’s the year 2043, All the Sangomas have left the planet earth to be multi planetary beings. Different beings would come to the consultation under the stars, It was believed that Sangomas were able to interpret high intelligence from the stars to heal troubled souls, That’s why the Sangomas were referred to as Bana Ba Dinaledi (Translated as Children of the Stars).

Bana Ba Dinaledi is a virtual world art collection inspired by my sister’s spiritual journey, seeing how she transitioned over the years has been a fantastic journey in that I had to unlearn what I understood about African Spirituality. Bana Ba Dinaledi was created by Midjourney AI, Unity Game Engine for Metaverse.

How was Bana Ba Dinaledi made?

Text to Image Generation: We used an AI art software tool called Mid journey to create concept art for Sangoma on a Hoverboard and we also used Mid journey to create 50 artworks that are hosted in the virtual worlds. Mid-journey converts text or prompts to images or beautiful art. We used the following prompts to create our art, please try them:

A Sangoma on a hoverboard.
A Sangoma wearing a spacesuit, children of the stars, carrying the spear.
A Sangoma wearing a spacesuit, in front of the mirror, children of the stars.
A Sangoma wearing a spacesuit, looking at the Portal, children of the stars.
A Sangoma wearing a spacesuit, looking at the Portal
Black man in space
A Sangoma on a hoverboard

Creation of Virtual worlds: The artworks created by our prompts are displayed in 10 virtual worlds that anyone can access through the browser. We build these virtual worlds using Unity Game Engine which allows the use of real-time 3D rendering. The visitors of our virtual worlds can hop to another world through the famous flying Siyaya Taxi. In real life Toyota Siyaya Taxi is the best portal of reality for most black people from the township, they take us from our township reality to the city or suburban reality that’s why we used it in our project as a portal. The magic happens when you combine AI with AR/VR.

Generative AI Art will be a fundamental tool in conceptualising and telling untold African stories. It can not only be used for concept art but it can be as well used for bringing virtual worlds to life. Tools such as the BariumAI and AI Material Designer can be used by world builders to create unique materials from a text prompt. We plan to do more experiments with AI and immersive media in the future. Bana Ba Dinaledi collection is now available on the metaverse platform called Monaverse, here are the links to explore it for yourself:

Start here: monaverse.com/spaces/the-year-2043

Creative Process, Other Projects and the Community

I have been working in immersive media for almost 5 years, My interest is in using Augmented and virtual reality to build experiences or solutions that solve African problems and also tell authentic stories through this immersive media. I worked on:

Sisanda App Universe is a virtual science lab that allows learners to use augmented reality to perform science experiment on their smartphone or tablet. It has various science experiments and they get projected in front of learners so they can be able to dissect, mix and manipulate. We currently piloting the Sisanda App universe in 5 Schools. More about Sisanda App Universe >>> www.sisanda.com

HaMmabongi Chesa Nyama is the first Chesa Nyama in the Metaverse. It is made up of Spaza/Kota Joint, Apostle Church and the Chesa Nyama. Here Avatars can drift the Gusheshe while others observe the flying quantum. Here is a preview of Mogodu Monday at HaMmabongi >>> Mogodu Monday Kwa HaMmabongi Mix by Bandros

Baku/Ziyanda is a fashion showroom to showcase the zero-waste fashion line by Khumo Morojele. More about it >>> twyg.co.za

My creative process always begins with what am I curious about, I like experimenting by putting different ideas together and seeing what comes out. I usually start on a blank canvas and list all the things I will need to get the project done, I then collaborate with my team to assist in building the project together. This process is hardly linear, many changes happen along the way until we can finalize the project. Once the project is done, I tend to share it within the community of AR/VR creators to stress test and understand and fix the bugs. We are part of the two communities that are focused heavenly in immersive media technology. These communities are Whatsapp and Discord-based. I’m part of the following communities We Are VR Jozi and the Metaverse Crew. We are able to exchange knowledge, help each other when stuck on the project. It is very important for one to find a community you belong to.

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JULIA SCHNEIDER
ALEX TSADO & BETTY WAIREGI
© 2023
Archive About Contact Africa Open Institute