New ZKM Publication: Digital Imaginaries: African Positions Beyond the Binary

»Digital Imaginaries: Afrikanische Positionen jenseits des Binären / Digital Imaginaries: African Positions Beyond the Binary« was published on 23 March 2021 in German and English by Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld/Berlin. The book presents the results of the three-year cooperative project »Digital Imaginaries« (2018–2021). The project partners were Kër Thiossane and Afropixel Festival in Dakar, Senegal, Wits Art Museum and Fak’ugesi Festival of African Digital Innovation in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the ZKM Karlsruhe. »Digital Imaginaries« investigated digital developments on the African continent by focusing on exhibitions, festivals and performances, seminars, lectures, and artist residencies. The project leader was Richard Rottenburg, curators of the exhibitions in in Dakar, Johannesburg, and Karlsruhe were Julien McHardy, Marion Louisgrand Sylla, Oulimata Gueye, Fiona Rankin-Smith, Tegan Bristow, and Philip Ziegler.

Based on African positions, the texts demonstrate how more diverse and inclusive digital futures can be designed beyond binary opposites.

The close interrelations and frictions between digital imaginaries, technological developments, and complex local conditions are the leitmotivs of the Digital Imaginaries project. »Digital Imaginaries«, which was funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation TURN Fund, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Pro Helvetia, andt he German Research Foundation, works from actual situations in Africa and challenges people to think of manifestations of the digital in a more heterogeneous and global way. The project shows what role African positions play in shaping the digital.