The Future Ancestors Project:
Blending Heritage With Technology
The Future Ancestors Project, a new social impact initiative designed to nurture, share, and preserve the stories of today's Black creatives. In an era where people are seeking deeper connections to their heritage, this project aims to encourage and facilitate that journey by preserving and documenting the works of living artists and showcasing contemporary artists as "Future Ancestors", the cultural leaders of today whose work will inform and inspire generations to come.
We will highlight a new wave of African creatives who are using both traditional and new art mediums, to tell stories of heritage, tradition, and identity. This project will serve as a bridge between the wisdom of the past and the innovations of the future, making art more accessible and community-oriented.
Core Objectives
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Preserving Heritage & Legacies: Encouraging inter-generational dialogues between old and young creatives.
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Making Art More Accessible: Presenting new forms of art in a welcoming and understandable format.
Key Activities & Collaboration
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Community Workshops: This program will facilitate intergenerational dialogue among Black and African creatives.
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Future Ancestors Exhibition: Featuring works of technologically inclined artists.
Our Future Ancestors
Ozuma Patrick
Pioneer in Upcycled Sculptures using Electronic Waste
Ozuma Patrick Chidiebube is a Nigerian viual artist and environmentalist. His primary medium is sculpture constructed from electronic woste, particularly salvaged computer keypads and mechanical scrap.
Ozuma's practice provides a critical material reflection on the digital age, exploring the concept ol societal norms as the 'code' that shapes human behavior, and the relationship between humans, nature, and technology.
His works, including the acclaimed piece "Metaverse of the Mind," has been featured in major exhibitions. For the Future Ancestors exhbition, Ozuma's powerful physical work will serve as a crucial counterpart to the purely difital art, grounding the conversation on digital lineage in environmental ethics and the material consequences of a disposable technological world.
Patrick Ozuma's sculptural process involves a distinctive methods of combing traditional mold-making with upcycled electronic components. His work is a rigorous blend of conceptual thought and material assembly.
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Modeling: Each sculpture begins as a positive model sculpted in clay (or another appropriate modeling material).
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Molding and Casting: He then creates a negative mold using mortar (or a similar cementitious material) over the clay positive. This mold essentially captures the final form and serves as the matrix for the assembly.
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Inclusion Assembly: The chosen materials, primarily discorded computer keyboards, circuit boards, and other electronic waste (e-waste), are maticulously broken and laid into the negative mold.
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Reinforcement and Coupling: The e-waste inclusions are then secured and reinforced using components together permanently, forming the final, durable sculpture.
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Finishing: The process concludes with intricate surface detaling. This includes applying alied technological materials as embellishments and securing the entire work with a protective lacquer or final finish. This method successtully merges the contemporary medium of e-waste with established, durable casting techniques, resulting in artworks that are structurally and conceptually rich.
Anthony Azekwoh
Digital Artist and New Media Storyteller
Anthony Azekwoh is a self-taught contemporary artist, author, and storyteller based in Lagos. His practice blends traditional influences, specifically African folklore and mythology, with digital innovation.
Described as one of the most visible digital artists on the continent, Azekwoh moves fluidly across disciplines including digital painting and sculpture.
Yosheved Francis (Yoshi)
The Aesthetics of Glitch and Hardware Subversion
Yoshi is an experimental British artist and sound designer whose practice focuses on circuit bending to create new forms of sound and films/visuals. She describes her artistic practice as "Hardware Alchemy" as it ranges from circuit bending vintage analogue AV technolog, to portrait photograph.
Yoshi's medium, circuit bending, is defined as the creative, chance-based customisation of short-circuiting of the internal circuits of low-voltage, battery-powered electronic devices (such as toys, keyboards, or video mixers).
The core methodology involves chance-wiring-taking a piece of wire and soldering it across two points on the printed circuit board (PCB) to send data into sections of the circuit where it was not originally intended. While this process is inherently chaotic and may occasionally damage the device, it forces the machine to produce new, unintended outputs.
The physical alteration includes integrating new components like knobs, switches, and potentiometers (variable resistors) to gain performative control over the resulting glitch and noise. The work she creates manifests as unpredictable sonic textures and striking lo-fi video distortion or glitch film. This practice represents a direct, physical interaction with consumer technology, subverting its commercial function to generate unique and Highly personalized artistic expression.
This initiative is planned to run for one year with the potential to become an ongoing project. We will actively seek partnerships to enhance the project's reach and impact. Collaborations with academic institutions, technology companies, and various community organizations will be crucial for everything from research and archival support to tech sponsorships and community outreach. These partnerships will help us amplify the project’s message and ensure its longevity.