Blending Heritage With Technology
The Future Ancestors Project, a 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 aim to create powerful, community-driven cultural spaces that not only brings communities together but also makes art more accessible to the public by educating them on new forms of art introduced by technological
advancement.
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.
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Digital Archive creation.
Contributing Artists: Our Future Ancestors
Ozuma Patrick
Pioneer in Upcycled Sculptures using Electronic Waste
Ozuma Patrick Chidiebube is a Nigerian visual 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 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.
Azekwoh creates works that seamlessly blur the boundary between the digital and the corporeal. His workflow begins with digital painting (using software like Adobe Photoshop) and digital sculpting (using software like ZBrush). The digital sculpture files are then materialized into physical artworks through 3D printing (additive manufacturing), or used as models for CNC milling in materials like marble, producing durable, corporeal manifestations of his virtual visions.
He is also a key figure in the Web3 space, using NFTs to establish provenance and connect with a global audience. For the Future Ancestors exhibition, Azekwoh’s command over the digital-to-physical pipeline perfectly aligns with the project's goal to explore how technology is used to construct and amplify contemporary narratives.
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.
Partnership Opportunity
We believe that the most innovative and impactful work often emerges from flexible and mutually beneficial collaborations. Rather than dictating the terms or limiting the scope of potential joint ventures, we are actively seeking and encourage you to submit your own comprehensive proposals for a strategic partnership with us for this project.
We recognize that other organisations possess unique strengths, expertise, and resources that could complement our mission and goals in ways we haven't yet envisioned.
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Unconstrained Flexibility: We are open to exploring a wide spectrum of partnershi models, including, but not limited to:
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Strategic Alliances
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Co-development and Research Initiatives
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Joint Marketing and Outreach Programs
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Resource Sharing or Sponsorship Arrangements
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Innovative Service Delivery Models
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Your Value Proposition: We invite you to clearly articulate how your organization would propose to partner with us, detailing:
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The specific value you would bring to the collaboration.
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The goals and expected outcomes of the proposed partnership.
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Any resources, expertise, or investment your organization would commit.
We encourage creativity and a focus on long-term impact.
To find out more or to submit your partnership interest, please email us at contact@sokarilondon.co.uk