Creating African collaborations in the interactive arts

The goal of African Interactive is to create collaborations in the interactive arts between the UK and Africa, particularly Kenya in the first instance.

We aim to foster interactive experiences, i.e. any form of theatre, film, dance, music or other type of experience in which the audience is engaged beyond observation, and in which technology is used to draw them in. Technologies such as the web and social media, SMS, RFID, smartphones and sensors of various kinds have been shown to achieve great dramatic or aesthetic effect when integrated gracefully in these genres. They also extend the reach of the experiences, to new and remote audiences.

We look to increase mutual understanding of interactive performance as practised in the various countries of Africa and the UK, and to showcase and stimulate both artistic and technological development across these nations. At the same time, we aim to increase audience exposure to new performances and generate public debate about the topics they are concerned with. Commercial development is also an objective for both the technologists and arts groups involved.

For further information, please see our About page. If you are interested in participating, please contact us.

News

2013-02-15&18-20 British Council Culture Shift II Kenya. African Interactive’s Tim Kindberg was the UK producer for this event, a hi-energy 4-day creative sprint on the digital moving image. Twenty two participants created new ideas on themes set by seven partner agencies. It took place at Pawa 254 in Nairobi.

2012-11-09 African Interactive at Afrika eye film festival. African interactive with Afrika eye organised a panel discussion on how Digital can expand the audience for the African moving image. The discussion was live-linked between Bristol and Nairobi. See the Afrika eye website for more details, the Afrika eye facebook page for photos, and Tim Kindberg’s Google+ page for the video of the event.

2012-09-20 African Interactive at Encounters. We report on African Interactive’s first engagement, a birds-of-a-feather meeting on the African Moving Image at Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, 17:00-19:00 20th September at the Pervasive Media Studio. Read more about the context for this event here.

The British Council’s Culture Shift workshop at the iHub in Nairobi