Dani Ploeger & Greenman Muleh Mbillo
Ûiiti, 01.02.2022
In their work Ûiiti (the treatment), Ploeger and Mbillo reverse the common functions of smartphones. The networking devices that let us switch irrevocably from one app to another, constantly demanding our attention with sounds, popping messages and vibration, become media of inner reflection, meditation and transcendence.
By creating a digital canvas that can be used to generate repetitive patterns of sound through touch, Ploeger and Mbillo put users in a contemplative state. While using the app, all other functions of the mobile phone are blocked so that one can fully engage in the experience. Ploeger and Mbillo thus expose and instrumentalise our everyday mobile phone focus and introduce us to a new use and contemplation of this constant companion. The symbolic forms of the design are inspired by a spiritual journey both artists had with a traditional healer of the Kenyan Akamba tribe. The intoning sounds come from field recordings of a ritual instrument that Ploeger and Mbillo made in Kenya. The app can be
downloaded from Google Playstore and can only be used with Android: play.google.com
The «Ûiiti» application puts the screen in pin mode, to exit pin mode perform the following three possible manipulations:
- Gesture navigation: Swipe up and hold.
- 2-button navigation: Touch and hold Back and Home.
- 3-button navigation: Touch and hold Back and Overview.
HEK Net Works presented Dani Ploeger and Greenman Muleh Mbillo's work Ûiiti from 01.02.2022 to 28.02.2022.
Greenman Muleh Mbillo is a Nairobi-based thinker, farmer, artist and philosopher of the ancient Akamba system and traditions. He studied mechanical engineering, but mainly developed his current areas of interest through study in non-institutional contexts, including the practice of doctor and priestess Kanukwa.
Dani Ploeger is a media and conceptual artist and cultural theorist. After growing up in the Dutch countryside, he eventually obtained a PhD in media studies and performance from the University of Sussex, UK. He is currently a Research Fellow at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London and a Fellow at V2_Lab for the unstable media in Rotterdam. His artwork is represented by Art Claims Impulse in Berlin.
Since 2016, Dani and Greenman have collaborated on various artistic research projects in Kenya, as part of www.disobedientdevices.org. Their work has been exhibited at the Nairobi National Museum, Alliance Française Nairobi and the British Institute in Eastern Africa, among others. For more information about the background of the work, please see this text by Greenman and Dani: www.disobedientdevices.org/tech-of-transcendence