9jafuturhythmachine: soro soke


2024
Installation, musical instrument, sculpture, performance, video editing, sound design, print
Wall text:
Soro soke, Yoruba for “speak up," became a rallying cry during the 2020 Nigerian #EndSARS protests, challenging a culture of silence in favour of accountability and transparency. This installation commemorates these protests and the Lekki Tollgate Massacre, where peaceful protesters were killed by military forces, followed by government censorship of the shooting.

You are presented with two histories of protest in Nigeria: one shown through embodied memory via performance and sound, while the other uses institutional, written memory.

Please lift the desk to learn more.

Project description:
9jafuturhythmachine: soro soke is an interactive multimedia installation made up of a sculpture, a textbook and a performance video that invites the audience to reflect on how history is made through a process of intentional remembrance and intentional forgetting. This project is an expansion of the DIY wearable electronic musical instrument 9jafuturhythmachine: (re)sampler, and serves as initial investigation into the affordances of interactive theatre as a tool to memorialise histories and futures of Nigerian protest and resistance. 

Please scroll to the bottom of this page to view the full project documentation.

This installation has been displayed as part of the 2024 MA Interaction Design Postgraduate degree show at UAL, London College of Communication, Kontekst Film Fest 2025: Archive and Voidspace Live 2025. 

9jafuturhythmachine: soro soke


2024
Installation, musical instrument, sculpture, performance, video editing, sound design, print



Wall text:
Soro soke, Yoruba for “speak up," became a rallying cry during the 2020 Nigerian #EndSARS protests, challenging a culture of silence in favour of accountability and transparency. This installation commemorates these protests and the Lekki Tollgate Massacre, where peaceful protesters were killed by military forces, followed by government censorship of the shooting.

You are presented with two histories of protest in Nigeria: one shown through embodied memory via performance and sound, while the other uses institutional, written memory.

Please lift the desk to learn more.

Project description:
9jafuturhythmachine: soro soke is an interactive multimedia installation made up of a sculpture, a textbook and a performance video that invites the audience to reflect on how history is made through a process of intentional remembrance and intentional forgetting. This project is an expansion of the DIY wearable electronic musical instrument 9jafuturhythmachine: (re)sampler, and serves as initial investigation into the affordances of interactive theatre as a tool to memorialise histories and futures of Nigerian protest and resistance.

Please scroll to the bottom of this page to view the full project documentation.

This installation has been displayed as part of the 2024 MA Interaction Design Postgraduate degree show at UAL, London College of Communication, Kontekst Film Fest 2025: Archive and Voidspace Live 2025.







Click here to read Two Histories of Nigeria: The People vs. The State - A Textbook for Diasporic Students





Demo video for Soro Soke, an experimental interactive theatre practice: 




As part of the installation’s display, the audience is invited to leave pieces of graffiti, contributing to the living archive of 9jafuturhythmachine: soro soke. 




Full project documentation: