Into the E-Metropolis
Residency Host: Department of Vocational and Technical Education
Artist: Akwasi Bediako Afrane, Cyrus Lognonné Khalatbari and Anwar Sadat Mohammed
About the artist
About VOTEC
Residency Overview
Social Media
Akwasi Bediako Afrane
Akwasi Bediako Afrane is a Ghanaian artist who lives and works in multiple regions within Ghana. His works explore the idea of augmentation or extensions between consumer technological gadgets, humans, and the environment. He works with discarded electronic gadgets which he refers to as “amputees”, and he refashions and repurposes these amputees into machines and micro-organisms he describes as “TRONS”, which become potential platforms and media for reflection, engagement, and interactions.
Social Media Links: gameoftrons.com , Instagram , Facebook
Anwar Sadat Mohammed
Anwar Sadat Mohammed is a Ghanaian multimedia artist. His works take the form of photographic composition of portraitures while exploring the daily human interactions within the environment and the unseen narratives that emerge as a result of these exchanges. He creates experimental documentary memories as a way of retelling stories of marginalized workers, whose activities play a major role within the Ghanaian community but are kept under the radar.
Social Media Links: Instagram , Facebook
Cyrus Khalatbari
Cyrus Khalatbari is an artist, interaction designer and PhD candidate of the joint program between the Geneva University of Arts and Design (HEAD–Genève, HES-SO) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Cyrus bridges ethnographic fieldwork, Science and Technology Studies (STS) with arts and design methodologies in order to address the ecological implications of computing power and the digital while focusing on the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU).
VOTEC is a department within University of Cape Coast with the vision of training qualified educators in Vocational and Technical Education to take up teaching and supervisory roles in Education and the Service Industry.
Into the E-Metropolis is a workshop-based initiative aimed at reshaping the narrative of Ghana’s relationship with electronic waste, particularly at TANTRI in Cape Coast. Instead of the simplistic view of Ghana as a “computer graveyard,” this project highlights the complex ecosystem of second-hand computer dealers, repairers, scrap-dealers, and metal casters. Through the lens of Afrofuturism, it fostered meaningful discussions and workshops with these workers to collectively explore the past, present, and future of their knowledge and practices. The workshops resulted in the creation of three site-specific arts and design pieces: 1) An installation, 2) A sculpture, 3) A mobile makerspace hub. By integrating traditional knowledge and techniques with contemporary technology and ecological concerns, the project collaborated with the artistic and scientific community at the University of Cape Coast and the S+T+ARTS network. Together, they developed sustainable strategies to support and empower e-waste workers who face isolation and precarity due to a lack of shared infrastructure and knowledge. The outcomes of these workshops extended beyond the physical art and design pieces, with online publication of interviews and toolkits accessible to the community. The first workshop focused on repairers and dismantlers, the second on scrap-dealers and local metal recyclers, and the third brought together all participants to produce a mobile makerspace hub in collaboration with the University of Cape Coast. This hub will foster ongoing connections between workers and the university, promoting creativity and education through sustainable means. A website was created to document the project’s progress, connect with a broader international network, and serve as a model for future iterations. It centralises interviews and visual documentation from the project’s phases and offers the experience of the artworks in augmented reality and 3D. This engages a broader audience and raises awareness about the important but often overlooked work of e-waste workers in a dynamic and interactive way.
Discover more about STARTS4AFRICA
STARTS4AFRICA is funded by the European Union under the STARTS – Science, Technology and Arts initiative of DG CNECT (GA no. LC-01960720). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or DG CNECT. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
