All the things I’m interested in / July 2019

The best thing about Medium for me is the small network of people who take me seriously and engage me on /share things with me that align with my interests. I appreciate you, thank you. I’m not sure if it’s age or the attempts at self-education, but my interests have changed dramatically, and I thought you should know.

Here’s a list of things that I want to read and learn about. If you find anything out in the wild on these topics, send a DM to me on Twitter or email me at ope@wuruwuru.com, thanks!

Nigerian Graphic Design History

I just finished an introductory course on Graphic Design History but there’s nothing about the black continent, regrettably. I’m very! curious about what the history of Graphic design in Nigeria is, before and during the colonial era. Looking at broader African graphic design history, Grapheine’s African Design is really the best curation of content I’ve found. As far as my country though, the best thing collection I’ve seen yet is this Pinterest collection of Nigerian graphic design (and it inspired my collection of African design), but I want more!

Typography and Printing

I was born into a world of accessible typography, with the downside being that we take the written word for granted. Learning about the evolution of writing and print and the role of printers in shaping modern knowledge has helped me to recognize typography as the amazing human invention that it is. I even plan to spend some time in Somolu printing shops this year*.

*I did not

Civic Participation

I recently watched 120 battement par minute, a moving drama about the Act Up movement in Paris when the AIDS crisis was really bad. The quality of debate I saw in this movie made me realize how pale my civic/intellectual life is in comparison. I passively follow a few civic projects in Nigeria (Budgit, Tracka, CCHub), but that’s about it. A recent MIT Review essay about vTaiwan’s role in resolving a few governmental debates pinched me. The responsibility is on me, so I’m going to actively try to participate more, but if you learn about something that’s right up my alley, feel free to recommend.

I will also love! an opportunity to be in debates. I tried to host one but it didn’t really work out; we ended up just playing games. If you host a debate and don’t invite me you’re cancelled.

Archiving

I‘ve been talking a lot about doing interactive work recently, but I’m yet to actually show anything. This July, I promise*. But anyway, I have a new life goal: I want to collect data. We moan a lot about the lack of documentation in this part of the world, but even now, with the internet, we’re not doing so much better. Try a search for just about anything Nigerian and see for yourself. Maybe Wuruwuru will ultimately become an archive of accessible data from our time, who knows? For now, I’m keeping it on my radar.

*and failed