My studio practice is concerned with the development of cultural infrastructure in Nigeria, specifically in two areas: makerspaces (physical infrastructure) and animation (storytelling).

Makerspaces

I'm increasingly convinced that the right model for institution-building in Nigeria is not large, centralized structures (like universities) but small, distributed makerspaces.

Every cultural and technological success we've had in the past decade has come out of small, private ecosystems like music studios and startup hubs.

But also, an entire generation of Nigerians has little or no access to public space: no structures for rest, play or innovation outside of work and places of worship.

My vision of the future is a large network of community-run makerspaces around the country, built on top of existing infrastructure, sustainable and productive.

To prove this out, I've been working with Tushar Hathiramani, Tolu Kalejaiye and Toke Joseph to develop the makerspace at 30 Ajasa Street into a production centre for clay, electronics and 3D printing.

As Toke puts it: "Decolonization in architecture will work only by restructuring, rejigging and refiguring."

Animation

The world is built on stories. We need more Nigerian stories to connect our distributed population, and animation is visual storytelling that scales.

Two years ago, I published my first film, Hanky Panky. It started as a project to understand how animation is made in Nigeria.

After that, I decided to incubate an animated series and make it successful. So I started working with the E Dey Happen team to develop their show, and we've been at it for some time now.

My immediate ambition is to make EDH a globally recognized series. But underneath this, my deeper motivation is to materially contribute to scaling Nigerian animation into a global industry. Like music. Or bigger.

It's a long game. Over the past six months, this work has brought me closer to people who've been at it for years: like Folu (Eaxum), MB (Basement) and Somto (Vortex). And from them, I've learnt that the industry today is a scatter of independent studios and one-off successes.

To really get this thing working, we need a massive training effort and new tools for organisation and production. One show at a time.