African Spacemaking: Critical Narratives and Urban Co-Creation in Five Virtual Reality (VR) Productions

Abstract

The emerging use of Extended Reality (XR) by African artists and collectives is sparking a revival of a “third space” in urban storytelling. Addressing topics ranging from expropriation in Lagos to public surveillance in Nairobi, a new wave of artists is appropriating the spatial dimensions of virtual reality to interrogate the neocolonial dynamics of urbanization in African cities. This forms what we term “spacemaking” or, the production of virtual worlds and critical practices in the act of narrative expression. These narratives range from postcolonial to Afrofuturist, vary in interactivity or forms of address, and, fundamentally, centre the pluriversal identities of the people and places that construct urban city centres in Africa. This study is a contextual analysis of five XR works produced by African directors and Africa-based artists/collectives, developed from in-depth interviews with each creator. The works, countries, and creators in discussion include: “The Other Dakar” (dir. Selly Raby Kane, Senegal, 2017), “Spirit Robot” (dir. Johnathan Dotse, Ghana, 2017), “Azibuye – The Occupation” (dir. Dylan Valley, South Africa, 2020), “Lagos at Large” (Jumoke Sanwo, Nigeria, 2019), and “African Space Makers” (dir.TheNrbBusCollective, Kenya, 2020). Our findings reveal how artists have co-created with their cities in their VR productions, fore fronting Africa-based spatial modalities in an otherwise Westernized technology. These practices derive from decolonial lineages in spatial thinking and arts activism, while integrating new technologies into innovative expressions of agency, resistance, and transformation in postcolonial times. Decentring consumption or distribution of VR media, this research presents the narratives of production and co-creation that demonstrate new possibilities for how the arts and storytelling are core parts of shaping how we imagine public space.