This media artifact was envisioned by artist Anthony Muisyo as an outcome of the Artist Residency "Exploring Digital Spaces and How Another Urban Social Contract is Possible through Art". In this residency, artists help us translate our research findings and discussions into thought-provoking artworks.
The Enlightened is an artwork that seeks to describe the widening gap between the rapid uptake of large language models (LLMs) and the threat to culture posed by this development. Growing research continues to paint a grim picture: continued use of LLMs is leading to a slow attrition in language due to the homogenous nature of these models. This is evident in the biases present that arise from where most of these models are created and trained: Silicon Valley in America. Users across the world exposed to these models tend to adopt, in their writing, values that aren’t inherently theirs leading to a very unfortunate flattening of culture at the altar of increased productivity. The enlightened uses the visual metaphor of street signage that is ubiquitous in Nairobi, to highlight the importance of accumulated knowledge and material culture over humanity’s existence which has helped us weather repeated attempts at cultural erasure.
I worked closely with a 3D artist over a period of about a month to define the visual direction the film was to take. Reference would be made to the streets of Nairobi's central business district where a cacophony of signages dotted everywhere from stalls to matatus, really built up into a spectacle that I was keen to convey in the film. I also made reference to open source project radio apogee where I was able to source street sounds collected in Nairobi from as far back as 2005 and use these to further build up the atmosphere.
