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Emeka Ogboh was
honoured during the 2010 World Listening Day because his art shows how
much he listens. The artist who lives and works in Lagos adapts the
bustle of everyday city life into his sound and video installations.
The World Listening Project used his work last year in recognition of
his untiring efforts.

Ogboh’s first
contact with new media art – his favoured sound and video installation
– was in February 2007 in Alexandria, Egypt, when a friend invited him
to attend a workshop in the famous city . “It was at this workshop on
media and light that I first saw video art, photography and other
aspects of design apart from painting,” he recalls.

Unique medium

What started as
love at first sight has progressed into a serious affair for the artist
who underwent training under Harald Scherz at the Winter Academy in
Fayoum, a village close to Cairo. “I took a course called Audio
Spectrum and my teacher took me through the process,” he said.

With Lagos
providing the material for his sound blasts, Ogboh has created acoustic
dialogue between the Centre of Excellence and other cities of the
world. “The immersive nature of sound is what makes it unique. It is
not static and creates an experience for the listener. For example, one
can take a trip through Lagos without actually being in Lagos,” he says
while explaining his preference for the medium.

Popularising Lagos

Having spent about
five years practicing new media art and having projects lined up till
2013, Ogboh’s desire to familiarise the rest of the world with Lagos
has not waned. “To me, there is no where as loud as Lagos and it is
easy for me to experiment with its different sounds. After I record the
sounds and take them to the studio, they sound different. It becomes a
composition and every element is important to create a soundscape.”

Ogboh’s first sound
installation ever was in a bathroom in Fayoum. The work titled ‘Lake
Quarun’ birthed another, ‘Obalende Downtown Cairo’. The Egyptian
capital reminded the artist of Lagos and he wanted to highlight the
similarities between the two cities through his art. Interestingly,
promoting the sounds of Lagos has taken Ogboh to Madrid, New York and
Cologne, Germany.

He had a
particularly memorable outdoor sound installation titled ‘Reception of
Strangeness and Consumption of Difference’ in Cologne. The artist held
the show to see reactions of residents to the noise of bus conductors
on the ever busy Oshodi Oke bus route calling out to passengers. The
noise blared from speakers located outside the city’s library. “Art is
not always about beauty. It is about people’s reaction to your work. I
was able to get people’s reactions. At a point the speakers were even
broken,” he says.

“In installing
Lagos soundscapes in Cologne, I was interested in how the German public
engages with what is subversive strangeness. Given the recent debate on
multiculturalism and citizenship in Germany, I was interested in the
phenomenology of reception.”

Reception and translation

Receptiveness and
translation of reception is the thrust of ‘Lagos State of Mind Vol 1’,
an ongoing collaboration with sound artists and music producers. He
sends the Lagos soundscape to collaborators who in turn use it to give
listeners a body of sound art and music.

Apart from sound
art, Ogboh has also delved into video art. He is a pioneering member of
Video Artists of Nigeria, Lagos (VAN). He participated in the ‘One
Minute Project’, a video workshop organised by the Centre for
Contemporary Art (CCA) last year. His video titled ‘Jos 2010’
summarising the story of the recurring Jos crises was one of the main
screenings last July at Video Art Festival Miden, Greece.

He is currently
working on another series, a combination of video and art titled ‘50’
to commemorate Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee. “The 50 project explores the
making of modern Nigeria in the context of the promises at
independence. Nigerians are asked their one word opinion of Nigeria
after 50 years.” He adds that 50 words will be selected and projected
on a screen while historical statements made by Nigerian leaders at
independence will accompany the visuals.

Inspired by Lagos

“I am inspired by
my environment. I love the bus parks; I love busy areas like Oshodi and
Ojuelegba because they bring out the multicultural aspects of the city.
Lagos soundscape is art; it is multilayered with different sounds from
the ice-cream seller attracting customers by playing the sound track of
‘Titanic’ to people at the bus park. You have to listen to find your
bus, it is not like in other parts of the world where there are bus
signs that give directions,” he says of the sounds of Lagos.

He reiterates that
the call of the bus conductors on the streets gives sounds from the
city its uniqueness. This, he adds, is why he never shies away from
using the sound to tell people more about the city. Above all, he is
looking forward to giving a digital sound map to the Centre of
Excellence using bus conductors as guide.

Though he is
renowned abroad where he has delivered lectures and participated in
international conferences, Ogboh remains relatively unknown at home.
But he is not bothered. “When I started, I used to spend my own money
but now I get paid. When you work with new media tools, you will know
that they are not cheap so for me it’s all about passion. What I do is
not about me, it is about putting Nigeria on the map.”

New media art might
still have a long way to go but in Ogboh, the art form has a crusader.
“I would like to give workshops, while promoting our video art
collective. Also, I would like to give classes on new media art to
students in Art departments of higher institutions. Even if it is not
included in their curricula, it will stimulate their minds.”

Nonetheless,
appearing in the Italian edition of international magazine, ‘Marie
Claire’ in June 2010 as one of the next big things out of Africa in art
alongside compatriot, Andrew Esiebo, shows that Ogboh might actually be
doing something right.